STODDARD

Stoddard glass

Between 1840 and 1873, Stoddard was a center of glass manufacturing, home to four glass factories whose products are prized by collectors today. The town's abundant forests fed the industry's need for the 1,200 °F (650 °C) temperatures necessary to melt sand into glass. Stoddard also had plenty of clear, fine sand. The sand's trace minerals gave Stoddard glass its unique hues: manganese produced the olive green and amber colors most closely associated with Stoddard glass, and oxide of gold created a red-amber glass.

The glass houses were located in two settlements within Stoddard: Joseph Foster's and the South Stoddard Glass Company were located in South Stoddard, which was located near the present-day intersection of state Routes 9 and 123. The Granite Glass Company and the New Granite Glass Works were located in Mill Village, near the present town center.

Among the wide variety of glass pieces turned out by the glass houses were Masonic flasks, containers for liquor and patent medicines, and bottles for mineral water bottled in Saratoga Springs, New York. However, the fame of Stoddard glass does not come primarily from these commercial items, but from the "off-blown" pieces made by glassblowers at the end of the workday using leftover glass. These items, sometimes called "whimseys", could be anything desired by the glassblower, and were the property of the glassblower.

Several factors led to the demise of Stoddard's glass industry in the early 1870s. Other manufacturers had mastered the chemistry needed to create clear glass in quantity; gas and coal were now viable fuels for glassworks, eliminating the need for nearby forests; and improvements in mechanical manufacturing techniques made hand-blown glass economically unviable. The silica in Stoddard's sand prevented its use in making clear glass, which was in high demand after it became viable for bottles and glassware following the Civil War.