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• 1 2018-12-07T16:36:32+00:00 The Horrifying Reality 12 A synopsis of the working conditions in early glass factories. plain 2018-12-17T17:13:13+00:00

  People often hear the romanticized stories of how glass shaped the entire future of our beloved Glassboro. Unfortunately, few hear the true horrors of what people went through during the early years of our town when it came to producing glass. The factories that output incredible amounts of glass were some of the worst-kept buildings in any area. It is easy to imagine all the open flames, stray glass on the ground, and polluted air scattered about the factories. Being chemical engineering students, we understand the dangers of working with chemicals and around open flames. Fortunately, we now have plenty of safety precautions to ensure that working with these things will not harm us. In the late 1700s to early 1900s people paid little attention to the effects of chemicals and the lack of protection for workers. "Workers in the factories developed medical problems, too. The pollution and dust that were constantly in the air led to the illness known as mill fever. It was a dreaded disease, and it took many lives" (Fabian 2018). It is clear that workers were not well taken care of in these early times. On top of these poor working conditions, workers were essentially "trapped" in their industry. In particular the Whitney Glass Works, the most prominent in the history of Glassboro, owned most of the land surrounding their glass works. This allowed them to house their workers, but also gave them the ability to build stores and other places to spend money. They began paying their workers in "Whitney currency" which could only be spent at stores and other places owned by the family. This forbid workers from leaving the area because they would not have any money to buy land elsewhere.