RED Matthews
Well-Known Member
This is an update to an old question that nearly got me fired nearly fifty years ago by the
Vice President of Manufacturing at Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Co., only a few months after I went to work there.
Now it is2013, and I recently ended up with a book written by another woman, who studied the early glass bottle making industry, to the point that she even got to learn how to blow bottles herself. That was Mrs. Grace Kendrick. She wrote this booklet in 1963 and in it; she pointed out the cause of the variable thickness in early bottles - was because of the coldness of the cast iron molds the glass was blown in.
We also have know about and collected solid glass insulators, bottles, and jars that, were poured in the molds to heat up the molds for improved product appearance.
I have written before about how I nearly got fired for asking the question of who, when, where and why did they start chilling the cavity of the bottle mold castings. This was in a management meeting for mold shop and production people from all of our Thatcher plants – and no one could answer the question. It took me several years before I found the answer in a book on “Early American Glass†by Mrs. Rhea Mansfield Knittle; that answered the question. My question took a good 15 years to find that answer.
The word 'whittle' still shows its ugly connotation today. Even though they never whittled in metal mold cavities.
RED Matthews
Vice President of Manufacturing at Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Co., only a few months after I went to work there.
Now it is2013, and I recently ended up with a book written by another woman, who studied the early glass bottle making industry, to the point that she even got to learn how to blow bottles herself. That was Mrs. Grace Kendrick. She wrote this booklet in 1963 and in it; she pointed out the cause of the variable thickness in early bottles - was because of the coldness of the cast iron molds the glass was blown in.
We also have know about and collected solid glass insulators, bottles, and jars that, were poured in the molds to heat up the molds for improved product appearance.
I have written before about how I nearly got fired for asking the question of who, when, where and why did they start chilling the cavity of the bottle mold castings. This was in a management meeting for mold shop and production people from all of our Thatcher plants – and no one could answer the question. It took me several years before I found the answer in a book on “Early American Glass†by Mrs. Rhea Mansfield Knittle; that answered the question. My question took a good 15 years to find that answer.
The word 'whittle' still shows its ugly connotation today. Even though they never whittled in metal mold cavities.
RED Matthews
