Owens Machine Opreation

[stumpknocker]

http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/michaelowens.mpg

 

[mr.fred]

That was fascinating to watch[]-----Thanks!

 

[Tomn8tr]

Would a machine like this have been in each town where the Coca Cola bottles were made and marked with the town names?

Thanks!

 

[Tomn8tr]

Here's another video: YouTube Video

 

[cobaltbot]

Great videos, I didn't know Toledo will always be known as the bottle capital of the world! learn somethin almost every day.....

might not be factual mind you

but I learnt it

 

[GuntherHess]

darn that Owens, he took away all those poor kids' jobs...

 

[cowseatmaize]

What was with that one mold blown. It looked like they took it out and threw it in a tub of water.

 

[stumpknocker]

To best explain the set-up, in the approximate time of 1900 there were several glass machines that, they were trying to get made and into production.
The Emhart HMB machine was an early rotary bottle making machine that really got started around the 1910 period. The Owens machine was developed around 1900 but didn't really get into massive production until about 1910. The Emhart IS glass machine was also hitting the glass industry in the early 1900s. The IS machine was made by other companies like Maul Brothers. And there were a lot of different machine makers. It wasn't all Owens, but they really changed the manufacturing methods with their machine.

The old straight side Coca-Cola bottles were made in two part molds and hand blown before 1900, I have never made a real study of them, but I have some around. I have a half of an Emhart IS machine brass mold for Coca-Cola's down stairs in our bottle club meeting room. This machine had a gob glass distribution system from a fore-hearth feeder box that had an orifice ring and plunger that pushed the gob through and with the correct amount of glass and the gob was sheared off, falling by gravity into the parison (Blank) Mold. On that machine the bottle started out on the back (Blank) side of the machine and being made upside down at that point. When the parison was made - the blank mold opened and the neckring arm carried it up and inverted it over to the final mold side, where the mold closed around it. The neck ring arm went back for the next bottle forming and a blow head came down over the finish and blew the parison out to the mold walls.

On the Owens machine the glass was sucked up into the blank mold and the glass form was sheared off of the lifted blank and thus the round ring with the curved shear marks ended up on the bottom of the finished bottle. I am not sure that the Owens Machine made a lot of the Coca-Cola bottles but they could have.

No they didn't have a machine in every town. They made bottles labeled for the town that had Coca-Cola distribution places and the bottles could have traveled 50 to 150 miles to those cities that had distributors in business.

I hope this helps you. If you want more information - feel free to kick back your questions.'
RED Matthews

 

[kwalker]

ORIGINAL: Tomn8tr

Here's another video: YouTube Video

That one was interesting especially the hand blowing process shown midway through []

 

[celerycola]

RE: Owens Machine Operation

From The American Bottler, October 15, 1908.

"The first bottle made in the new machine plant of the American 
Bottle Co., located at Streator, IL, was turned out on Sept. 25th.
 Only one machine of the twelve installed has been started, but it 
is said to work very satisfactorily. The first bottle is said to have 
been fully up to the expectations of those in charge."