George A. Macbeth Co.

Dates

• Existence: 1872 (date of establishment) - 1899 (date of dissolution) - 1899

Biography

The Macbeth-Evans Glass Company was formed in 1899 by the merger of two Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania glass companies: Thomas Evans & Co. (1869-1899) and George A. Macbeth Co. (1872-1899). Thomas Evans & Co. produced lamp chimneys, while George A. MacBeth Co. manufactured lamp chimneys, reflectors, and lantern globes.

The Macbeth-Evans Glass Company was located in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, where George A. Macbeth had purchased land and opened a production facility in 1893. When the two companies merged in 1899, they also purchased American Lamp Chimney Co. in Toledo, Ohio and its license to produce lamp chimneys on the Owens glassblowing machine.

The company grew rapidly, especially the Charleroi plant, largely because George A. Macbeth invested many resources in advertising and research. When he died, his son, George D. Macbeth, became assistant secretary and later president of Macbeth-Evans Glass Company. By 1919 the company made not only lamp chimneys, but also globes, shades, and bowls for lighting, a number of railway and shipping lighting products, and lighthouse lenses with prisms. Other products included laboratory ware, tumblers, vacuum bottle glass, plates for dental chairs, glass for automatic milking machines, and automobile headlights.

Automatic glass pressing was introduced in the late 1920s, leading to the manufacture of tableware. Opalescent glasses and structural glass blocks began to be made in the 1930s. In 1936 Macbeth-Evans was purchased by Corning Glass Works and was renamed Corning Glass Works Macbeth-Evans Division, and later Corning Glass Works Charleroi Plant. In 1998 the plant was sold to World Kitchen as part of the company's divestiture of its Consumer Products division.

Bibliography:

One Hundred Years of Glass Making. Charleroi, Pa.[?]: Corning Glass Works [?], 1969.

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