Hermann Hammesfahr (February 20, 1845 – November 23, 1914) was a Prussian-American inventor who invented a type of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

cloth in which glass was interwoven with

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

. He was awarded the

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

by the United States Patent Office in 1880. This was the earliest fiberglass of any kind that is known to have been patented.

Family origins

Hammesfahr was born in Evangelisch, Flachsberg, Wald Solingen, Rhineland,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and died in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York—the son of Carl Wilhelm Hammesfahr (1811–1878) and Caroline Wilhelmine Remschied (1806–1878). The Hammesfahr family is an old Solingen steel family tracing its roots back to the medieval armorer's guild.

The "grandfather" of fiber optics

This patent and a number of associated patents also provided the practical foundation for the development and production of

fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

(Hammesfahr has been called “the grandfather of fiber optics”) and

. All were purchased by the Libbey Glass Company in Toledo,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. An immigrant from Prussia, he was known for his keen aesthetic achievements and technical innovations. Until recently, Hermann Hammesfahr and his contributions have been obscured, buried in scientific journals and first-hand historical accounts—and in many cases erroneously attributed to others, such as

Edward Drummond Libbey Edward Drummond Libbey (April 17, 1854 – November 13, 1925) is regarded as the father of the glass industry in Toledo, Ohio, where he opened the Libbey Glass Company (later Libbey, Inc.) in 1888. Biography Libbey was born April 17, 1854, in C ...

, owner of Libbey Glass Company.

1893 Chicago World's Fair

Libbey Glass purchased the fiberglass patent among others from Hammesfahr with the intention of displaying the fabric in a spectacular manner at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. At first, the company wove lamp shades from the glass fabric. Then it caught the eye of actress Georgia Cayvan who requested a dress be made from it. Hammesfahr designed a dress and the Libby Glass company showed it off at the Columbian Exposition. The dress was a sensation.

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

’s electric light bulb also debuted at the fair, as well as the

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

; however contemporary accounts indicate it was the glass dress that attracted the attention of women across America.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87764690/marriage-of-hammesfahr-kse/

Flexible Glass Fabric

Many onlookers were impressed by the dress at the 1893 World's Fair and a copy was purchased for $30,000 by Princess Eulalia of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. However, the dress was reportedly impractical and no one else is known to have bought another dress. Hammesfahr's granddaughter modeled a glass dress her mother had made at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and reported that the dress scratched and was fragile. Despite this, the dresses, neckties, and other attire made from the glass fabric succeeded in publicizing the flexible glass thread technology. Hammesfahr's creation inspired new, innovative uses for glass fabric. It could withstand corrosive chemicals so chemists and druggist used it to filter solid particles out of liquid. Tangled glass fibers -

glass wool Glass wool is an insulating material made from glass fiber arranged using a binder into a texture similar to wool. The process traps many small pockets of air between the glass, and these small air pockets result in high thermal insulation prop ...

- made a great insulator and was used by industry to surround steam pipes. Glass fabric was even used as

bandages A bandage is a piece of material used either to support a medical device such as a dressing or splint, or on its own to provide support to or to restrict the movement of a part of the body. When used with a dressing, the dressing is applie ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammesfahr, Hermann 1845 births 1914 deaths 19th-century American inventors Glass applications