Hazel-Atlas Glass Company

1910 postcard image of the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. plant in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

HISTORY:

1925 Mason jar insert and cap ad.

 

Company founders Charles N. Brady and Charles H. Hallman established the Hazel Glass Company in 1885 in Wellsburg, West Virginia.  Theirs was a rented single-furnace glass factory that originally produced milk glass inserts for Mason fruit jar lids.[1]



In 1886, Brady and Hallman relocated their company to Washington, Pennsylvania (Fig. 1) because the natural gas supplies at their original Wellsburg factory had begun to dwindle.

Fig. 1 1891 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of the "Hazel Glass Works" plant in Washington, Pennsylvania.

Sometimes also referred to as Washington Glass Works or Hazel Glass Works, the Hazel Glass Co. began to expand their glassware variety beyond glass lid inserts in the new city.

Fig. 2 1904 Sanborn map of Hazel No. 1 plant.

That first factory in Washington would eventually be known as Hazel No. 1 plant (Fig. 2).[5]

Fig. 3  "Apparatus for Making Glass Vessels" patent.

On April 20, 1888, Charles Brady applied for his "Apparatus for Making Glass Vessels" patent, a device that pressed a continuous-thread finish onto Mason jars due to imperfections resulting from mouth-blown threads.  

The device was registered on May 27, 1890 (Fig. 3).[5]








 

Fig. 4  1904 Sanborn of Hazel No. 2 plant.

In 1888, Hazel Glass Co. purchased more land, and began construction of a new factory.  This new factory, eventually known as Hazel No. 2, would be 170 by 170-feet building, housing a twelve-pot furnace (Fig. 4).  After completion, almost all work was transferred to Hazel No. 2 plant.
 

Fig. 5 1894 Patent for the "Blue Semi-automatic Machine".

Hazel Glass Co. converted to a continuous tank operation in 1895.  

This conversion took advantage of the newly developed "Blue Semi-automatic Machine" technology, which blew jars and other wide-mouthed vessels with virtually no handwork required (Fig. 5).

 

Fig. 6  1904 Sanborn map of the Atlas Factory plant.

In 1894, Brady started a second glassworks company, called the Atlas Glass and Metals Company in Washington, Pennsylvania.  By 1900, the Atlas Glass Co. plant, known as the Atlas Factory, had 44 glass pots in operation, located on South College Street, and employed over 350 people by 1910 (Fig. 6).










Hazel Glass Company was incorporated in May 1889.

In 1900, Hazel Glass Co. expanded once more, this time into the abandoned Griffith Tin Plate Co. plant next to the B. & O. Railroad on the western edge of Washington for the Hazel Glass Co.  Three additional continuous tanks were established by 1902.  This factory would go on to employ over 450 people by 1910. 

1897 Aerial map of the city of Washington, Pennsylvania with labeled landmarks and companies. Hazel Glass Co. is labeled number 15 and Atlas Glass Works is labeled number 9. (Click for larger image)

In 1902, Brady merged the Atlas Glass Co. with the Hazel Glass Co., creating the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company.  Combined, the company had three Washington factories with a total of fourteen furnaces that exclusively produced fruit jar and bottles, two factories which produced the milk-glass fruit-jar inserts, and one factory, formerly of the Republic Glass Company, that produced tumblers, jelly jars, and miscellaneous tableware.

The following images are the 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for the aforementioned Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. plants and warehouses in Washington, Pennsylvania:

1914 Sanborn map of Hazel No. 1 plant.

1915 Sanborn map of the Hazel No. 2 plant.

 

1914 Sanborn map of the Atlas Factory.

 

1914 Sanborn map of the warehouse for glass jars.

1914 Sanborn map of the Atlas Factory warehouse.

Fig. 7  1911 ATLAS E-Z Seal lightning-style fruit jar ad.

At this time, the company began producing "lightning-style" fruit jars (Fig. 7).  This type of fruit jar was characterized by glass lid inserts and metal wire bale clamps.




 

By 1910, the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. expanded its glassworks operation to Clarksburg and Wheeling, West Virginia (Fig. 8 & 9).

Fig. 8  1929 Photo of the Clarksburg, WV Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. factory.

 

 

Fig. 9  1936 Photo of the Wheeling, WV Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. factory.

From 1906 to 1909, the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. produced fruit jars for Kerr.   

1927 Magazine advertisement depicting a Hazel-Atlas samples booth.

In 1915, Hazel-Atlas developed the bead-seal Mason jar.

 

In the 1920s and 1930s, Hazel-Atlas produced what is known today as "Depression Glassware". 

Fig. 10  Zanesville, Ohio Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. factory.

 


By 1930, they were operating fifteen glass plants, including two Zanesville, Ohio factories (Fig. 10) that produced primarily thin-blown glassware.[1]




 




Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. patented "Platonite," a new glass color, in 1936.  This type of glass looked similar to milk glass, but had a translucent/almost see-through quality.[2]

On September 13, 1956, the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. was taken over by the Continental Can Company.  And finally, in 1964, Brockway Glass took over Continental Can Co.


Over the lifespan of this well-known company, Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. was known to have produced an infinitely large variety of glass products.[1]

NOTES ON DATING A HAZEL-ATLAS BOTTLE OR JAR*:

Hazel-Atlas Glass Company identification guide.

The "HAZEL" mark alone without "Atlas" was used by the Hazel Glass Co. from 1886-1902 (see images below).

"ATLAS" was used by the Atlas Glass Co. beginning in 1896, and then by the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. until 1965.

Some common variations of embossed trademarks on Hazel-Atlas Glass Co.'s fruit/canning jars following 1902:

An embossed four-leafed clover image with "GOOD LUCK" on a Hazel-Atlas fruit jar indicates that the jar was made between the years 1921 and 1956.













The "H over A" trademark was registered on June 24, 1924 (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11  1924 Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. trademark patent.

Variations of the familiar "HA" trademark with the A inside the lower portion of the H was used on fruit jars from 1923 to 1964 (see below).

"AGEE" or "Agee" in script were marks that were used by the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. from 1919-1925 (see below). 

Fruit jars from this time period may have also had one of the following embossments:  

"HAZEL-ATLAS E-Z SEAL", "HAZEL-ATLAS LIGHTNING SEAL", "HAZEL HA PRESERVE JAR", and "HAZEL PRESERVE JAR" (see below for examples).[1]

Glass color may also help identify around when a particular bottle or jar was manufactured:

GLASS COLOR                     YEAR

White Milkglass           ca. 1890s-present 

Aqua                               ca. 1800-1920s 

Green                              ca. 1860s-present 

Amber or Brown           ca. 1860s-present 

Cobalt Blue                   ca. 1890s-present 

Purple                             ca. 1885-1920 

Yellowish                        ca. 1918-1920s

*The company's earliest glass products were often unmarked. And an "N" found on some pre-1920 fruit jars reportedly indicates that the jar was manufactured prior to the emergence of the "HA" mark.



References:

[1]Hawkins, Jay W.  Glasshouses and Glass Manufacturers of the Pittsburgh Region: 1795 - 1910.  April 13, 2009.  <http://books.google.com/books?id=uRa4LxMg8r8C&dq=hazel-atlas+catalog&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.  Pgs 258-261.

[2]"Hazel Atlas Glass Company".  Glass Lovers Glass Database.  2011.  <http://glassloversglassdatabase.com/companies/HazelAtlas.html>.

[3]Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.  Penn. State University Libraries.  2014.  <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/sanborn.html>.

[4]"Hazel Atlas Glass Company (1902-1964).  Glass Bottle Marks.  2014.  <http://www.glassbottlemarks.com/hazel-atlas-glass-company/>.

[5]Lockhart, Bill.  Turning Blue: Charles Blue and the Early Jar Machines.  March 9, 2014.  <
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/TheBLueMachine.pdf>.