Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1918 — Glass Industry in America. [ARTICLE]

Glass Industry in America.

Glass was first manufactured in America by the people of Jamestown, during the year 1615. Commenting on this fact, John Smith lamented that “the labor of the colony has been misdirected in the manufacture of ashes, soap, glass and tar, in which they could by no means compete with Sweden or Russia.” The inhabitants of Jamestown did not agree with this view, however, and soon afterward commenced the erection of a glass works, the completion of which was interrupted by the Indian massacre of iftg? The first glass factory In North America to attempt the industry on an ambitious scale was built in 1780, at Temple, .N. H., by Robert Hewes of Boston. The workmen, 32 in number, were German desefters’from the British army. The carelessness of a workman caused the destruction of the plant by fire in 1781. In 1803 a glass factory was established in Bosto.i, and since that time the industry has flourished.