105 Years of Glass

105 Years of Glass. . The Sydenham Glass Company was established in 1894 by Captain William Taylor. He envisioned using sand found nearby on the banks of the Sydenham River, but it turned out that the local sand was unsuitable for glass making. However, the river access did allow them to easily bring in raw materials and to ship out the finished products. The railroad was also nearby. There was also considerable space for future expansion. , At first they utilized only the Green House, (to make green glass) but eventually there were other glass making facilities (Flint House and New House) as well as offices, warehouses, etc. The glass factory employed thousands over its long history., Time Line , 1894 - Factory is completed, only production building is "The Green House" , 1898 - "Flint House" is built , 1908 - "New House" is built, housing glass-making automatic machines , 1913 - Sydenham Glass merges with Diamond Glass, to create Dominion Glass. , 1920s - A wooden batch house is built to store and mix ingredients needed to create different coloured glass pieces , 1940s - Dominion Glass becomes the only glass factory in Canada with the rights to use a "Hartford IS Machine" - which manufactures bottles. , 1960 - Batch house is replaced with the iconic batch tower , 1976 - Ownership and name changes again to Domglas, production is switched to mainly bottles , 1978 - Domglas merges with Libbey, a Toledo-based company, name changes to Libbey St. Clair , 1993 - Wallaceburg's factory becomes the only remaining Libbey location in Canada, name changes to Libbey Canada, widely known just as Libbey. , 1999 - Glass factory closes for good , 2000 - Batch tower, a symbol of Wallaceburg, is brought to the ground, A False Start , In April 1894, the first fires of the Sydenham Glass Factory were lit by Captain Steinhoff, one of the largest investors in the company. However before production could begin, the furnace cracked and molten glass poured out across the wooden factory floor. The damage was so severe that the furnace had to be rebuilt and production did not actually start up until September of 1895. This was the first of about four major fires to stop production at the factory.