[Newspaper]
Publication: The Muncie Evening Press
Muncie, IN, United States
vol. 55, no. 56, p. 15 Sect. 2, col. 1-4
Glass Brick, Insulators
Made by Local Plant
The Muncie Plant of American Structural Products Company, a subsidiary of Owens-Illinois Glass Company, specializes in the manufacture of Hemingray electrical and communication insulators and Insulux Glass Block and traces its history back as far as 1848.
The business was founded a century ago in Cincinnati and operated originally as Gray and Hemingray. It was later moved across the Ohio River to Covington, Ky. A great flood seriously damaged the plant in 1883.
This flood and the fact that large natural gas fields had been discovered in Indiana prompted removal of the business to Muncie in 1890. Very early in its history the Hemingray Company had been called upon to manufacture glass insulators for the new telegraph industry, and has continued through the years to be a leading manufacturer of this type of ware.
During 1920 and succeeding years, mechanization of the operation was carried forward under the direction of Philip W. McAbee, assisted by Minot K. Holmes, who is still identified with the plant’s executive staff. Owens-Illinois took over the Hemingray plant in 1933 and there developed Insulux Glass Block, adding this product to the line of ware manufactured at the plant. The plant employed slightly more than 100 people in 1933. The employment total at the plant now is 511 men and women.
Carl H. Smith has been plant manager of the Muncie plant for the past 10 years.