THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 441 



Massachusetts took the lead. About 1750 works were erected 

 by German artisans at the village of Germantown in Braintree. 

 They were intended for the manufacture of bottles. After a short 

 run they were destroyed by fire, and were never rebuilt. Two 

 years later the General Court attempted to encourage the industry 

 by granting Isaac C. Winslow the sole privilege of making glass ; 

 but he seems not to have profited in his monopoly, for in 1787 the 

 same exclusive privilege was granted to a Boston company. The 

 monopoly covered fifteen years, and had attached to it a penalty 

 of five hundred pounds for each infringement. By this time there 

 was a sufficient home market to warrant somewhat extensive 

 operations. Public sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of 

 American products. The company devoted itself to the manu- 

 facture of crown glass, and was one of the first makers of window 

 glass in America. It started out rather badly by erecting a large 

 and ill-adapted factory at the foot of Essex Street. This had 

 afterward to be taken down and another structure put up in its 

 place. Then came difficulties in obtaining workmen, so that the 

 new industry did not get under way until the fall of 1792. In the 

 following year the company was fortunate in securing the services 

 of a skillful German glass-blower named Lindt, and under his 

 management the enterprise was wonderfully successful. The 

 Boston window glass was reported to be equal to the best imported 

 glass, and possibly even superior. The shares of the company 

 sold at a good price, and the industry enjoyed, or suffered, some- 

 thing very similar to a modern boom. By the end of the century 

 the annual output of window glass amounted to seventy-six thou- 

 sand dollars. But the confidence born of success finally brought 

 the company into difficulty. They extended their operations in 

 several directions, and made the dangerous experiment of substi- 

 tuting native fire clay for the imported. They were also embar- 

 rassed by a lack of suitable fuel. These difficulties, combined 

 with subsequent bad management, finally led to failure, and the 

 works were shut down. 



In New York, glass-making was again undertaken in 1754. 

 The factory was located in what is now Brooklyn ; the venture 

 being made by a Dutch gentleman of the name of Bamper. But 

 the enterprise was of short life. A little later, Albany seems to 

 have been the center of the glass industry. A Flemish family by 

 the name of De Neuf ville were the chief spirits in these enter- 

 prises. It is uncertain how many glass-houses they established, 

 but one at least seems to have been in operation in 1786, and to 

 have had a very hard time of it. In 1788 Leonard de Neufville 

 and his partners appealed to the State for aid in behalf of the 

 Dowesborough glass-house. Their patience must have been se- 

 verely taxed, however, for it was not until 1793 that their petition 



