THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 443 



The most extensive attempt was that made by the Baron Steigel 

 in 1762. He built the village of Manheim, eleven miles from 

 Lancaster, and erected iron furnaces and glass works in the neigh- 

 borhood. Operations were conducted upon quite a grand scale, 

 and the glass produced was of excellent quality, but the enter- 

 prise was far from successful. The baron was too dramatic. His 

 home was a veritable castle, and from its battlements the dis- 

 charge of cannon announced the return of the lord of the manor, 

 and summoned his retainers from furnace and factory to do honor 

 to the occasion. This is thought to have somewhat interfered 

 with the processes of glass-making. The war cut off his income 

 from across seas and forced the abandonment of the works. The 

 iron establishment passed into the hands of the Coleman family, 

 and is still in operation. 



West of the Alleghanies the industry was slower in finding a 

 footing, but the conditions there made its establishment a mat- 

 ter of destiny. Mr. Albert Gallatin and his associates established 

 a flourishing window-glass factory at New Geneva in Fayette 

 County, somewhere about the year 1797. Various dates have been 

 assigned for this undertaking, one published statement placing it 

 as early as 1785, but the most reliable evidence appears to be in 

 favor of the later date. The abundance of good glass sand and 

 the wealth of timber were the attracting forces. The glass-house 

 was forty feet square and contained one eight-pot furnace. The 

 enterprise was reasonably successful and continued for thirty or 

 forty years. But more significant was the opening of a glass- 

 house in Pittsburg somewhat earlier than this, since the city has 

 now become the center of the industry in America. There is a 

 tradition that this early factory was established in 1795, and was 

 located on the west side of the Monongahela, at what is now called 

 Glass-house Ripple. It was devoted extensively to the production 

 of window glass, and is reported to have been about the same size 

 as the New Geneva plant. Two years later, in 1797, General James 

 O'Hara and Major Isaac Craig established more extensive works, 

 whose date and history are quite authentic. We believe that these 

 were the first works in America to use coal in the manufacture of 

 glass. As the supply of fuel was right at hand and practically 

 inexhaustible, they escaped a source of danger which constantly 

 menaced those establishments which depended upon wood. The 

 works were intended for the production of window glass, but, like 

 many of the plants in those days, also turned out some bottles. 

 A memorandum found among General O'Hara's papers suggests 

 that for a time at least the outgo made more impression upon him 

 than the income, for it reads, " To-day we made the first bottle, at 

 the cost of thirty thousand dollars." Many difficulties had to be 

 met and overcome before the works proved successful. They were 



