page_title: Sneath Glass Company
section_title: Transition from globes to other products
hierarchical_section_title: Sneath Glass Company / Transition from globes to other products
caption_attribution_description: English: Glass canisters made by Sneath Glass Company for Hoosier Cabinets
context_page_description: The Sneath Glass Company was an American manufacturer of glass and glassware. After a brief 1890s startup in Tiffin, Ohio, the Company moved to Hartford City, Indiana, to take advantage of the Indiana Gas Boom. The small city was enjoying the benefits of the boom, and could provide natural gas as an energy source for manufacturers. Sneath Glass was one of many glass manufacturers that moved to the region, and became Hartford City's second largest employer.
  Among the original owners, Ohio businessman Ralph Davis Sneath provided capital and financial knowledge—and his family is the company's namesake. Sneath was president of the firm when it moved to Indiana. Henry Crimmel, who already had over 25 years of glassmaking experience when he joined the company, provided the manufacturing expertise after the firm's reorganization. Following this reorganization, Alva Clyde Crimmel was the firm's secretary, while John W. Geiger served as treasurer. These four members of the management team were the company's owners when it moved to Indiana.
  In Indiana, the company's main products were initially lantern globes and founts, and railroads were its major customers.
context_section_description: Originally, the company devoted its production exclusively to lighting and lantern-related products such as lantern globes and founts.  It made more globes than any two companies combined.  Several factors contributed to the need for a transition from globe manufacturer, and all were related to declining demand. First, around the beginning of the 20th century, electrification and the incandescent light bulb began replacing oil lamps, causing less need for lamp globes and fonts in cities.  A few decades later, railroads (major customers for globes) stopped expanding.  Railroad route miles peaked around 1916, and railroad employees peaked around 1920. Since the railroad industry was shrinking, its demand for lantern globes would diminish.  Finally, in the 1930s, rural electrification decreased farmers' need for oil lamps.
  By 1899, the company was listed as the only manufacturer of semaphore globes and bulls eye lenses. However, the company was diversifying from its lighting products portfolio with fruit jars and glassware.    Three sizes of Mason jars were being hand blown by 1908.  The Sneath jars were said to be "superior and more durable than machine made jars."  Around the same time, the company began making glass canisters for kitchen cabinet companies, including the Hoosier cabinet made by Hoosier Manufacturing Company. This began the gradual (but important) transition from manufacturer of globes to manufacturer of glass products for portable kitchen cabinets. Cabinet products included salt and sugar bins, spice jars, and coffee and tea jars. From 1914 to 1916, management patented dispensing caps, a dispensing jar, and a bracket for supporting dispensing bins used in kitchen cabinets.
  Henry Crimmel suffered a stroke in 1916, and died about one year later. Henry's son (and company co-founder) Alva Clyde (a.k.a. Alvie or Clyde) Crimmel took more management responsibilities at that time, and by 1920 his title was Vice-President and Treasurer. Clyde's oldest son, Henry Hays Crimmel, joined the company's management in 1918, focusing on sales. Henry Hays had been working at Sneath since he was a child, and was very familiar with the company's products. Child labor was common in glass factories during the 19th century and early 20th century. The elder Henry Crimmel was fined $11.95 in 1901 by the state of Indiana for employing children under the age of 14.
  The company used its experience with lighting and lenses to assist the United States government during World War I.  Almost 10 percent of Sneath's production was devoted to a contract with the United States Navy to manufacture signal and masthead lights.  Red, green, and white lights were produced for Navy ships.
  By 1918, the company's products (in addition to the lenses and lamps) were lantern globes, colored and crystal specialties, and food preservation ware such as canisters and fruit jars.  Around 1920, the company began making an interesting (but less important) product—a wall-mounted mail box.  These mailboxes were made of glass, enabling one to easily see if mail had been delivered.  Sneath employee William Chapman, working under the supervision of Ray Pruden, was granted a patent for the glass mailbox in 1921.  Ray Pruden was superintendent of the factory, assuming that title after Henry Crimmel's stroke. William Chapman was a well-known glass blower who also secured a patent for an ash tray.  Employees of the company also patented other products, including a drawer pull, a caster for furniture, a newspaper receptacle, and a chick feeding fount.  Years later, the glass mailbox was shown in Popular Mechanics magazine.
  Sneath Glass continued making glassware for kitchen cabinet manufacturers such as Hoosier and Sellers, and the 1920s were peak years for that cabinet style. Sneath management also patented more of its products used in kitchen cabinets, such as a sugar bin and a holder for condiment jars. 
    The company also continued to improve its manufacturing process, as two employees were granted a patent for a means to remove glass from molds.
caption: A collector's display of an ash tray and most of a set of canisters made by Sneath Glass for Hoosier Cabinets.
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