Mechanization of Glass Manufacture

Abstract

Mechanization of glass manufacture had just begun in 1898 but was accelerating. Notable advances were soon to be made in all branches of the industry, many of them in the United States, and have continued to the present day. M. J. Owens occupies a unique position as the inventor of the first successful fully automatic container machine in 1903; he was also involved in several other important developments. However, within 20 years, machines fed with gobs supplied by the Peiler forehearth and gob feeder, also American inventions, became successful competitors. From about 1930 to 1960, a wide variety of machines was used to make containers, but these have been superseded nearly everywhere by the individual section machine, another American invention. The Lubbers process for sheet glass cylinders was an early success in 1903. About 12 years later the direct drawing of flat sheet was developed almost simultaneously by Fourcault in Belgium and Colburn in the United States. The Pittsburgh process followed a few years later. Ford was the first to succeed in making continuously cast plate, but Pilkington in the United Kingdom soon exploited that process to make much wider cast plate. At that time Pilkington also developed the simultaneous grinding of both faces of the continuous ribbon. The invention and development of float glass by Pilkington in the 1950s has made all other flat glass processes obsolete for most purposes. Owens‐Corning has played a major role in the glass‐fiber industry since its beginnings in the 1930s. The most important advance in manufacture of optical glass was the small continuous tank with vigorous stirring developed by Corning Glass Works. Corning also made other notable advances, such as the ribbon machine for lamp bulbs and the lamination process used for Corelle ware.