Plate Glass Manufacture is an old process
Origins of Plate Glass Manufacture.
In the US, John B. Ford built several plants beginning in New Albany, Indiana in 1869. But none were profitable until he relocated to Western Pennsylvania and built a plant at Creighton.
In the 1880s ample natural gas supplies made profitable plate glass production possible in Butler. Pittsburgh-area window glassmakers used the Butler works to challenge the newly formed Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in the rapidly growing national plate glass market. Many immigrant Belgian, French, German, and English glassworkers joined with native-born workers to operate the plant efficiently and successfully. Historical sources provide new information about the people who funded and built the plant and about the employees who manned the plant. Hundreds of workers are identified and their paths to Butler charted.
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