Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/610

590 the Jersey glass-houses. New plants have been established in various places, and the capacity of old ones enlarged. At Glassboro, for instance, one of the oldest glass-houses in the country, the output was recently doubled within a period of three years, and has since gone on steadily increasing. The history of these works is indeed typical. The original glass-house was built in 1775 by the Stanger brothers, seven in number, who were all practical glass-blowers. They continued operations with reasonable success until the close of the Revolution, when the works were sold to Colonel Heston, the great-grandfather of the president of the company now operating the works. It is of interest



that four generations have been connected with the one enterprise, a somewhat unusual persistency in the history of American industry. In 1887 the enterprise was incorporated as the Whitney Glass Works, and in the following year purchased the works at Camden. These, with the works at Glassboro and Salem, give the company an immense productive power and make their undertaking the most important glass industry in the State and one of the most important in the whole country. This increase of capacity is largely, if not entirely, due to the introduction of improved tank furnaces, the invention of the chemist of the Glassboro Works, Mr. Andrew Ferrari. These are modifications of the Siemens regenerative furnace, but differ from it in having the gas