Fostoria Shade and Lamp Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Company type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Glassware |
| Founded | 1890 |
| Founder | W. C. Brown, James B. Graham |
| Defunct | 1893 |
| Successor | Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company |
| Headquarters | Fostoria, Ohio, U.S. |
Key people | Nicholas Kopp Jr. |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 250 (December 1893) |
The Fostoria Shade and Lamp Company was the largest manufacturer of glass lamps in the United States during the early 1890s. It began operations in Fostoria, Ohio, on May 17, 1890. The plant was run by Nicholas Kopp Jr., a former chemist at Hobbs, Brockunier and Company in West Virginia. Kopp achieved fame for his many glass designs and formulas for various colors of glass, and he is the discoverer of the American formula for selenium-based ruby glass. The company's products were very popular, and it was able to make significant profits early in its existence. In addition to lamps and shades for home lighting, the company also made novelties such as salt shakers.
The nationwide depression known as the Panic of 1893 began in January 1893, and company president and politician Charles Foster filed for personal bankruptcy a few months later. The company merged with the Pittsburgh-based company Wallace & McAfee near the end of 1893, and the combined company was called Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company. Operations continued at the Fostoria glass works after it was officially taken over by the new company on January 1, 1894. The Fostoria plant was mostly shut down by December 1895, and a new Pennsylvania glass works began operations on March 16, 1896. Consolidated Lamp and Glass operated until 1964.
Glassmaking
Glass is made by starting with a batch of ingredients, melting it, forming the glass product, and gradually cooling it. The batch of ingredients is dominated by sand, which contains silica.[1] Other ingredients such as soda ash, potash, and lime are added.[2] The batch is placed inside a pot or tank that is heated by a furnace to roughly 3090 °F (1700 °C).[1] In the glass–making industry, the melted batch is called "metal".[3] The metal is typically shaped into the glass product (other than window glass) by glassblowing or pressing it into a mold.[4] The glass product must then be cooled gradually (annealed), or it will break.[5] An oven used for annealing is called a lehr.[6] Because most glass plants melted their ingredients in a pot during the 1880s, a plant's number of pots was often used to describe capacity.[7] A major expense for glass factories is fuel for the furnace.[8] Wood and coal had long been used as fuel for glassmaking. An alternative fuel, natural gas, became a desirable fuel for making glass because it is clean, gives a uniform heat, and is easier to control.[9] In the United States, gas and oil began replacing coal as a fuel for glassmaking in the 1870s—where it was available.[10]
Ohio gas boom
In the 1870s, Ohio had a glass industry located principally in the eastern portion of the state, especially in coal-rich Belmont County. The Belmont County community of Bellaire, located on the Ohio side of the Ohio River across from Wheeling, West Virginia, was known as "Glass City" from 1870 to 1885.[11] In early 1886, a major discovery of natural gas (the Karg Well) occurred in northwest Ohio near the small village of Findlay.[12] Communities in northwestern Ohio began using low-cost natural gas along with free land and cash to entice glass companies to start operations in their towns.[13] Their efforts were successful, and at least 70 glass factories existed in northwest Ohio between 1886 and the early 20th century.[14] The city of Fostoria was a desirable location for manufacturing because it was already served by multiple railroad lines. It was close enough to the natural gas field that it could use a pipeline to make natural gas available to businesses in town.[15] Eventually, Fostoria had 13 different glass companies at various times between 1887 and 1920.[16][Note 1] Ohio's gas boom enabled it to improve its national ranking as a manufacturer of glass from 4th in 1880 to 2nd in 1890.[19]
Lamps in the 1890s
In 1859, petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania.[20] This discovery, plus the increased usage of coal oil from Kentucky, led to increased demand for kerosene lamps and lanterns. During the 1860s, the major glass factory in West Virginia could not produce enough lamps to meet demand.[21] Kerosine lamps were used in the home for lighting, since electric lighting was only beginning in the late 1800s.[22] Demand for kerosine lamps would continue for decades. By 1920 electricity reached only 35 percent of homes in the United States.[23]
Lamps from the 1890s consisted of a stand, font, chimney, and often a shade.[24] The font (also spelled "fount") held the kerosine for the lamp.[25] The chimney was a glass tube placed around the lamp's flame that had a bulge at the base that kept drafts away from the flame and added extra illumination.[26] A lamp's shade was a glass object that surrounded the light source and diffused it.[27]
