Euro American Glass
Most of the recovered glassware (81 pieces)
came in the form of bottles designed to hold food, beverages, medicine,
cosmetics, and cleaning materials. Also
recovered were glass toys (marbles and car), tableware (cups, glasses, plates,
bowls), an eyeglass lens, and a car headlamp.
Machine Made (after 1917) or Hand Blown (before 1917)
In analyzing glassware,
there are several ways to determine the age of the item.
The most obvious is whether the piece was hand blown or machine made. Prior to 1880, all bottle making was conducted by
glass-blowing guilds. A hand blown
bottle is often blown in a mold that creates a seam mark on the bottle.
The bottle is then removed from the mold and a hand tool used to shape
the neck. This tool wipes away the
mold seam in the neck area and often leaves slight striations encircling the
neck.
Most blown bottles were
plain, however in the 1860’s, the development of insert plates that could be
placed in the molds, allowed the manufacture of bottles with embossed lettering
and images.
In 1881 and 1886, Philip
Arbogast (in the U.S.) and Howard Ashley (England) developed semi-automatic
bottle making machines. By
1893, the Arbogast machine was being used for petroleum jelly jars and fruit
jars. By 1903-04, Michael Owens had
designed a fully automatic bottle making machine and by 1909, advances in the
machine allowed the production of prescription bottles.
By 1917, 90 to 95% of all glass containers were made by either semi or
fully automatic machine (Davis 1970, Miller and Sullivan 1981, Kendrick 1971).
Both the body and the neck
of a machine-made bottle are made in molds.
These molds will create seam marks that extend up and across both the
body and the neck area.
Glass Color and Maker’s Marks
Glass color and maker’s
marks can also assist in determining the age of glassware.
The natural iron in glass mixtures turn the glass an aqua blue color. Beginning about 1880, magnesium (imported from Germany) was
added to the glass mixture to bleach out the color making a clear glass.
Though initially clear, exposure to ultraviolet sunlight turns the
magnesium a light purple color. During
WWI (about 1914), imports from Germany were cut off and American bottle makers
were no longer able to obtain magnesium. They
substituted selenium in the glass mixture.
Though initially clear, exposure to sunlight turns the selenium a pale
wheat or honey yellow color. Selenium
was used between 1914 and 1930 (Kendrick 1971).
Neck and Closure Styles
Cork stoppers, Hutchinson
Spring Stoppers, and the Lightening bottle stopper were all in use on hand-blown
bottles. The crown cap was invented
in 1892 and can be found on both hand blown and machine-made bottles.
Alcohol Bottles (32)
The brown-glass bottle fragments once
held brandy (0-164), whiskey (0-193, 377) and beer (0-222).
The base of one bottle has the “M G W” mark that suggests it was
manufactured sometime around 1889 by the Middletown Glass Works (Toulouse
1971:362).
The purple-glass base and
neck below represent hand-blown liquor flasks.
The screw-cap neck (0-1) is most likely from a Philadelphia Screw Top
Flask. The base is from a Cummings’ Picnic Flask (Putnam 1965).
Other hand-blown liquor
bottles included wine bottles. Two
olive green glass, turn-mold bases represent clarets or Bordeaux wine bottles
(0-407, 424).
Pieces of 10 blown wine bottles, 7 blown liquor bottles, 5 blown beer bottles,
and 2 unidentifiable blown alcohol bottles were recovered.
Machine-made alcohol bottles
included 2 liquor, 1 wine, 2 beer, and 3 unidentifiable.
Canning Jars (9)
Canning jars were well
represented by 6 jar fragments and 3 lids.
The three pieces pictured here include the wall of a “Kerr
Self-Sealing” mason jar (0-218) manufactured between 1915 and 1950 (Toulouse
1971:306). Also included is an
unidentifiable olive green canning jar fragment with “…CO…” embossed on
the wall (0-220). 
The circular milk-glass
piece (0-192) is an insert for a Mason canning jar lid.
John Landis Mason patented the screw-top canning jar in 1858. The glass insert for the screw-top was invented by Louis Boyd
in 1869 as a way to better seal the screw-top canning jars.
This piece is embossed “MASON JARS” and was most likely manufactured
around 1900 (Toulouse 1971:345).
Medicine/cosmetic Bottles (17)
Medicine bottles were well represented by hand
blown patent remedies (3) and medicines (2) as well as a machine made patent
remedy, a Bayer pill bottle, and 5 unidentifiable medicine bottles.
Pictured are 4 patent remedies including a machine made, honey yellow castor oil
bottle manufactured between 1914 and 1930 (0-198), and three hand blown patent
remedies (0-47, 197, and 340) made between 1860 and 1917.
Also recovered was the base of a cold cream jar
(0-410) and a “The Bayer Company Inc.” bottle with an Owens Illinois maker mark on
the base indicating manufacture between 1929 and 1954 (Toulouse 1971:403).
Misc. Bottles
A “Nesbitt” soda and “Clorox” bottle
were recovered. The Nesbitt bottle
is most likely from the 1940’s-50’s. After
14 years of providing soda fountains with its orange syrup, Nesbitt began
bottling its soda and soon had bottling franchises all over the U.S. It soon surpassed Orange Crush as the #1 selling orange soda.
In the 1960’s Coca Cola’s “Fanta” took over the #1 spot in orange
soda sales. In 1972, Nesbitt was
sold to the Clorox Company (Grace 2006, Scott 2008).
Tableware
A single fluted stemware glass (purple) and a
jelly tumbler were recovered. The
purple glass was manufactured between 1880 and 1914.
The machine-made tumbler by “Ball” is after 1917, but date unknown.
Lamp Glass
A purple glass base to a kerosene lamp was
recovered (iso-0-3) as was a scalloped milk glass rim that was most likely a
kerosene lamp chimney or vase (0-303).
Glass Toys
A molded glass 1930-40 car (0-341) was recovered
along with several glass marbles (0-51, 184, 218, 403).
Marble 0-403 was most likely manufactured before 1925 (Webb 1994:74).
Glass Density Maps
The map below shows the density of all glass
materials, representing all historic and recent periods found during the
monitoring program. This map
indicates that glass was found in generally the same pattern as other historic
and prehistoric cultural materials. With
few exceptions, most cultural material, including glass, was found within 100
meters of the lakeshore. Easy
access to water would have prompted community members to live and conduct most
of their activities as close to the lakeshore as possible.
As the Elem community had no running water until the late 1960’s, this
need to live and work close to the lakeshore controlled patterns of discard not
only during prehistory, but also throughout most of the historic period.
A
small isolated area of glass discard can be seen near the entrance road to the
reservation. This was part of a
recent historic trash
feature.
The density map below shows the distribution of
only those glass pieces that were manufactured before 1900.
It clearly outlines that part of the reservation that was in use prior to
1900. Individual historic features
were
identified
within this area and are discussed on another page.
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