War having interrupted the importation of glass, the manufactory supplied the then limited demand, and gave full employ for their factory.
Contemporaneous with the South Boston enterprise, a company was formed and incorporated under the title of the Porcelain and Glass Manufacturing Company. Their factory was located at East Cambridge, then called Craigie's Point. Their china department was directed by a Mr. Bruitan, but for want of proper materials it proved an entire failure. Their glass-works were under the direction of a Mr. Thompson, who built a small six-pot furnace, similar in size to the one at South Boston. Thompson brought out a set of hands, at a heavy expense, to work the furnace, but the result proved he was in no way qualified for the task, nor possessed of the least practical skill or knowledge of the business, and of course proving an entire failure. The attempt to make porcelain and glass was abandoned by the company.
In 1815, some of the workmen left the South Boston Factory and hired of the Porcelain Company their six-pot furnace, and commenced the making of flint-glass under the firm of Emmet, Fisher & Flowers. They succeeded for a time very well, and turned out glass suitable for the trade; but want of concert of action prevented a successful result, and they dissolved without loss. The Porcelain Company, discouraged by so many failures, agreed to wind up their concern, and in November, 1817, they disposed of their entire property at public auction.
As one manufactory dies out only to give place to another, so the present New England Glass Company was formed, and became the purchasers of the Porcelain Works. That company, from 1817, to the present time, have pursued the business with signal success; beginning with the small capital of forty thousand dollars, they have from time to time increased it, until it amounts at the present time to half a million of dollars. They commenced business with a small six-pot furnace, holding seven hundred pounds to each pot; employed, all told, about forty hands, and the yearly product did not exceed forty thousand dollars. They now run five furnaces, averaging ten pots to each, capacity of two thousand pounds to each pot. They employ over five hundred men and boys, and the yearly product is not less than five hundred thousand dollars.
In 1820 some of their workmen left them, built a factory in New York City, and conducted their business under the firm of Fisher & Gillerland. In 1823 Gillerland dissolved the connection and built, on his own account, a manufactory in Brooklyn, N.Y., which he conducts at this period with great skill and success, and is considered the best metal mixer in the United States.
In 1825 a Flint-Glass Manufactory was established by individual enterprise in Sandwich, Mass. Ground was broke in April, dwellings for the workmen built, and manufactory completed; and on the 4th day of July, 1825, they commenced blowing glass—three months from first breaking ground. In the following year it was purchased of the proprietor, a company formed, and incorporated under the title of Boston and Sandwich Glass Company. Like their predecessors, they commenced in a small way; beginning with an eight-pot furnace, each holding eight hundred pounds. The weekly melts at that period did not exceed seven thousand pounds, and yearly product seventy-five thousand dollars; giving employment to from sixty to seventy hands. From time to time, as their business warranted, they increased their capital until it reached the present sum of four hundred thousand dollars. Their weekly melts have increased from seven thousand pounds to much over one hundred thousand pounds; their hands employed from seventy to over five hundred; their one furnace of eight pots to four furnaces of ten pots; and yearly product from seventy-five thousand dollars to six hundred thousand dollars.
In 1820 another secession of workmen from the New England Glass Company took place, to embark on their own account their savings of many years in the doubtful enterprise of establishing flint-glass works in Kensington, Philadelphia, under the title of the Union Flint-Glass Company. The proprietors, being all workmen, were enthusiastic in the project, happy in the belief that they could carry it on successfully, work when convenient, and enjoy much leisure. All was then to them sunshine. Ere long they realized the many inherent evils attendant on flint-glass works; the demon of discord appeared among them, and they discovered, when too late, that they had left a place of comfort and ease for a doubtful enterprise. Death thinned their ranks, and the works, after passing into other hands for a short trial, have years since ceased to exist.
From 1820 to 1840 very many attempts were made, by corporations and firms, to establish the manufacture of flint-glass in the Atlantic States, but almost with entire failure. The parent tree, the old South Boston concern, failed; the works were revived from time to time by at least five different concerns, and all ended in failure; and for years the works remained closed, till the present occupant, Mr. Patrick Slane, hired the premises, and by his enterprise and great industry has greatly enlarged the works, and is now carrying on a large and active business. In his factory we learn the old system among the operatives he does not allow to have a foothold, and the individual industry of his hands is not cramped or limited by the oppressive system of the old school operative.
As a record of the past and a reference for the future, we find, in reviewing the various attempts to establish flint-glass works in the Atlantic States, that it would not be just to place the names of those identified with them before the reader; for many were deluded by the projectors with promises of the most flattering success, but realized only disappointment and loss.
In enumerating all the concerns, companies, and corporations that have been engaged in the manufacture of flint-glass in the Atlantic States, we find the number to be forty-two; of which number two concerns have retired, and ten are now in operation, viz., two at East Cambridge, three at South Boston, one at Sandwich, three near New York City, and one at Philadelphia; leaving two concerns who retired with property, and twenty-eight out of the forty-two concerns entire failures, involving the parties interested in heavy loss, the fate of the existing ten to be determined by future events.