 Up: United States |
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Home > Prism Glass > United States > PPG |
 US: 55 of 70 |
|
Up: United States |
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Home > Prism Glass > United States > PPG |
US: 55 of 70 |
Location:
Timeline:
Catalogs:
History:
IT WAS in 1880 that Mr. Pitcairn, then an official of the
Pennsylvania Railroad became interested in the making of Glass. He
listened attentively to Captain John B. Ford, former owner of a
steamboat fleet on the Ohio River, who outlined an alluring prospect.
Grinding sand dredged from the river, limestone quarries, salt beds, soda ash, natural gas to melt the batch, coal for power to turn the machinery, all cheap and conveniently available.Mr. Pitcairn became intrigued and seriously considered the matter. He was aware that John Ford had already
failed twice in similar ventures; first, at New Albany, Indiana,
across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, and later at
Jeffersonville, Indiana.
He knew, too, that businessmen and
investors looked askance at such undertakings because millions of
dollars had already been lost in no less than a dozen unsuccessful
attempts, dating back to 1850 when a company in possession of
European patents started plate glass manufacture in Cheshire,
Massachusetts.
The reasons for those failures were
obvious. The process of plate glassmaking was intricate. All the
latest machinery was built abroad; experienced workmen had to
be imported. Expert technical supervision was lacking. Foreign
competition was keen.
All these difficulties could be overcome
with sufficient capital. Plants could be built, and with proper
management the making of plate glass could become a successful and
profitable American enterprise. There would be increasing need of
glass for the residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional
buildings of this rapidly expanding young nation.
So John Pitcairn made the fateful decision
which launched his industrial career and laid
the foundation for one of the most successful manufacturing institutions
of the present day.
He invested some two hundred thousand
dollars with Captain Ford and associates who organized the New York
City Plate Glass Company. Construction of a glass plant already
started by Ford at Creighton, Pennsylvania, was then completed, and
in 1883 the new factory went into production. Determined that this
enterprise should not go the way of its predecessors, Mr. Pitcairn
became active in its management.
Plate glass was now being produced
on a successful basis for the first time in American history.
This original plant was to continue in operation for forty years
before being dismantled and replaced with the modern factory in
existence today and still known as Works No. 1.
On August 17, 1883, the corporate
name was changed to
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company,as it is known today. Captain John Ford who by this time had
formed the habit of building glass plants now left his interest in
the hands of his two sons and journeyed up the Allegheny River to
Tarentum, Pennsylvania, where he undertook to build another glass
plant. Again it was John Pitcairn whose financial support made the
venture possible and enabled it to succeed.
The new plant at Tarentum, when
completed, about 1886, was sold to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass
Company for one million dollars in common stock and became Works
No. 2, whereupon Captain Ford proceeded up the river to build still
another.
This time he selected an unsettled
site on the east bank of the Allegheny River about forty miles
above Pittsburgh. Here Captain Ford built not only a glass plant,
but a town as well.
Ford City, Pennsylvania, is named
in honor of this adventurous, pioneer builder of glass plants.
Aside from the glass plants which still constitute its principal
industry, a feature of the town is its park. Originally planned
when the site of the town was mapped in 1887, it contains a statue
of John B. Ford, standing, his hands clasped behind him, facing the
factory he built.
Hardly had operations begun in 1888
as the Ford City Plate Glass Company, when negotiations to buy the
property began. In 1890 the payment of one million five hundred
thousand dollars in stocks and bonds purchased Works No. 3.
Almost at once, another factory was built
on a site immediately adjoining Works No. 3. This new plant, Works
No. 4, was equipped with the newest type of grinding and polishing
machinery which was installed by skilled mechanics specially imported
for the purpose.
This was a period of great industrial
and commercial expansion—instant demands for plate glass exceeded
production capacity. Lack of experience, among other factors, was the
principal handicap of most of the newer glassmaking organizations that
had come into being. The expansion was too rapid and resulted in the
panic of 1893 causing the collapse of all but a few manufacturers in
the industry. The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in 1895 acquired
four other plate glass companies with plants located at Charleroi and
Duquesne, Pennsylvania; Elwood and Kokomo, Indiana; and at Crystal
City, Missouri.
The Company now had nine plants with a
combined annual production capacity of twenty million square feet of
polished plate glass. Its already extensive resources were rapidly
employed to develop the facilities of these new units. There remained
only three other companies which continued to operate with a combined
capacity of five million square feet annually.
The history of glassmaking at Crystal
City dates back to 1871, and is somewhat similar to Ford City in
that it also involved the founding of a town. Failing completely in
1876 it was taken over by new interests and was producing some plate
glass by 1880 although not on a commercially successful basis.
The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company,
as we know it today, had its beginning in 1895.
The Company was then reorganized;
the capital stock increased to ten million dollars; Edward Ford
was elected President; Artemus Pitcairn (brother of John), Vice
President.
Stained Glass Examples from Catalogue A:
Millet's Prism Tile ca.1900:
Prism Glass 1923:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
