Michael Joseph Owens

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Michael Joseph Owens (1859-1923)

Michael Joseph Owens (January 1, 1859 – December 27, 1923) was an inventor of machines that could automate the production of glass bottles.

He was born in Mason County, West Virginia on January 1, 1859. He left grade school at the age of 10 for a glassware apprenticeship at J.H. Hobbs, Brockunier and Company in Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1888 he moved to Toledo, Ohio and worked for the Toledo Glass Factory of Edward Drummond Libbey. He was later promoted to foreman and then a supervisor. He formed the Owens Bottle Machine Company in 1903. His machines could produce glass bottles at a rate of 240 per minute, and reduce labor costs by 80%. ^[1] Owens and Libbey entered into a partnership and the company was then renamed the Owens Bottle Company in 1919. In 1929 the company merged with the Illinois Glass Company to become the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. ^[2] ^[3]

[edit] Patents

U.S. Patent 534,840
U.S. Patent 548,587
U.S. Patent 548,588
U.S. Patent 766,768 Glass Shaping Machine
U.S. Patent 774,690 Glass Shaping Machine

[edit] References

^ "Michael Joseph Owens", National Inventors Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2007-06-21.
^ "Michael Joseph Owens", Today in Science. Retrieved on 2007-06-21. "Michael Owens was a glass manufacturer who invented an automatic glass bottle manufacturing machine that revolutionized the industry. His mechanization of the glass-blowing process eliminated child labor from glass-bottle factories, which he had himself experienced from the age of ten. To help provide income for his coal-mining family, Owens joined a glassworks at that age, where he stoked coal into the "glory hole" of the furnace used to soften glass during the several stages of the hand-formed process. Within a few years, at age 15, he had graduated to the job of glass-blower."
^ "Michael Joseph Owens", ASME, May 17, 1893. Retrieved on 2007-06-21.