[Newspaper]
Publication: The Haverhill Gazette
Haverhill, MA, United States
p. 1, col. 2
THE NEW GLASS FACTORY.
In Its Infancy — Demijohns and
Insulators — New Patents.
The glass factory, located a short distance from Messrs. Stevens & Co.'s woolen mills, is fast becoming a busy place. They are at present manufacturing three styles of telegraph and telephone insulators; also, demijohns varying from half a gallon to five gallons in size. The insulators are produced to fill contracts with several insulator companies who hold valuable patents. The articles turned out are superior in quality, and the quantity weekly produced is very large. The demijohns are manufactured and covered under patents controlled by the Iron Glass company, and are in style materially different from anything of the kind ever before put upon the market. They are covered with wicker, composed of ash and rattan, woven over the bottles partly by machinery and partly by hand, and are supplied with a bottom finish of wood with a rim of zinc, making a neat combination and rendering the covering very durable. They are also supplied with a nickel plated screw top with a cork inner facing, making a perfect sealing requiring no use of other cork fastening. The screw is after the manner of sealing fruit jars. The screw fastening, the bottoming, and the process of weaving the covering are processes covered by patents held by Mr. Samuel Oakman of Melrose, from whom the right to their use was gained by the company. It is intended to have ten of these covering machines in operation in a short time, fitted for the covering of the various sized demijohns. The work is very rapidly done, one of these machines being able to accomplish in two minutes what requires 40 minutes to do by hand. One machine will cover 800 demijohns in a day, which stands against 15 a day's work for one girl. This shows the immense stride which machinery is making over the slow process, of hand labor in supplying the markets of the world. In a short time ten of the demijohn covering machines will be in operation. Mr. Oakman being at present engaged in adjusting them. The cost of the ash material for covering is six cents, where the same quantity of rattan cost 25 cents, which is a larger margin of difference, and will materially effect the cost of the manufactured goods. At present 12 girls are temporarily employed in weaving the wicker coverings until the machines are in working order. The demijohn business is an extensive one in this country, the product of the factories east of the Alleghanies being a million daily, and all covered with rattan and by hard labor. The application of machinery and a cheaper article for the covering, which at the same time is intrinsically better, ought to give this company a most decided advantage in the markets of the world.
There is quite a force of men and boys engaged in making the insulators and bottles, but the full power of the establishment is not yet shown; indeed, the principle business for which the factory was established has not yet been touched inasmuch as the contracts upon which they are now working came in just as the establishment was ready for business, and were taken. At a later time the manufacture of what is called the the iron glass water pipe, and various other glass goods, will be entered upon. This new establishment is one of the new and promising industries of the city, and everything indicates that its complete development will be of great material advantage to the city as well as to the proprietors.
