Ithaca Glass Works/Mutual Glass Co/The Ithaca Junk Co/Ithaca Scrap Processors

The Ithaca Glass Works

“The glass industry is becoming of considerable prominence in Ithaca and there is certainly no other that could be more welcome. The new Ithaca Glass Works give employment to 150 workmen, and pay out $9,000 in wages every month…. Ordinally established in 1874, the works changed owners in 1876, and were successfully conducted until April of 1882, when they were destroyed by fire. A new company was subsequently organized, however, and the works were re-built, being completed during the past summer (1883,) and are now in full operation. This is one of the largest and best arranged glass works in the country, and the visitor will be at once impressed by the size of the immense buildings, especially of the main furnace building, which is 100 x 205 feet in dimensions. To the architect or builder, the supporting of such a large roof without pillars forms an interesting study. This building contains two eight-pot furnaces. An annex furnace building, with a third eight-pot furnace, is now building and will be 150 x 90 feet, while the building occupied by the cutting and packing departments is 28 x 90 feet. The building in which the engine room, mill for grinding the crucible material and the box shop is 30 x 120 feet. The crucible building, where the melting pots are made, is a two-story frame structure 30 x 100 feet, and the batch house is 28 x 50 feet. No concern in this country possesses better facilities, either for manufacturing glass or for the receipt of material and shipment of product. The works are located on Third street, between Franklin and Railroad, within a couple hundred feet of the canal, and lie between the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre, and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroads, with sidings from both roads running directly into their yards. A trestle capable of receiving 15 coal cars runs alongside the main furnace building and permits the dumping of coal just where it is most convenient, while the yard track permits 20 freight cars to stand in the yard at one time for loading and unloading. Sixty cars are received and put out from the works every week. About 900 tons of coal, 150 cords of wood, 65 tons of soda-ash and 250 tons of sand (the latter coming from Oneida Lake by canal,) are consumed in the production of the monthly output of 9,000 boxes of glass. Both single and double thick Patent White Crystal Sheet Glass is produced, the works being built according to the most improved plans for the economical production of a superior quality of glass.”

Illustration p99

D. Morris Kurtz, Ithaca and Its Resources, Ithaca, NY: Journal Association Book and Job Print, 1883, 98, 100

“The United Glass Company. Without a doubt the most prominent and largest industry of Ithaca is the above concern, which is one of the largest and best arranged glass works in the country. The main furnace buildings are 100 x 205, 100 x 100, 75 x 100 feet in dimensions and contains two eight-pot and two ten pot furnaces. There are two flattening and annealing buildings each 90 x 125 feet, while the two buildings occupied by the cutting and packing departments are 10 x 150 feet each. The engine rooms, mills for grinding the crucible material and the box shops are 40 x 115 feet. The crucible buildings where the melting pots are made are two-story structures 40x125 and 40 x 60 and the batch houses are 38 x 62 and 30 x 60 feet each. Both single and double-thick patent white crystal sheet glass is produced, the works being built according to the most improved plans for the economical production of a superior quality of glass, and furnish when running, full employment to 250 men. The works were formerly known as the Ithaca and Washington, but two years ago were consolidated and became part of the United Glass Company, who control in different parts of the country nineteen other works. The works here are in charge of Mr. B. F. Slocum, an expert glass worker, and under his wise and able management the future prosperity of these works seem positively assured.” 

J.A. Miller, Ithaca NY as a City of Residence and Manufacture, Elmira, NY: Telegram Co., Printers, 1891, 41