Anniversary issue; includes brief history on Owens-Illinois

GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

REVIEW

This is the Golden Anniversary Issue of your GLASS FACTORY YEARBOOK AND DIRECTORY.

To mark the occasion, special research has been undertaken to gather information about glass manufacturers and individuals, active or retired, whose years of service also date back 50 years — or more. This special historical data is presented on the pages immediately following.

We congratulate the companies and individuals who have reached and passed this half-century milestone. We are proud that down through the years both the GLASS FACTORY YEARBOOK AND DIRECTORY and the American Glass Review have had the opportunity to mirror the wonderful achievements these men and companies have helped to make possible in the manufacture of glass.

The names of those men who have been in the glass industry for 50 years or more are, in most cases, included in the historical paragraphs of those companies with which they have served. All other 50-year veterans, including those of distributors and suppliers, are to be found in the supplementary list following the company histories.

Every effort has been made to include all companies and individuals who are qualified for the Golden Anniversary Review. If omissions are noted, we would appreciate having them brought to our attention so that recognition can be made in the American Glass Review.

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Owens-Illinois Glass Company

Original Plant — Established 1873

Toledo                                                                                                  Ohio

In 1929 the Owens Bottle Company purchased the assets of the Illinois Glass Company to form the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Illinois Glass was the older of the two, having been organized in 1873 by William Eliot Smith and Edward Levis at Alton, Ill. The Owens Bottle Company was started in Toledo in 1903 by Michael J. Owens, the inventive genius who created the automatic bottle blowing machine.

Today there are 27 plants within the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, with 94 sales offices, 26,000 employees and a yearly sales volume of $309,774,600.

One of the divisions, Libbey Glass, can claim descendancy from the New England Glass Company, founded in East Cambridge, Mass., in 1818. Of recent years, Libbey has been actively producing new styles and ideas, one of which, packaging glassware gift sets, marked an innovation for the entire tableware glass business.

Research in developing better quality glass, new uses for it and new ways of marketing, has always been practiced by Owens-Illinois. The Glass Container Division introduced lighter weight bottles in the early '30's, and recent work at the laboratories at the Duraglas Center have aided the market success of the handi-square milk bottle and one-way beer bottle.

Kimble Glass Company, a subsidiary, makes a wide variety of products, from tiny electronic tubes to exacting scientific and laboratory ware. The first rectangular television tube and the first commercially successful glass block are Kimble productions.

An allied division, Kaylo, make insulation and building materials from hydrous calcium silicate, a chemically reacted compound manufactured from two of the same basic ingredients of glass — lime and sand. Kaylo is not a glass product — glass is made by fusing these materials.

Chairman of the board is J. P. Levis and C. R, Megowen is president. The following men are vice-presidents, each general manager of the division named: H. S. Wade, glass containers; H. C. Laughlin, administrative; S. L. Rairdon, glass container, sales; C. G. Bensinger, Pacific Coast; S. J. McGiveran, Kimble Glass Company; R. A. Cosh, glass containers, factories; J. G. King, Kaylo; and H. J. Durholt, Libbey Glass.

There are 39 veterans of 50 years and longer, scattered among 13 company locations: Alton, Ill. (plant), W. Arthur Allsman, Harry Christoe, Peter S. Fuchs, John Laird, William Lively, Dan Maronie, William F. Schulz, William Seago, Arthur B. Swain, Jr., Edward Woodson; Fairmount, W. Va. (plant), L. R. Donahue; Gas City, Ind., (plant), Jason Oren; Huntington, W. Va. (plant), George H. Acker, Walter P. Harp, John Edward Paul; Memphis, Tenn. (sales) L. M. Thompson; Oakland, Cal. (plant), Charles Howe; San Francisco, Cal., (sales), Joseph M. Lundie, W. J. Cole; San Francisco Warehouse, Matthew O'Connor; Streator, Ill. (plant), Arthur Alderson, George Alderson, Joseph Dominic, John E. Hyson, James McDonald, Thomas Osborn, Phillip Oster, Herman Picker, Sr., Harry Reed, James Ross, Henry Senz and Otto Slager.

In the Libbey Glass Division, in Toledo (general office), John H. Wright, (plant) J. R. Denman, Charles Lentz. In the Kimble Glass Company, in Muncie, Ind., (plant) John W. Casey; Vineland, N. J., (plant) March Nagle, Oscar Gaskill, William A. Phiefer.