[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 23691]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING THE OWENS BOTTLE MACHINE COMPANY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 30, 2003

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, one hundred years ago in Toledo, Ohio a 
revolution took place. In September 1903, a machine allowing the mass 
production of glass bottles changed the industry, and it changed the 
world as ``the most significant advance in glass production in over 
2,000 years'' as noted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 
The company that grew out of this invention, Owens-Illinois, is 
celebrating its centennial anniversary.
  At the dawn of the last century, Michael J. Owens was a young glass 
blower working in Toledo's Libbey Glass factory. Another inventive 
visionary and civic leader, Edward Drummond Libbey became Mr. Owens' 
primary backer as Mr. Owens developed his idea for the complete 
mechanization of glass bottle making. Though machines were patented in 
the latter half of the nineteenth century, all relied heavily on human 
toil. In 1903, Michael J. Owens patented a fully automated ``bicycle 
pump'' which operated in a similar fashion to this machine. The Owens 
Bottle Machine Company was incorporated on September 3, 1903.
  In two years, the company was able to begin commercial sales with a 
machine that could make ten bottles per minute. It was the first of 
many patented machines which developed products including glass 
building blocks, tumblers, plywood, paper cups, metal cans, television 
tubes, flat electronic display panels, corrugated boxes, lab glassware, 
plastic soft drink bottles, medicine vials, glass cookware, plastic and 
glass containers for food and beverages, and materials for range tops 
and telescope mirror blanks.
  The company's sharp minds developed many innovations we know today 
and use in our everyday lives including the method for fusing graphics 
onto bottles, squeezable dispensers for foodstuffs, disposable and 
recyclable bottles, child-proof medicine bottles, tamper-resistant 
containers, plastic toothpaste pumps, microwavable food containers, 
barrier shields to prevent the release of carbonation for plastic soft 
drink bottles, the design of 2 liter bottles and many other types of 
bottles, and even the ``clamshell'' packages for McDonald's 
hamburgers.-
  Within twenty years of the founding of Owens Bottle Machine Company, 
machines manufactured 94 percent of the bottles. This innovation 
pleased the National Child Labor Committee, which in 1913 praised the 
Toledo technological advance in reducing child labor. The labor saving 
machines were also beneficial to the glassblowers, whose profession 
when practiced manually was devastating to their health.
  By 1920, the Owens Bottle Company was the nation's largest bottle 
manufacturer, and Toledo earned its nickname as the ``glass capitol of 
the world,'' a moniker still proudly borne today.
  In 1930, several years after the deaths of its founders, an 
acquisition of the Illinois Glass Company brought William Levis on 
board. Mr. Levis' contributions to the success of the newly christened 
Owens-Illinois Company are widely held to be as significant as its 
founders'. During the depths of the Great Depression in 1930, Owens-
Illinois made $2.7 million. He foresaw the end to Prohibition, and was 
ready to capture the market on glass bottles when alcohol production 
resumed in 1933. William Levis invested heavily in glass fiberization 
technology, leading to the development of another well-known Toledo 
company, Owens-Corning. He also brought Toledo's Libbey Glass Company 
into the fold.
  By 1950, Owens-Illinois was the largest glass bottle manufacturer in 
the world. With factories all over the world, employment worldwide 
reached 80,000 people including scientists, researchers, skilled labor, 
and management. Today its signature building, a glass skyscraper in 
downtown Toledo, stands as a monument to its zenith years.
  Even though the company declined somewhat during the 1980s years of 
hostile corporate takeovers, Owens-Illinois remains a viable leader on 
the world market stage and one of Toledo's principal companies. One of 
every two bottles produced worldwide is made by Owens-Illinois or one 
of its subsidiaries. It is Toledo's second largest company as it begins 
its second century of operation. I am proud to salute its workforce 
past and present. America looks forward to the creative technology of 
its future.

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