[Newspaper]
Publication: The Long Beach Daily Telegram
Long Beach, CA, United States
vol. 15, no. 102, p. 11, col. 1-5
BUSINESS MEN SEE
GLASS IN MAKING
Educational Visit Made to New
Plant — Industrial District
Inspected
Practical evidence was given the directors of the chamber of commerce, Mayor Hatch, members of the city council and a number of others yesterday afternoon of the work of the chamber of commerce has been doing for the industrial district in securing manufacturing establishments. The party were the guests of the California Glass Insulator company, which started fires in its furnaces one week ago.
The trip had been planned by the directors of the insulator company, but after seeing the work of enthusiastic men in the shape of a perfect glass factory at work, employing labor living in Long Beach, the party extended the original purpose of the trip and visited the Craig Shipbuilding company and the municipal docks. At the Craig Shipbuilding company the party was made the guests of John F. Craig, who conducted them through the plant, showing them the new steamship El Camino, which will be launched soon, and the new steamer of the Long Beach Steamship company for which the keel was laid recently. They the party went to the docks, where the Eureka, a vessel of the North Pacific Steamship company was loading a cargo of cement for San Diego and points south.
The real interest of the junket was centered in the trip through the glass company's plant and the party tarried there many minutes while the workings of the plant were explained by the company's president, Arthur G. Munn of Los Angeles.
This plant, which already has begun shipments of its product, is the culmination of a project which was financed within a few weeks. The idea first was broached to Los Angeles business men by experienced glass-maker, who had worked at the business for years in the east. Within 90 days after the idea had been broached a site had been selected at Anaheim and Hayes avenue and the work of constructing the plant had begun. With the finding of the best of raw material in Riverside county within easy shipping distance, and the finding of an ideal site in the industrial district here, where cool breezes from the harbor increased the efficiency of the workmen by 25 per cent, the plant is regarded as a model of its kind in the country. The most improved machinery was ordered for the company and the installation was watched with interest by glass makers in all parts of the country, many eastern manufacturers making a trip here to inspect the plant.
The plant now represents an investment of $125,000, including the ground which was purchased. Ten acres were secured, a portion being granted as an inducement to secure the location of the industry. W. L. Camp, former secretary of the chamber of commerce, was indefatigable in working to complete the negotiations and unlike many other affairs which had been announced but which had failed to bear out the advance notices of the announcement, nothing was said until the final papers had been signed and the residents of the city read their papers in the evening and learned that another industry had been secured for the city.
General Manager Robert P. Frist was the guide of the party through the plant yesterday afternoon, and explained the workings and showed how the sand was taken in at one end of the building and taken out at the other end in the shape of glass insulators. The trip was entertaining and instructive, and business men of the city learned at first hand the magnitude of the company. Five hundred pounds of sand are fed into the furnace every 90 minutes, and with a heat of 4000 degrees is turned into a molten mass. Eleven tons of sand are used daily now, but the capacity of the furnace is twice that amount. The furnaces are kept lighted day and night and the plant works eleven months in the year, insuring steady employment for a host of workers.
After the molten mass reaches the melting pot it is taken from the furnace and placed in molds which give it the shape desired. Then from there the insulators, red hot, are placed in the annealing oven, where a graduated heat permits them to cool by degrees and thus insures a perfect product.
The manufactory is now turning out twelve tons of insulators each twelve hours, but by work 24 hours could double that amount. Within a short time. President Munn announced, another unit will be added to the company’s plant and bottles will be made.
In speaking of the location here, President Munn said, yesterday: "The place is an ideal one. The men have to work before an intense heat, and here, with a building so constructed that the breezes from the harbor may sweep through, the men are more efficient. In Los Angeles we would not have that advantage. The men can perform 25 per cent more work here and with less trouble than they could in any other location we could find, and this was one of the reasons why we selected this site."
The trip yesterday was conducted by Secretary R. L. Bisby of the chamber of commerce, who had secured the services of a photographer who made several views of the party in various portions of the industrial district. These views can be secured at the office of the chamber of commerce.
Officers of the glass company who were the hosts yesterday were: Arthur G. Munn, president; John G. Orth, vice-president; Stanley S. Stonaker, secretary, and John Morris, treasurer.