[Newspaper]
Publication: The Long Beach Press
Long Beach, CA, United States
p. 12, col. 1-2
DRIVES SPIKE TO
MARK FINISH
OF SPUR
Commerce Chamber Officer
Does Honors at Glass
Plant’s Railway.
LINE AND HOUSES
AWAIT MACHINERY
Manufacture of Insulators
May Start at First
Unit in March.
Secretary W. L. Camp, of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, yesterday afternoon drove the spike which marks he completion of the Pacific Electric spur track that extends from that system's Long Beach San Pedro line to the initial plant of the California Glass Insulator Company. That this formal honor fell to Secretary Camp is due to the is due to the fact that since the opening of negotiations, last May, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce has been constant and energetic in generous effort to secure this industry for Long Beach, guaranteeing the spur trackage free to the investors. The rails are laid, the trolley wire stretched, power has been turned on and today the spur is ready for operation.
Within the fenced enclosure of 3 1/2 acres devoted to the first of three units to comprise the completed plant of the glass works Contractor Marcus Campbell has finished the erection of a group of five buildings, now awaiting the reception of the mechanical equipment which will soon be delivered. These substantial structures, ready for occupancy respectively as the main manufacturing plant, power house, store rooms, and office, are floored with cement and built for long tenure. The grounds are entered by the spur track from the southwest and the railway extends past loading platforms on the north side of the principal manufacturing structure in the northeast corner of the plat.
Chamber’s Donation.
This fenced in domain of 3 1/2 acres, part of the Seabright Harbor tract, situated at the corner of Hayes avenue and Anaheim road, near the point where the Anaheim road is crossed by the Pacific Electric San Pedro line, north of the new gas plant and to be near the north shore of the new channel to be dredged from Long Beach Inner Harbor, was secured by the Chamber of Commerce from the Palos Verdes Company and donated outright to the California Glass Insulator Company. In the factory here nearing completion the company will manufacture only such pressed glass products as insulators, prisms, sidewalk lights and electric light shades, work to begin possibly as early as March 1.
Adjoining this 3 1/2 acre tract on the east is a 2 1/2 acre site which has been purchased by the glass company and where there will be installed its second unit, for the blowing of bottles, chimneys, carboys, jars and all sorts and sizes of vials.
Upon four acres adjoining the first tract on the north the company has an option, intending, there in due time, after the first two units are operating steadily, to implant equipment for the manufacture of window plate and reinforced wire glass.
Before the summer of 1912 at fewest 60 men will be working at the first unit and within a reasonable construction period after that 150 employes will be drawing wages from the second unit where skilled glass blowers will be retained. the initial investment is about $45,000.
Favorable Conditions.
Climatic conditions here are ideal for glass manufacture. Whereas in older industrial regions of the east some months in every year are lost because of intense cold, here operations can go forward unabated the year around and the consequent cost of manufacture will be proportionately lower.
Other factories are obliged to import from Belgium and other sources part of the sand used in glass composition. Here careful analyses have discovered an ideal grade of silicios material in limitless quantity, available in the sand beds on the Bixby ranch at Horseshoe Bend, Orange County.
Officers of the California Glass Insulator Company are Jules Kauffman, president; E. H. Fosdick, vice-president; Stanley S. Stonaker, secretary; John Morris treasurer, and Robert P. Frist, general manager. Directors additionally to those numbered among the officers are John C. Orth, Arthur C. Munn and William Schade.
Secretary Camp's driving of the spike of the spur track yesterday recalled the incident that as far back as September 15 the directors of the glass company passed a resolution expressing appreciation of the good offices of Camp "in cooperating with this company in securing a suitable site and spur track for the location of its factory in the city of Long Beach, California."