Blackglass
Well-Known Member
I went to a local auction last week and saw this there. Now, this particular auction is notorious, at least for me, for having consistently garbage bottles that come up on the block. Well, not that night, and I was excited to see something at least a little interesting. It's rather tall, BIM, and embossed at the heal "WALLACE & TIERNAN CO. NEWARK, NJ." I went back to the family-owned coffee lounge a short walk away, got on my laptop, an looked up the bottle real quick."-No others of it's kind online. Huh, that's a good sign.-Upside-down embossing, shape, and size seem to indicate it was a water cooler bottle of sorts (A few gallons). Turns out the company had a history of chemical applications. Chemical storage bottle? I don't know."So, with that little bit of knowledge under my belt, I returned to the auction house with the intent on winning it, and with the intention to dump a lot of money in to it if necessary. It was a sleety night, with a smaller than usual turnout, and these fellow auction goers... Just don't want to spend money. I won it for a WHOPPING $15 WHOA. I was quite excited, to say the least.
So, I took it home and did some serious research, and what I came out with was very little information. What I do know, after reading this article (http://www.deccopostharvest.com/pdf/90thAnniversary.pdf): 1. It is NOT a general purpose spring water bottle as I had initially thought. W&T were great inventors, and were the people to first introduce chlorinating public water. This bottle was in fact an attachment to a machine known as the Chloro-meter, and contained bleached or chlorinated water that was fed in to a small water supply.
You can see here where the inside of the lip has wear from being attached to the machine, removed, refilled, attached again, etc.
2. It dates from the early 1920's3. The machine it was hooked up to was a mid-sized piece of equipment; I'm guessing it could be implemented in small communities, or maybe even a small town. What I don't know, and am still looking for information on: 1. The Chloro-Meter entered production in the early 1920's, but when did it end production?2. The bottle is marked "Newark, NJ", but the company headquarters were NEVER listed as being located there. The company moved to Belleville, NJ in 1921 after becoming too big for their original NY, NY location. It does mention some business going on with the town of Newark in the 1910's, but nothing else is said of it. 3. This is more of a general question, but the bottle is BIM, yet dates to the early 1920's. Machine-Made bottle production had become practically standard by then in the US, so why is this bottle manufactured in an older style? Is it because the size, somewhat unusual shape, and the fact that a limited number were going to be produced that influenced the decision not to blow them machine-made style?4. And lastly, has anyone seen another one of these? Seems like there are very few left in existence... Any sort of information on this bottle would be GREATLY appreciated, as it has seriously intrigued me. Thanks y'all!