Chapter 1 The Workers at the Glassworks
First, it is important to note that glassblowers at the time were normally paid well (Grenda, interview). Most glassblowers at the time learned the trade in apprenticeships and then went on to work in glass production at factories like Whitney Glassworks. Due to this, Glassboro was very much a rich-mans city when the glass factories were open. While poorer classes did exist, the dominance of the glassworks and their exports across the world kept workers paid.
So, we've determined that the glassblowers were well paid, what does this mean about Glassboro? Well, if we consider how time-space compression affected Glassboro and the idea that power geometries were in place, we could say that the world was more available to the glassblowers than the average American at the time (Massey, A Global Sense of Place). That being said, there were some complications with the jobs themselves. First and foremost, the "apprentices" I mentioned earlier were, normally, children from the 15-16-year-old range ("All About Glass"). Further, there were some severe problems with ventilation and a lack of safety equipment that made these jobs very dangerous (Carraro, interview).
To clarify, here is some more information from a historical record written about the formation of glass production in Glassboro.
Formerly known as Harmony Glassworks, the Whitney Glassworks shop, depicted in the photograph above (circa early 19th century), was a typical American glassblowing shop where glassware, typically bottles, were made and distributed across Glassboro and nearby regions ["History of Glass Making in Glassboro NJ (1780-1929)"].
Glass-making has a long history in Glassboro. It began in 1779 when Solomon Stranger bought 200 acres of land in Glassboro. He and his brother operated a small glassworks business until 1786 when they sold the business to Colonel Heston and Thomas Carpenter. Heston-Carpenter operated until 1808 when the business was renamed the Olive Works under the ownership of Thomas Carpenter’s son Edward, as well as Peter Wickoff. Each sold their shares and the business went through a series of several owners until they merged with the competing Glassboro glassworks company Harmony Glassworks. In 1834, Thomas H. Whitney bought shares from the owner of Harmony Glassworks, Lewis Stranger. By 1838, Harmony Glassworks was completely bought out by Thomas H. Whitney. This glassworks, most commonly known as Whitney Glassworks, ran under the supervision of Thomas Senior’s sons Thomas Jr. and Samuel until 1929, by which point bottle-making was heavily automated ["History of Glass Making in Glassboro NJ (1780-1929)"].
The workforce of the Whitney Glassworks was predominantly male and included a larger number of children. Given that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 had not yet been passed, this is not surprising. According to the Corning Museum of Glass, an average American glassblowing shop in the 1880s would hire 152 children ages 10-15 ["History of Glass Making in Glassboro NJ (1780-1929)"].
Some tools of note that are not very common today are the large tanks housing molten glassware (leads to many respiratory hazards), graphite tools, blowpipes, and cutting equipment (Carraro, interview). These tools make sense as the Whitney Glassworks shop was primarily manufacturing bottles from scratch. The tools are designed for making new products (which is rarer today considering most new work is taken by mass production plants). Other equipment included lathes and annealing ovens. The former to rotate glassware for adjustments and the latter to “bake” the glassware so it doesn’t break after stress given to it during production ["History of Glass Making in Glassboro NJ (1780-1929)"].
Additionally, it should be noted that the working conditions in this glass shop were dangerously inadequate. Karen Carraro, a glassblower at the University of Pennsylvania, noted the lack of eye safety present in the glassblowing shop (Carraro, interview). Not wearing long-sleeved shirts or rolling up sleeves (as seen in pictures) also left the potential risk for burns and cuts very high. Based on images of the Whitney Glassworks, workers were very susceptible to respiratory hazards based on their lack of face masks and a lack of proper filtration/ventilation technologies and equipment ("Do Glassblowers Tend to Develop Respiratory Problems?").
Based on current medical research, having no proper glasses to filter out IR, UV, and sodium flare left many of these men and children with permanent eye damage (Eldridge, "Safety Glasses for Glassblowers"). The dangerous shortage of ventilation equipment also made workers vulnerable to silicosis, a lung disease known for especially affecting glassblowers who accumulate too much silica (among other materials) in their lungs. Based on studies done in 2018, silicosis can cause severe lung damage and death ("Learn about Silicosis").
Instead of:Workers looked more like:
So, noting the combined effect of many workers being children and the extremely hazardous working conditions, Whitney Glassworks demonstrated some of the worst aspects of early 20th century America. Despite praise given to the Whitney Brothers for being founders of the Glassboro of today, they failed at providing proper safety equipment and hiring reasonably aged men.
With confidence, I believe that Glassboro as a whole has romanticized glassblower's lives. They were not in great condition (at best, decent), and did not live wonderful lives. Many were children under the age of 16. All of them were craftsmen that sacrificed their health for their craft, and I think it would be far more appropriate to remember that version of them. At least, there should more information on the plaque(s) in memoriam of their difficult lives.
Remember the glassblowers, remember their contributions to Glassboro, but never forget the damage it did to their bodies and the impact on many of their childhoods.
