THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 



587 



pany prospered for some time, but through unwise management 

 finally failed. But the American plate-glass industry, though ap- 

 parently doomed to suffer severe reverses, was not doomed to die. 

 In 1869, two years before the Lenox failure, a carefully designed 

 plant was put into operation at New Albany, Ind., by Mr. John B. 

 Ford. He imported the first grinding and polishing machinery 

 from England. Although these works have been operated con- 

 tinuously ever since then, and are now reasonably successful, they 

 had to run the gantlet of early reverses. Their owner, Mr. W. 

 C. De Pauw, stated before the tariff commission that up to 1879 no 

 money was made at his own works, and that he believed other 



Interior View of the Casting Hall at Ford City, Pa. 



manufacturers of plate glass in America had had a similar experi- 

 ence. The industry up to that year seems indeed to have been one 

 succession of financial disasters. Yet these failures do not appear 

 to have discouraged their promoters. Between 1870 and 1875 Mr. 

 Ford established other works at Jeffersonville, Ind., and at Louis- 

 ville, Ky. About the same time a large plant was also built at St. 

 Louis, and, like the others, was equipped with English machinery. 

 It was at that time the largest factory in the United States. The 

 industry was slow in establishing itself at Pittsburg, but it has 

 since reached its greatest development in that district. The 

 Pittsburg Plate Glass Company began operations in 1883, their 

 first factory being at Creighton. The monthly output was about 



