User:TheDraperyFalls/sandbox

Founding in the Russian Empire

The factory traces its history to the workshop of the German trader Julius Voges, which was founded in 1887. His choice of location was influenced by the presence of large reserves of white sand in Grivsky forest, dolomite in the Dubna River, the proximity of the Riga-Oryol railway, as well as reserves of peat used for heating stoves. The Register of Factories and Plants of the Russian Empire in 1887 indicated that Voges's workshop employed 174 men and 26 women.^[2]

In 1897, Voges applied for the allocation of land for the construction of a factory to Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and received permission to construct a glass factory, for which a building was built with three furnaces for melting glass.

In 1902, the factory employed 205 people. Working conditions were very tough, the labour of children was used^[3]. The factory produced fairly simple products - glass bottles, lamp bulbs, etc. However, production brought losses to Voges; in 1902, the first workers' strike took place at the factory due to non-payment of wages^[2].

In 1903, the factory went bankrupt, and its new owners became a merchant from Kharkiv, Mikhail Yasny, and landowner Vladimir Bortkevich. They modernized glass production in Līvāni, applying the model of other similar industries that existed in the Russian Empire^[4].

In 1904, the joint-stock company Livenhof Glass and Cork Production was established, with its headquarters in Saint Petersburg^[4].

In 1908, a bottle cap production facility was established at the factory. Production grew; in 1912, as the largest glass factory in the Governorate of Livonia it employed 513 people and manufactured 22,000 poods (32 tonnes) of products per month^[3].

With the outbreak of World War I, the factory's equipment was evacuated to Russia, and the factory itself was damaged during shelling in 1915.

Independent Latvia: Revival and Decline

The factory was revived in 1922 in the newly independent Republic of Latvia. Its owner was the joint-stock company Latvijas Stikls with its headquarters in the capital, Riga (99 Lāčplēša street) and a share capital of 300,000 lats^[5]. A new workshop was built to replace the destroyed ones. Even then, experiments began with the production of art glass^[2].

However, there were major problems with the sale of products^[3]. In 1926, the joint-stock company was declared insolvent. Efforts were made to save the company, but in August 1933, its property was put up for auction^[6].

By 1935, the factory was closed and the joint-stock company was bankrupt^[7].