Consumers Glass

Hamilton had most glass plants in Canada, and enjoyed a colorful history. Hamilton glass works was founded back in 1864, in the eastern end of Hamilton. It later acquired the Glass works on MacNab in 1885. Another company, the Diamond glass Company later came along and purchased Hamilton Glass works in 1891. In 1892 a fire at the former Burlington Glass works severely damaged the plant � and it closed five years later. A year later one of the managers left the company to open the Toronto Glass works when they moved all the equipment and employees to Toronto. Diamond Glass Company later became Diamond Flint Glass Company and the company was in the process of acquiring the rights to have machines so that they could use mass production techniques to produce glass bottles. The company further consolidated and acquired smaller glass companies. After the machinery was acquired � the old Hamilton Glass works was re-opened in 1906, however the plant was completely destroyed by fire in 1912. Some equipment was salvaged and later moved into the new Dominion Glass Plant where production was started in 1914. In 1920 hand blowing shops were replaced by automated machinery which was made obsolete in 1940 by new equipment. A fair number of improvements were incorporated over the years and the two plants in Hamilton were able to produce 22 million bottles.

The glass plant's troubles really began in 1969, first with a proposed ban on non returnable bottles and later in 1974 when 700 some of the workers were temporarily laid off due to a shortage of soda ash. In 1975 the plant suffered a large fire (the second). In 1976 the company was restructured again and renamed Domglas incorporated where trouble continued due to a worker's tampering causing damages in excess of $2 million. A disgruntled employee was later found guilty of setting three of the fires. In 1982 a very large accident occurred when one of the large furnaces spilled 450 tons of molten glass causing approximately $1 million in damages which was almost repeated (although not quite on the same scale) as a leak of 55 tons of molten glass at the site in 1985. The leaks did not really stop there because in 1992 there was another accident which caused another million dollars in damages. Domglas later became Consumers Glass Company after Domglas merged with Consumers Packaging Limited. In 1997 Consumers Glass closed the Hamilton plant on Chappel Street because it was the oldest and smallest of the seven other plants the company owned.Since the most interesting section of the plant with the furnace and walkways was demolished, I doubt the location will be used as a movie set anymore. The remaining buildings are used for large scale storage and a self storage facility will be constructed here where the glass plant once stood.

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