The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-12
HISTORY OF PLATE GLASS
The Development of One of the Chief
est Industries of the State.

Written for the indianapolis Journal.

iittV y Nuc lhulhAdpOiio uIH
From the days of Tubal Cain, glass has
been produced, The art is as old as human
history. But still, as late as the reign OF
Elizabeth, window glass was not common;
windows were personal property, and ten
ants, when moving, tool the windows with
them, and householder having over eight
lights of glass paid a burdensome window tax.
But at the present time glass is nearly as
cheap as wood, and in the last twenty years
glazing glass has doubled in size, and is but
half the old price. "Mehr LIGHT" were the
last words of the dying Goethe.
In our day, dwellings are marvels of light
and comfort, and they are made so by the
perfection and cheapness of glass. But man
is never satisfied; is always crying for more
and better. Common window glass is not
good enough for the opulent, and sooner or
later all fine dwellings must have plate
glass windows; for plate glass is as much
better for light and beauty as steel rails are
better than iron for smooth and safe riding.
Plate glass has been in use since the
sixteenth century, but the industry, in order
to grow, has always been protected by tariff
and subsidies. 1t was not until the plate
glass works of France were so firmly establish
ed as to defy competition that she entered into
a conventional arrangement with England,
by which a common tariff was established
on glass and sundry manufactured goods.
This tariff admitted glass into France at a
duty which practically prohibited its i'm
portation.
These great French establishments are the
result OF hundreds of years of fostering care
and protection by the government. In those
years France has had many successes and
downfalls, many dynasties, has been ruled
by kings, regents, emperors, republics, to
say nothing of Robespierre and the Commune
of 1870. Yet through all these govern
mental changes, the dynasties and rulers
her manufacturing interests have been con-
stantly and always protected, and the French
man put his money into manufacturing,
confident that no matter who was king or
emperor, or what political changes
might occur, his investment was safe,
and he could hand it down to his chill
dren as an inheritance. The want in Amer
lea to-day is not so much a high protective
tariff as to take the matter out of politics
and establish a uniform, permanent, fair and
just duty that will induce our people to put
NAAOAA AACAEN1 AAANO mani ~ c
Under the present tariff duties" says Mr..
DE PAW, 81 have succeeded, in less than ten
years, in making plate glass at a small profit.
II the present duties are continued, l believe
that prior TO 1890 America will make all the
glazing plate glass she requires, and prior to
Ivy y99f al kAa gi III Tess gl thSan af f6ir 5He" wears thus thu
which it has taken France hundreds of Years
to build up"
The facts are that some of the shrewdest,
most energetic and successful business men in
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chi
cago, st. LOUIS and Louisville hadin the aggre-
gate invested millions in plate-glass enter
prises and lost the whole of it; that no plate
glass had been made in America without loss
to the maker prior to 1879, and that Americans
are paying about half as much for plate glass
to-day as they paid prior to the time plate
glass was made in the United States at Mr..
De Pauw's works.
At the present time brick and stone have,
in a measure, gone to the rear, while iron
and glass have come to the front. The build
ing interests of our great cities demand the
success OF the plate-glass business, and it is
matter of national pride and concern that
American glass should surpass in quality
and take the place of French plate in the
United States, and at no distant day in the
markets of the world. Mr.. DePauw is doing
all that capital and business skill can do to
promote this end, and at the present all in
dications point to the success of the under
taking.
In 1881, in the interest OF the plate-glass bust
ness, Mr.. DePauw, with his son, C. W. DePauw,
spent a year in obtaining information as to
tariff and wages abroad. After several
months of investigation, and many ~refusals
and denials lowing to the jealousy of foreign
makers of plate glass; reliable information
was gained showing that the wages of Amer
lean plate-glass workers are double those of
any European makers; that by subsidy and
protection, first France, and then England
had built up the most successful glass fac
tories in the world, compelling all mankind
to buy of them. The tariff III England on
plate glass ran from 50. rs per square foot in
1915 to eighteen cents in 1856, since which
time it was imported duty free.
THE NEW ALBANY WORKS.
The DePauw plate-glass works, at New
Albany, cover nearly thirty acres between
the railway and river front. The plant cost
over two millions, and their present value is
about a million and a half. Their capacity is
1900, 000feet of plate glass, $50, 900 boxes win
dow glass, and 10000 gross Of fruit jars per
annum. A market is found throughout the
States; they have shipped glass in the same
week to New York, New Orleans, st. Paul
and San Francisco. The works employ from
1000 to 800 men; rs per cent of the cost of
plate grass Is dlrectly or indirectly wages.
The amoun of material used is immense,
but cheap. OF coal, nearly 1000, 900 bushels
is used annually; 5000, 900 to 4, 1000, 900 feet Of
lumber, 1900 tons of mixing sand, 1000
tons of imported soda ash, and as much
quicklime. They import also emery,
arsenic, German friedrich, and other
materials amounting to 5000, COO annually.
They make cylinders of pure white double
thick window glass eighty inches long and
ifty-eight inches in circumference, and cast
plates O. enormous Dimensions.
Mr.. w. G. De PAW took charge of the
works in 1872. The former company had
become hopelessly involved and bankrupt.
Mr.. De PAW believed that by largely in.
c~reasing the machinery and product Of the