Glass Industry

 Michael J. Owens.

Owens was born in Point Pleasant in Mason County, the son of Irish immigrants.  He worked with his father in a Mason County coal mine when he was nine years old.  After getting hurt in a slate fall in the mind, his family moved to Wheeling where he became a furnace tender for the Hobbs-Brockunier glass works.  By the age of fifteen he had become a skilled glassworker.  The owner of a glass factory in Toledo took notice of Owens and made him manager of the plant. 

While there, Owens perfected machinery for blowing tumblers, light bulbs, and lamp chimneys.  He then perfected machinery for the process in making ________________________.

In 1909 he opened a state-of-the-art bottle factory in _________________ WV.

Seven years later, he opened a factory in Charleston becoming the worlds largest producer of ____________________________________.

Write a 5 sentence paragraph describing the effects of Owen's inventions on the glass industry.  (think-workers, price, competition, etc.)

go to e-wv for answers.