The Whitall Tatum Company or Whitall Tatum (1806–1938) was one of the first

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

factories in the

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History

Located in

Millville, New Jersey Millville is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 28,400,silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...

-based

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

is plentiful in southern

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, the

Maurice River The Maurice River (Berkery, Sheri"Do you know how to pronounce these S.J. town names?" ''Courier-Post'', September 5, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Maurice River/Maurice River Township: MAW-ris, instead of More-eece. So ba ...

flowing through Millville provided a source of water, and plentiful forests provided energy for

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

processes. The Millville glass works was founded by James Lee and went through several changes of ownership. In 1838, John M. Whitall became a partner in the business. He lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and worked at the company's headquarters there. In 1845, after his brother Israel Franklin Whitall joined, the firm became Whitall, Brother & Company. Later, Edward Tatum also joined the partnership and in 1857 the name was again changed to Whitall Tatum & Company and later in 1901 to Whitall Tatum Company. I.F. Whitall and Edward Tatum headed the company after John M. Whitall retired in 1865, and the ownership was passed to their descendants. Whitall Tatum produced

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stop ...

jar A jar is a rigid, cylindrical or slightly conical container, typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic, with a wide mouth or opening that can be closed with a lid, screw cap, lug cap, cork stopper, roll-on cap, crimp-on cap, press-on c ...

s, and

vial A vial (also known as a phial or flacon) is a small glass or plastic vessel or bottle, often used to store medication as liquids, powders or capsules. They can also be used as scientific sample vessels; for instance, in autosampler devices i ...

s throughout much of the 19th century. Antique bottle collectors prize the Whitall Tatum

druggist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

reagent bottle Reagent bottles, also known as media bottles or graduated bottles, are containers made of glass, plastic, borosilicate or related substances, and topped by special caps or stoppers. They are intended to contain chemicals in liquid or powder form f ...

s, and other types of bottles. The company developed several innovations in formulas used to make the glass, and in the

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

methods for bottles. At first, bottles were cast in metal molds, which left a casting line, and later ceramic and wood casts were developed for flint glass which allowed the glass to be molded without a casting line. Glass types included

flint glass Flint glass is optical glass that has relatively high refractive index and low Abbe number (high dispersion). Flint glasses are arbitrarily defined as having an Abbe number of 50 to 55 or less. The currently known flint glasses have refractiv ...

, blue and green glass, and artistic colored swirls, used for decoration and paperweights often made by the glass workers during their lunch hour. Whitall Tatum mass-produced special-order prescription bottles for hundreds of pharmacies, such as Smith & Hodgson in downtown Philadelphia, embossed with their names and addresses and also marked "W.T. & Co." on the base. These mostly date from 1875 up to 1900. In 1901, the company name was changed to Whitall Tatum Company and the base marking became "W.T.CO.", and for a decade from the 1920s on, the trademark became a "W" and "T" inside a triangle.

Insulators

Whitall Tatum entered the insulator manufacturing market in 1922, mass-producing them for use on power and communications lines across the country. Armstrong Cork Corporation purchased Whitall-Tatum in 1938, continuing insulator production under the Armstrong

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

. Production continued after a 1969 purchase by Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation until about 1976. One final run of Kerr DP-1s was manufactured in 1978. These particular units have flat domes, and are rather scarce among insulators found "in the wild". The former Whitall Tatum plant in Millville was purchased by a series of companies, including the

American Can Company The American Can Company was a manufacturer of tin cans. It was a member of the Tin Can Trust, that controlled a "large percentage of business in the United States in tin cans, containers, and packages of tin." American Can Company ranked 97th amon ...

. Ball-Foster purchased the factory in 1995, and in 1999, after 193 years of nearly continuous glass production, the factory was shut down. The buildings where the WT glass furnaces sat have been demolished.

References

* * http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/nj2/chap5.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20070927130740/http://www.ettc.net/njarts/details.cfm?ID=911 * News article in the "

Bridgeton News Bridgeton may refer to: Scotland *Bridgeton, Glasgow South Africa *Bridgeton, Western Cape United States *Bridgeton, Indiana *Bridgeton Township, Michigan *Bridgeton, Missouri *Bridgeton, North Carolina *Bridgeton, New Jersey *Bridgeton, ...

", January 3, 2007 on the demolition of the Whitall-Tatum, Kerr, Ball-Foster glass works buildings. * Richard Wentzel, chapter in "Insulators: A History and Guide to North American Glass Pintype Insulators" by John & Carol McDougald (1990). * John M. Whitall: The Story of His Life, by his daughter Hannah W. Smith. Philadelphia, 1879. {{Glass makers and brands Glassmaking companies of the United States Defunct glassmaking companies Companies based in Cumberland County, New Jersey Manufacturing companies established in 1806 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1938 1806 establishments in New Jersey 1938 disestablishments in New Jersey 1938 mergers and acquisitions Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey