"For many years, the Owens-Illinois Glass Co., based in Toledo, Ohio, operated three glass factories in West Virginia - in Huntington, Fairmont and Kanawha City. All three based their manufacturing operations on a revolutionary bottle-making machine, invented by West Virginia native Michael Owens in 1903. The success of this machine led to the establishment of the Owens Bottle Machine Co. In 1929, Owens merged his company with the Illinois Glass Co. to become Owens-Illinois. In 1914, Charles Boldt started manufacturing glass in Huntington at a plant on the city's south side. The factory began with three furnaces and two of Michael Owens's bottle machines. In 1918, Michael Owens purchased the Huntington factory. By 1947, the plant had expanded to five furnaces and employed more than 1,100 people. Over the years, the Huntington plant made millions of glass bottles and containers. The company's other West Virginia plants were equally busy. But ultimately production declined sharply, as plastics gained an ever larger share of the market. As a result, the Kanawha City plant closed in 1963 and the Fairmont plant in 1982. Finally, in 1993, the Huntington plant closed, leaving 600 workers jobless. Many were long-time employees who had never worked anywhere else." -- from James Casto via http://www.herald-dispatch.com/special/lost_huntington