Owens Illinois in big expansion; 300 workers to be added, construction started

OWENS-ILLINOIS IN BIG EXPANSION

300 WORKERS TO

BE ADDED WHEN

UNIT IS ERECTED

Demand for Glass Blocks Fast

Growing.

Three hunrded [sic] hundred men will be given employment through expansion of production facilities at the Hemingray Division of Owens-Illinois Glass Company, W. P. Zimmerman, manager of the Muncie plant, an­nounced Friday.

Construction work has been started on a new producing unit and a combination utility and ware­house building. The new facilities are to be completed by July 1 and will increase the factory’s working force to about 550 men.

Rapidly increasing demand for Insulex [sic] Insulux Glass blocks made necessary the expansion. As the demand for the new building product increases, there will be further expansion at the Muncie factory.

Building of Glass.

Simplex Engineering Company, of Washington, Pa., is engineering contractor for the new building, which will Join the east end of Building No. 1.

Glass blocks, brick and structural steel will be used in the addition which will be 70 by 100 feet. The glass blocks, 65,000 in number or about eight carloads, will be placed in panels, 19 by 19 feet. There will be a few panels 20 feet square.

Building No. 1, which has been used only for storage during the last four years, will be renovated. In making the addition, it will be nec­essary to construct one new wall 250 feet in length.

The renovated building and new addition will house a new furnace, a group of annealing lehrs, locker rooms, showers, offices, storage and warehouse space.

The new plant now is producing about 12,000 or one and one-half carloads of glass blocks a day. With the new facilities, the daily capacity will be stepped up to 50,000 blocks, and two carloads of insulators.

Since manufacture of Insulex [sic] Insulux blocks was started here last June, they have been used in building construction in 40 states. There has been a steadily increasing demand for translucent masonry in the cen­tral and eastern states, particularly by food manufacturers.

Used in Muncie Buildings,

Glass blocks made by the local plant are being used in 11 Muncie building projects that are either planned or under construction. About 500 blocks will be used in the remodeling of the Walnut St. busi­ness room being vacated by the Kel­ler Company and to be occupied by F. W. Woolworth and Company.

The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Com­pany is building a five-story plant, using 95,000 glass blocks, at Win­ston-Salem, N. C. The building will be 91 by 207 feet. The Scranton Electric Company at Scranton, Pa., is using 12,500 Insulex [sic] Insulux blocks in a new service plant.

Sheffield Farms, Inc., at Jamaica, N. Y., is one of many food manu­facturing companies that are adopt­ing glass block construction for new and remodeled plants. The blocks are to be used in a number of buildings at the Texas Centennial Exposition.