Evening star., 1909-05-14
.GLASSMAK|NG CENTER
Four Great Establishments
Are in Alexandria.
SECRETS OF INDUSTRY
Labor Done in Terrific Heat by
Skilled Workmen.
HIGH WAGES ARE PAID THEM
Milk Bottles Turned Out by Thou
sands for Use All Over
the World.
HIGH WAGES ARE PAID THEM
special Correspondence Of The Star.


Alexandria. the workshop of Washing
ton." has become the shibboleth OF the
business boomers of this locality, who are
actively endeavoring to make Alexandria
an important manufacturing city.
These commercial pushers point with
pride to the fact that this bailiwick has
already become glass-blowing center.
There are four glass-blowing establish
ments here. and they are object lessons
telling Of q great and profitable future.
The correspondent of The Star visited
the plant of the Belle Pre- Bottle Company
today and was shown through the place,
with its clanking and clacking machinery.
In the furnace room, where q terrific
heat of 2, 100 degrees Fahrenheit must be
maintained in the furnace to produce the
molten glass. a picture of the inferno was
presented as the rosy glow from the fires
played upon the features of the work
men.
Then came the transformation in an
other department, where the milk bottles
are deftly fashioned, from the internal
regions to fairyland. At every point OF
the process, from the sand pile to the nm
ished product, there are presented inter-
esting and educational features.
Second Largest in United States.
The Belle Pre- Company has the second
largest glass factory in the United States
for the making of milk bottles. its sole
production. The plant occupies between
two and three acres of space along Madi-
son street between Fayette and Henry
streets in the suburbs of Alexandria.
1t employs about 125 people. and manu-
factures bottles in sizes from a quarter of
pint to quart. A fair days output
of milk bottles. according to the manager.
is 1,2OO dozen quart Sizes 924 dozen pints
and 533 dozen half-pint bottles.
The officers Of the company are Edwin
L. Cockrell, president; F. r. Horner, vice
president: E. A. Thompson, secretary, and
c. 8. Bassett, manager. The plant has
excellent railroad facilities, switch OF
the Southern railway. which makes con-
nection for all points, running directly to the
packing department In the freight yard
Of the factory were piled hundreds OF
crates packed with bottles ready for ship
ment.
gins in wide shed known as the batch
house." Here are piles of sand, lime and
soda ash, the three main constituents of
glass. A colored man was industriouiy
engaged in preparing the ingredients Nor
the dough from which the glassware
is evolved.
The mass is mixed by machinery and
conveyed automatically to the furnace or
melting tank, where II is subjected TO a
heat of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and
verted into a seething molten mass like
the red-hot lava that flows from the
craters of volcanoes.
From the furnace to the mold room is
the next step in the process, and thence
to the tempering department and pack
fney 70
by compressed air.
Where Molds Are Made.
The moldroom. where the molds are
made, is a most interesting place. The
molds are OF cast iron and the designs
and legends that are emblazoned on the
sides Of the bottles are chiseled by hand,
the man known as the "chiseler' being
quite an artist in his particular line.
The men engaged at the molds are
known as .pressers" and "gatherers.
and are stanch members of the Glass
blowers Union, which organization
regulates their wages, hours, etc.
The atmosphere in which they work
is superheated. The correspondent re-
marked that conditions there must be
mighty hot in midsummer.
Yes they are" the manager re-
piled. But the workmen make splen-
did wages, and they work by the piece
The speediest presser will make an
average wage of so day for every
working day in the month. and his
gatherer will earn $3.50 per diem
The manager also explained that the
labor union specifies the prices they must
get for each size milk bottle. Up to last
year, according to the rules of the union.
at 1o O'Clock midnight Of every June so
the men would put away their kits and
quit work for two months. taking vaca-
ton throughout July and August be-
cause of the combined heat of the fur
naces and the sun. But as plants using
automatic machines. doing the work of
both presser and gatherer, came in vogue,
the factories with automatic equipment
worked every month in the year, putting
the hand and semi-automatic factories at
q serious disadvantage. The labor unions
were compelled to annul their July and
August law and permit their members
to work all the year around.
Workmen Run Cooperative Plant.
The plant Of the Belle Pre- company is
semi-automatic. and its furnace has a
capacity of eighty tons Of molten glass
When the factory was established tne
work was done by hand. but tbe demand
for milk bottles grew so rapidly that it
became necessary to install machinery
The hand plant then became the property
of a cooperative company organized by
workingmen. Z,
lump Of molten sand Is most instructive