[Newspaper]
Publication: The Muncie Star
Muncie, IN, United States
vol. 75, p. 16, col. 2-4
Minot Holmes — 'Mr. Insulator' — Retiring
After 47 Years Service in Glass Industry
Minot Holmes takes leave of the glass industry in the Mold Shop, where he started as apprentice 47 years ago. Above, center, he inspects a greatly improved tool he once used, a lathe set for molding insulator plungers. Left is Ralph Shea, who learned his trade under Holmes 32 years ago, and right, Bob Miller, 42-year co-worker with Holmes at the Muncie Plant.
Minot K. Holmes, a pioneer in the glass insulator field, will retire from the American Structural Products Division of Owens-Illinois Glass Company, Thursday.
He leaves the glass industry after more than 47 years at the Muncie plant. He came from Newton, Mass., in 1904 and started as an apprentice in the Mold Shop of what was then the Hemingray Glass Co. From this beginning, he worked himself to a top position in the glass insulator field.
Designed Insulator Machine
"My first and only job was in glass," he said. He took, an active part in what he considers the greatest advancement in glass production, the change from hand to machine power.
In 1919, Holmes designed the basic elements of the insulator machine and contributed to the plant’s production mechanization. He also took part in early glass block experiments and advanced several ideas which helped create the first hermetically sealed block in the United States.
Many of his ideas are still in use today.
"In the early days, everything ran by hand power," Holmes noted. "Glass was gathered and pressed by hand. Now we hardly touch it."
Holmes was succeeded the first of the year as manager of insulator sales by Larry E. Durholt of Toledo,
Keep Trying Is Motto
Almost one-half century in the glass insulator field has given Holmes the appellation, Mr. Insulator.” An except [sic] excerpt on Holmes in "The History of Delaware County" points out that his insulators "find distribution in all parts of the civilized globe, wherever electric wires are strung."
"Mr. Insulator" leaves with the benefits of the company’s service retirement program. He plans to help his son, Eliot, with an appliance business in Muncie.
Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, 312 West North street, will be married 40 years in July. They also have a daughter, Mrs. Robert Casey.
Holmes is a member of Grace Episcopal Church, the Elks, and the Kiwanis Club.
His motto for success — "Keep trying and you’ll eventually hit something." Opportunity was with him, he admits. "I came in a period of great progress in the glass business."