RC Cola!

[SODAPOPBOB]

Question(s) of the day ... When did the Laurens Glass Works introduce acls and what is their earliest confirmed example?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

2nd Question ... Is it possible that Royal Crown Cola was Laurens Glass Works first acl? Remember, Royal Crown Cola was a Nehi product and at the time (1934-35) Nehi was a hugely successful brand that had been around for about ten years and had the money and distribution capabilities to skyrocket Royal Crown Cola to new heights, which we know they did in a relatively short period of time.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Even though we've been down this road before on the earlier threads, its worth another read. Scroll to ... Page 400 - Discussion starts about Royal Crown Cola ACLs Page 401 - Confirms debossed flat-top pyramids / trapazoid's were used on ACLs Page 402 - Says first Royal Crown Cola ACL bottle was in 1937 http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/EPChap10a.pdf

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

And now back to ... Exhibit No. 1 Upon which I am placing all of my chips and going "all in"

 

[iggyworf]

I tried searching out those questions Bob. But my limited search capabilities didn't lead me to the answers. I found lots of good info on Laurens Glass Works. But nothing specific on the bottles in question. I am starting to believe the RC cola was there 1st acl bottle. Just my thoughts though. I like the pic of the debossed bottle with paper label over it you found. (To the best of my recollection, the debossed RC only occurred on the pointed pyramid bottles.) Don't these bottle's look debossed to you? http://www.ebay.com/itm/2...mp;hash=item19fbdb122a and this one?http://www.ebay.com/itm/V...mp;hash=item27f8c0c1aband also this one? http://www.ebay.com/itm/V...mp;hash=item3cf2b9be0dor do I need to get new reading glasses?

 

[iggyworf]

some of those links failed. Here they are again.http://www.ebay.com/itm/171677106603?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT http://www.ebay.com/itm/1...ame=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

iggy I also looked on eBay for RC bottles, but unless the seller actually knows the difference between a debossed bottle and an embossed bottle, and describes them accordingly, the pictures themselves can often be misleading. For example, the third link you posted looks like it might be of a debossed bottle, and yet the seller uses the word "embossed." But regardless of that, if you open the pdf file I posted a link to and scroll to page 401, you will see where Bill Lockhart uses the word "debossed" and shows an accompanying picture of a debossed trapezoid RC bottle that is also an acl. So its stuff like that from an expert we need to rely on for certain details. Because of Lockhart's knowledge about specifics, we now know that certain RC bottles, which are likely from 1937 or later, were indeed debossed and were acls as well. In fact, Lockhart indicates that debossed and embossed bottles coexisted at the same time, which adds a touch of confusion to things. I'd have to go back and open the file again to be sure, but I believe the debossed/trapazoid/acl bottle he referred to was made by the Owens Glass Company. If it was Owens Illinois as I believe it was, that still doesn't tell us who made the first RC acl. Was it Laurens Glass or Owens Illinois? The information we are looking for to explain Laurens Glass debossed bottles versus embossed bottles might not even exist. And if it does exist, its likely buried away somewhere in a company catalog or file which might never see the light of day. However, once in a while you get lucky and unearth something like the following letter ... https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/Laurens-Glass-Works-m454587.aspx Of course it doesn't tell the whole story, nor explain the debossing, but it at least gives us a glimpse of the inner working at Laurens Glass in 1931 and confirms they did in fact test their bottles for strength, and explains how they did it. Its stuff like this I consider priceless and wish there was more of it.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I realize newspaper archives do not tell the whole story. And yet, even with that said, the following can't help but shed a little light on things ... The newspaper archive I subscribe to currently contains ... 95 Million individual pages from hundreds of different newspapers coast to coast When I search "Royal Crown Cola" without a date it pulls up 74,671 matches When I search "Royal Crown Cola" in 1935 it pulls up zero matches When I search "Royal Crown Cola" in 1936 it pulls up about 20 matches Of the 20 1936 matches that show a picture of a "Royal Crown Cola" bottle, every one looks like this ...

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. 1937 = About 50 matches1938 = About 300 matches

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Just for the record ... [font="times new roman,times"] 1937[/font]