Location:
- Jeannette, Pennsylvania [Chambers Ave; close to
Pennsylvania Railroad's main line]
History:
- 1887 -
Western Land and Improvement Company's
application for charter approved by state of Pennsylvania. Company
directors: James A. Chambers, H. Sellers McKee, J. Gardner Cassatt,
Horace Magee, and B. Maurice Gaskill. Town named after McKee's
wife.
- 1888 -
Jeannette Bottle Works (the "fizzle";
many ownership changes)
- 1898 -
Succeeded by Jeannette Glass Company,
incorporated June 14; Original officers: Joseph W. Stoner (president)
and W. A. Huff (secretary); S. R. Hall as plant manager. Took over
Bottle Works' product line: bottles for drugs, soft drinks, liquors,
and food containers, all made by hand.
- 1899 -
O'Neill semi-automatic bottle blowing machine introduced
[variation on Owens' machine] [2]
- ···· -
Jeannette turns to wide-mouth jars
(pickles, olives, relishes, mayonnaise); S. R. Hall resigns
and is replaced by A. W. Crownover.
- ···· -
Other products: automobile headlamp
lenses, vault lights, glass building blocks, and numerous pressed
wares. Also solicited private mold work.
- 1904 -
George M. Davis president; products
include prescription bottles, bottles for drugs, sodas, mineral oil,
wine, brandy, flasks, patent medicines, milks, and other jars for
preserves, etc.
- 1917 -
American 3-Way Luxfer Prism Co. buys controlling interest to ensure prism glass supply; Isaac Ambler
new plant manager; entire plant production turns to pressed ware.
- 1920 -
Plant improvements and additions; new
packing facility.
- 1924 -
Isaac Ambler, R.I.P. New plant manager
Carl T. Sloan; increases number of items made on automatic machines
and develops new hand-made pressed tableware line. C. P. Mills and
C. H. Paschall (owning controlling stock in American 3-Way Luxfer
Prism Co.) take active management role.
- 1926 -
Mills and Paschall dispose of American
3-Way Luxfer Prism Co interests but retain control of Jeannette.
- 1930 -
Peak capacity, 5 continuous tanks.
- 1933 -
4 continuous tanks.
- 1935 -
Reorganized as publicly owned corporation.
- 1936 -
Common stock listed on American Stock Exchange.
- 1941 -
3 continuous tanks.
- 1944 -
Low capacity point, only 2 continuous tanks.
- 1945 -
Post-war capacity doubles, back to 5 tanks.
- 1960 -
Maurice L. Stonehill, new president and chairman of the board.
- 1961 -
Bought McKee Glass Division of Thatcher
Glass Manufacturing Company; new technical glassware department.
- 1963 -
World's largest electric glass furnace for melting heat-resisting
glass.
- 1970 -
Name change to Jeannette Corporation.
- 1983 - Shut down.
Lazalite:
Product.
Sole manufacturers of LAZALITE
GLASS for Sidewalk and Vault Light Construction.
Former Glass Unsatisfactory.
In former years, the glass used for sidewalk
and vault light purposes was ordinary pressed glass differing very
slightly, if at all, from that entering into the manufacture of
inkstands, paper weights, etc. Consequently, the glass could not
withstand the extreme heat and cold, and atmospheric changes. Not
only did it chip off and shale, but it turned an iridescent purple
tint, which daylight could not penetrate.
Steps Toward Improvement.
So unsatisfactory were the results, that
the leading sidewalk and vault light companies concluded that a special
sidewalk glass, made from a special mixture and specially annealed,
would be necessary.
The JEANETTE
GLASS COMPANY possessed special facilities
for research along the lines suggested by the vault light companies.
Its chemists and engineers were at once put to work making a special
sidewalk glass which would have a specific hardness and a certain
elasticity, and which would resist the pressure exerted against it by
the cement in which it was embedded.
Old Method of Annealing.
In studying the coefficient of
expansion of glass and its coefficient of thermal endurance, the
JEANETTE GLASS COMPANY
discovered that the all important secret lay in the thorough annealing
of the glass during its stay in the annealing chamber, commonly known
as a lehr, which is nothing more than a brick tunnel with openings
at both ends, with heat applied at one end.
The glass companies making the glass
formerly used for vault and sidewalk lights passed this glass along
with tableware and bottle glass, through open end lehrs in which it
was impossible to pass the sidewalk glass at a regulated speed. The
influence of the outside temperature, which might be zero in winter
and 80° in summer, made itself felt within the lehr through the
open ends and thus occasioned a rising and falling temperature within
the lehrs, frequently varying 200°.
Examination of glass annealed by
this process, when tested under the polariscope, has shown that a
majority, and more often all of it, contained stresses or strains,
and was therefore not perfectly or thoroughly annealed.
In addition to irregular or uncompleted
annealing, it was discovered that the mixture used in making the
old glass contained manganese, and that the presence of this substance
in the glass caused it not only to change color under the action of
the sun's rays, but to disintegrate as well.
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Over Five Years Experimenting.
The experts of the
JEANETTE GLASS COMPANY
spent over 5 years experimenting with new ingredients and new
processes of heat treatment, with the object of overcoming these
two fundamental defects of the old sidewalk glass.
Lazalite Glass Perfection.
Finally a new formula was discovered
and a perfected method of heat treating adopted, which resulted
in creating a sidewalk glass as nearly perfect as can be expected,
and named Lazalite.
Manganese Eliminated.
The formula utilized in the making of
Lazalite provides for the admixture of an increased proportion of
lead, and dispenses entirely with the use of manganese. The result
is a glass that will not turn pink or purple, and is absolutely free
from stresses or strains.
Perfect Annealing.
The secret of perfect annealing has been
solved by heat treating Lazalite glass in an entirely new type of
oven, specially designed and constructed with the object of insuring
uniform soaking heat with slow and gradual cooling.
It does not require much reflection
to force the conclusion that glass thus carefully and methodically
tempered must be infinitely superior to glass annealed by the old
process.
Careful Inspection.
As an extra precaution every piece of
Lazalite glass is passed through a polariscope an examined for
defects before being packed for shipment. The word Lazalite,
adopted as a trade-mark, is stamped in the glass, and each piece
so marked carries the guarantee that it is made under these highly
improved and scientific processes and is the last word in glass
for this purpose.
Styles of Glass.
The different styles of glass are
designed to scientifically diffuse or refract the light rays to
various distances, and none of the styles are exactly alike or
give the same results.
Extensive Use.
A number of the leading vault light
companies of the United States have contracted with this company
for Lazalite glass, and are using it extensively.
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Sweet's Architectural Catalog File · 1918
Notes:
- Known mostly for kitchenware and tableware,
including depression glass patterns "Iris and Herringbone" and
"Poinsettia".
- Trademarks: J in square, J in triangle, J in bowl of goblet.
- ''The Jeannette Glass Company began production
in 1898. In its early days they made such items as "vault lights,
prism tile, packers' ware, and novelties"''
—The Wayback Times - Crazy for Cornflower (Hughes Corn Flower)
- "The Jeannette Bottle Works Company was founded in 1887 in
Jeannette, Pennsylvania. At this time in their history they only
produced handmade bottles. In 1899, Jeannette Bottle Works joined
the machine age and became the Jeannette Glass Company. With the new
machinery (O'Neil semi-automatic bottle blowing machine), Jeannette
Glass was soon producing canning jars, relish jars and automobile
headlight lenses. Jeannette Glass continued to expand and by 1904,
they added medical supplies and household items to their production
line. In the early 1920s, new machinery was added and Jeannette
Glass began producing tableware items. This cheaply made and brightly
colored tableware became known as Depression Glass and is highly
collectible today. In 1961, the Jeannette Glass Company acquired
the old McKee Glass factory which was also located in Jeannette,
Pennsylvania. Together they produced many beautiful glass patterns
until 1983. Due to a failing American market, Jeannette Glass shut
down in 1983." —HISTORY OF JEANNETTE GLASS COMPANY (Carnival Heaven)
- Same source also says FYI "Popular Patterns:
Adam, Cubist, Floral, Doric, Cherry Blossom, Windsor, Sierra,
Swirl, Holiday, Iris and numerous Kitchenware lines including,
Jennyware and full jadite lines."
- "Briefly it may be said that Westmoreland county manufactures
more window glass, the chief product of glass, than any other county
in the United States. This is all manufactured in three places,
viz.: Jeannette, Arnold, and Mt. Pleasant, and these factories are
described in parts of this work which pertain to these boroughs. The
factories at Jeannette and Arnold are the largest in the world. Our
county has in the past twenty years wrested this supremacy from the
world, and has taken from Pittsburgh all the glass factories it had.
This is largely due to peculiar natural advantages, viz.: to an
almost inexhaustible vein of coal near Jeannette which is better
adapted to the manufacture of glass than any other known coal, and
to the natural gas which is found in abundance in this locality.
The glass blowing in these large factories is now done entirely by
the most improved modern machinery."
—History of Westmoreland County
Reference:
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