580 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



much for the enterprise. The works were separated from the 

 markets by long distances, and by roads which, after the lapse 

 of nearly a century, are still very rough. Mr. Lewis appears 

 never to have lost faith in the undertaking, but after his death 

 the works were finally abandoned. 



There are doubtless many other quiet localities scattered 

 throughout the State which could tell a similar story of endeavor 

 and perseverance and failure. West of the mountains the de- 

 velopment of the glass industry has been phenomenal. The 

 works established by Mr. Gallatin at New Geneva in 1797 con- 

 tinued to make window glass for many years. They were, how- 

 ever, finally abandoned toward the middle of the century. But 

 the establishments at Pittsburg became the nucleus of a glass- 

 making center which is to-day quite unrivaled in importance 

 by any other glass center in the world. In the early days it 

 was not all smooth sailing by any means. But the men who 

 nourished the industry seem to have possessed unusual enterprise 

 and perseverance. Their pioneer efforts in the use of coal in 

 place of wood was in itself an act of no little industrial courage, 

 for even in 1810 this remained the only plant in America which 

 used coal. The product of the Craig and O'Hara factory was 

 chiefly window glass, though an occasional lot of bottles was also 

 turned out. About 1800 a second glass-house was established in 

 Pittsburg by Denny and Beelen. It used wood exclusively as 

 a fuel — being so situated, indeed, on the north side of the Ohio 

 River that coal was not readily obtainable. The works did not 

 prove successful and were soon abandoned. 



The records of the industry show the establishment of various 

 other works during the early part of the century, but the major- 

 ity of them were unsuccessful and were sooner or later forced to 

 suspend. The first flint-glass works were probably those estab- 

 lished by Messrs. Bakewell and Page in 1808. They started with 

 one six-pot furnace, but met with such flattering success that they 

 constantly enlarged the capacity of their works. In the census of 

 1810 it is stated that "decanters, tumblers, and every other descrip- 

 tion of flint glass of a superior quality " were manufactured at 

 Pittsburg. From this time onward the growth of the industry 

 has been continuous and rapid, except during a brief period pre- 

 ceding 1819, when a temporary decline was experienced. 



It would be both uninteresting and foreign to the present pur- 

 pose to enumerate the separate histories of these various enter- 

 prises, but the figures illustrating the growth of the industry from 

 this time on to the tenth census are too significant to be passed 

 over in silence. Thus in 1837 there were thirteen factories in 

 Pittsburg, yielding an annual product of about $700,000. In 1857 

 there were twenty-five factories, with a yearly output valued at 



