19th-century glassmaking in the United States started slowly with less than a dozen glass factories operating. Much of the nation's better quality glass was imported, and English glassmakers had a monopoly on major ingredients for high-quality glass such as good-quality sand and red lead. A tariff and the War of 1812 added to the difficulties of making crystal glass in America. After the war, English glassmakers began dumping low priced glassware in the United States, which caused some glass works to go out of business. A protective tariff and the ingenuity of Boston businessman Deming Jarves helped revive the domestic glass industry.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase added western territory to the United States and eventually opened new markets for glass products. Glass works located along the Ohio River in Pittsburgh and Wheeling were able to take advantage of the nation's waterways to ship their products. Most of the growth of the nation's railroad industry occurred in the second half of the century, which provided an alternative to waterways for transportation. Coal, as an alternative to wood to power the glassmaking furnaces, was another factor that lured glassmakers away from the nation's east coast. By mid-century these factors, along with deforestation in the east, shifted glassmaking away from the east coast to western regions near Pittsburgh and West Virginia. The discovery of natural gas in Ohio and Indiana caused gas booms in those regions, but those sources of low-cost fuel were mismanaged and then depleted.
Two major discoveries transformed 19th century glassmaking in the United States. The use of a machine to press glass was developed in the 1820s, leading to more efficient production. A formula for soda–lime glass was discovered in the 1860s. This formula, which is probably similar to the long-lost formula used by Europeans centuries earlier, enabled the production of high-quality glass at a lower cost. This led to mechanical innovations throughout the second half of the century, such as better furnaces for melting the raw materials and better methods of cooling the glass. By the end of the century, research was being conducted that would make substantial changes to the way bottles and window glass were produced.
Glassmaking
Glassmakers use the term "batch" for the sum of all the raw ingredients needed to make a particular glass product. To make glass, the glassmaker starts with the batch, melts it together, forms the glass product, and gradually cools it. The batch is dominated by sand, which contains silica. Smaller quantities of other ingredients, such as soda and limestone, are added to the batch. Additional ingredients may be added to color the glass. For example, an oxide of cobalt is used to make glass blue. Broken and scrap glass, known as cullet, is often used as an ingredient to make new glass. The cullet melts faster than the other ingredients, which results in some savings in fuel cost for the furnace. Cullet can account for 25 to 50 percent of the batch.
The batch is placed inside a pot or tank that is heated by a furnace to roughly . Tank furnaces, which were created in England in 1870, did not began to supplant pot furnaces in the United States until the 1890s. Glassmakers use the term "metal" to describe batch that has been melted together. The metal is typically shaped into the glass product (other than plate and window glass) by either glassblowing or pressing it into a mold. Although pressing glass by hand has long existed, mechanical pressing of glass did not exist until the 1820s—and it was an American invention. In some cases, the glass is cut and polished, engraved, etched, or enameled. All glass products must be cooled gradually (annealed), or else they could easily break. Annealing was originally conducted in the United States using a kiln that was sealed with the fresh glass inside, heated, and gradually cooled. During the 1860s annealing kilns were replaced in the United States with conveyor ovens, called lehrs, that were less labor-intensive.
Labor, fuel and transportation
Labor was the biggest expense for manufacturers of glass. Germans dominated American glassmaking until the 19th century. Glassmaking methods and recipes were kept secret, and most European countries forbid immigration to the United States by glassworkers. Some of the skilled glassworkers were smuggled from Europe to the United States. Glass company financiers discovered that if a skilled glass worker left their company, glassmaking knowledge left with them. Boston businessman Deming Jarves, who has been called the "father of the American glass industry", joined the industry in 1809 as an investor. Jarves began to keep a book of glass recipes. He learned from the glassmakers he hired, and he conducted his own experiments. He also pursued knowledge about the process for melting the batch and annealing the glass. This corporate practice eliminated the risk of a skilled glassmaker leaving the company and taking know-how with him.
The second largest expense for glassmaking is fuel for the furnace, and fuel availability often determined the location of a glass works. Wood was the original fuel used by glassmakers in the United States. Coal began being used in the 1790s. The problem with wood was that, in good times, a glass factory could consume an amount of forest equal in size to an American football field—in one week. By 1850, glassmaking in the United States had shifted from the east coast to Pittsburgh and West Virginia because of the availability of coal and deforestation in the east. Alternative fuels such as natural gas and oil did not become available in the United States until the 1870s when they were discovered in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In the 1880s, the discovery of natural gas in northwest Ohio combined with its railroad facilities to cause numerous glass factories to relocate there. A similar gas boom followed in East Central Indiana. The gas field in Indiana was larger than the Ohio and Pennsylvania gas fields combined. Among the larger and more famous factories started was the Muncie, Indiana, glass works of the Ball brothers—makers of the Ball mason jar. Northwestern Ohio's gas boom faded as gas supply problems began around 1891. The Indiana Gas Boom was over by 1901, as gas pressure fell because of waste and mismanagement of a resource that many believed would last for decades.
Transportation is another important factor for glassmaking. When Edward Libbey moved New England Glass Company in 1888, transportation resources were a major factor in his selection of Toledo, Ohio. Toledo had access to the Great Lakes, the Miami and Erie Canal that connected with the Ohio River, and numerous railroad lines. Waterways had provided transportation networks for the glass factories long before the construction of highways and railroads. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 opened new markets to glass factories, and those situated on the Ohio River had a waterway to ship their products. The introduction of steamboats to the western United States in 1811 made upriver transportation easier. Construction of the National Road began in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland. The road, the nation's first federally–funded highway, reached Wheeling by 1818 and Illinois by the 1830s. The first commercial railroad in the United States was not chartered until 1827, and construction began in 1828. Pittsburgh and Wheeling had railroad service by the early 1850s, causing a decline in the use of the National Road. By June 30, 1900, the United States had over of rail line and over 1,200 railroads operating.
Beginning of the century
England In 1800, the United States was thought to have no more than ten glass factories operating. Most of these factories produced window glass or bottles made of green glass, and very little high quality glassware was made. The production of higher quality glass was limited by a lack of skilled glassblowers and lack of a necessary additive to the batch. Most of the glass products in the United States were imported from England, and England controlled the supply of a necessary batch additive for crystal—red lead. The U.S. Embargo Act of 1807, and then the War of 1812, made it nearly impossible for American companies to acquire red lead.
The War of 1812 also made it difficult to acquire good quality sand, since British ships brought the only known good quality sand to the United States from the island of Demerara. After the war, England began dumping low–priced glass products in the United States while keeping its price for red lead high. The introduction of the steamboat in the United States enabled imports to move from the port of New Orleans up the Mississippi River to the western markets of the United States. The British/English competition caused some American glass factories, including Boston Crown Glass Company, to go into bankruptcy.
Jarves and Bakewell
In response to the red lead problem, American glass man Deming Jarves, one of the owners of the failed Boston Crown Glass Company, developed a way to produce red lead from domestic sources of lead oxide. He was producing significant quantities of red led by 1819. Good quality sand was found in the United States in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, in the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania, and in New Jersey. In 1820, there were only 33 glassmaking facilities in the United States. The Tariff of 1824, which was a protective tariff, helped the American glass industry. Between 1820 and 1840, nearly 70 glass factories were started in the United States. Most of these factories were small businesses employing 25 to 40 workers. Jarves' New England Glass Company, incorporated in 1818, was exporting cut crystal glassware to Europe by 1825. His skilled workers were English and German immigrants, and he smuggled Belgian workers to his glass works because of their glass cutting expertise.
A company originally known as Bakewell & Ensell was founded in 1808 in what was then the western United States. This company, which changed its name multiple times, became Pittsburgh's best known glass manufacturer. Deming Jarves considered founder Benjamin Bakewell the "father of the flint–glass [crystal] business in this country". Like Jarves, Bakewell relied on skilled glassworkers that he smuggled to the United States. In Bakewell's case many of these glassworkers were from England. The company was "gasping for breath" during a difficult period from 1817 until 1822, but produced glass for over 70 years. In the 1820s and 1830s, Bakewell glassware was purchased for the White House by presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson.
Pressed glass In 1825, John P. Bakewell patented a pressing method for making glass furniture knobs. Elsewhere other glass men were also working on mechanical pressing of glass. Henry Whitney and Enoch Robinson of New England Glass Company received a pressing–related patent in 1826; and Phineas C. Dummer, George Dummer, and James Maxwell of the Jersey City Glass Works received pressing and mold-related patents in 1827. One historian has called the increased production rate caused by the mechanical pressing machine "the greatest contribution of America to glassmaking, and the most important development since the Romans discovered glassblowing".
Glass had been pressed since the 1st century, but mechanical pressing was a technological advancement that lowered costs. It enabled skilled glassworkers to be replaced by unskilled workers that were more productive. A greater variety of glassware became available, and the lower costs enabled a larger segment of the public to afford lower–priced glassware. New England Glass Company and Jarves' new Boston and Sandwich Glass Company (founded in 1825) were the early users of machine pressed glass technology to produce large quantities of glass. Bakewell, Page & Bakewell was among the numerous glass works to produce pressed glass shortly afterwards.