Irving Wightman Colburn
Encyclopedia

Irving Wightman Colburn (16 May 1861 – 4 September 1917) was an American inventor and manufacturer.

Colburn developed a process for the production of continuous flat glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 disks which made the mass production for window
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...

 panes possible. Colburn began his experiments in 1899. In one patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 for a machine to produce flat glass on 25 March 1902. He created the Colburn Machine Glass Co. in August 1906. In 1908 he installed two machines, before the technology had developed, and in 1911 he became bankrupt. Toledo Glass Company bought Colburn's patents in 1912. He then improved the process with Toledo Glass, and its first successful result occurred on 25 November 1913. The company then became the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass company
Libbey Owens Ford
The Libbey–Owens–Ford Company was a producer of flat glass for the automotive and building products industries both for original equipment manufacturers and for replacement use. The company's headquarters and main factories were located in Toledo, Ohio, with large float glass plants in Rossford,...

in 1916.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK