"Little Joe"

The tower, lovingly called "Little Joe," was created in the early 1900s upon the discovery by then president of Corning Glass Works, Arthur Houghton, that glass factories in Europe were manufacturing glass via a vertical drawing method to manufacture glass tubes. Knowing the capabilities of his own company, Houghton wanted an improved vertical draw method and knew that it could be possible at CGW. The result was a tall tower now lovingly called "Little Joe."

The Traditional Way

The "Little Joe" Tower was not a tourist attraction, nor was it a place where people could climb up to its top and have an observation tower. During its heyday, "Little Joe" was a glass tube machine. It was meant to perfect and mass produce glass tubes for different applications, one in particular being thermometer tubes. In a traditional method the glass tubes would have been made by hand, stretching the inflated, hollow glass tubes across the floor. Depending on how much glass is used, how much it is inflated, and how far it is stretched across the floor these variables will determine how the glass tubes will be produced.

For a company the size of Corning Glass Works, having workers make glass tubes by hand was not practical, and it wasn't a quick process either. With the interest of efficiency in mind, there was an interest in discovering a new way to mass produce glass tubing. A trip to Europe soon changed all of that for Corning Glass Works.

A Trip to Europe

When Arthur Houghton, grandson to Corning Glass Works founder, Amory Houghton, visited London, England in the 1890s, he had learned of a new method of glass making that was spreading throughout England and Europe, a process that seems ridiculous on paper, but was game changing in use. While in England, Houghton learned of the "vertical draw method" that used a chain pulley that would grab the glass directly out of the furnace and draw (pull) the glass upwards for a long distance. The benefit of drawing glass upwards, instead of along a floor, by hand, is the fact that now you can control how the glass tube is shaped, making its design uniform and without imperfections.

When glassmakers stretch glass on the floor there is a curve created by gravity pulling the glass downward towards the ground, making a bend in the glass that makes it difficult to straighten the glass. With the vertical draw method, however, the glass can be made straight, uniform, and easy to ship to customers.

Birth of "Little Joe"

When Mr. Houghton arrived back in Corning, in 1897, he immediately wanted that same vertical draw process at Corning. Soon, a new version of vertical draw method was patented, and Corning could now produce uniform glass shapes at a higher quantity and higher quality. The Tower was connected to one of the large furnaces in the Corning Glass Works factory, allowing for quick production of glass. The tower now shot up out of the factory like a beacon.

How It Worked

A team of glassworkers would be needed to complete this process. On the second floor of the building, the glass workers would need to gather a large mass of glass where a bubble is formed (about the size of a football). A bubble needs to form in order to create the hollow tube, and since these tubes were for thermometers, a line of white glass was added to the back of the tube, before a final coating of clear glass was added.

When the glass was ready the team would race against time to quickly move the glass over to the pulley system inside the tower, and using a combination of stretching, heating, and compressed air, the tube was elongated up to the very top of "Little Joe," upwards of 180 feet high, making the important thermometer tubes, all made at a consistent shape and size. The cool part of these tubes were that they were made in a triangle shape. And, the size of the hole in the tube was so small it was 1/12th the thickness of a human hair!

How "Little Joe" Changed the World

The use of the vertical draw method was game changing, it allowed for mass production of thermometer tubes that were all uniform in shape and size, which meant that large amounts of these tubes could be manufactured in such high quantities that the price for tubes was cheap. Cheap, high quality tubes meant that scientific equipment (thermometers, gauges, etc.) could be super cheap. This spawned an improvement in overall healthcare in people's homes.

Galbraith, James, et. al., "Corning Little Joe Tube Tower - Tin Pan Time Machine Project." Corning Museum of Glass, YouTube, 4:41, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgx60EqW5yk.