Read
Scripts &
Listen to Audio
2004 Broadcasts
2005 Broadcasts
2006 Broadcasts
Ball
Brothers Glass
MP3
Audio
The canning jar as cornerstone…Ball Brothers Glass, on this Moment
of Indiana History.
The discovery of a giant oil field in northeast Indiana toward the end
of the nineteenth century ushered in a golden era of industry for Indiana.
The automobile was but one product of the gas boom. Gas-fired furnaces
are key in the manufacture of glass, and by 1900 myriad glass companies
were vying for business from Muncie to Dunkirk to Kokomo and beyond. Firms
such as the Indiana Glass Company devoted its plant to the production
of pressed and blown decorative glass. The Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company
became a principal supplier of stained glass to the New York studios of
Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge. The Root Glass Company designed
and produced the original Coca-Cola bottles.
The glass brand that, quite literally, became a household name was Ball.
In 1880, the five Ball brothers started the Wooden Jacket Can Company
in Buffalo, New York, making wooden-wrapped tin containers for paint and
kerosene. Though the business was successful, its flagship product evolved.
In time, the glass canning jar was the Ball brothers’ focus, and
the renamed company relocated to Muncie to take advantage of the natural
gas readily available there. Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company
became known for its efficiency and self-sufficiency. At its peak the
Ball plant produced 30 jars a minute. Ultimately Ball Brothers took over
production of the lids for the jars and the cardboard boxes to ship them—not
incidentally in company-owned railcars. By 1936, the company had five
plants outside of Indiana, and employed 2500 workers at its headquarters
in Muncie. In 1917, the Ball brothers’ beneficence kept the Indiana
Normal Institute from foreclosure. In recognition of that gift and the
family’s ongoing philanthropy, the school was eventually renamed
Ball State University.
This Moment of Indiana History is a production of the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations in association with the Indiana Historical Society. More information is available on-line at “moment of Indiana history.org.”
Writer: Yael Ksander
This Moment of Indiana History is a production of the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations in association with the Indiana Historical Society. More information is available at “Moment of Indiana history dot org."
For more information: