the history of itinerant glassworkers

Tag: steam engines

Ode to a glass steam engine

When will wonders cease, we may justly enquire,
When we see a Glass Engine, complete and entire,
In fine working order, from boiler to beam,
And working away under full head of steam.

Boilers and pistons are hardly the stuff of romantic poetry, yet inspiring they were to some 19th-century bards. In this case, one William Somers wrote an entire poem about a steam engine made of glass.

As fanciful as it might sound, there were quite a few glass steam engines that Somers could have seen during his lifetime. These fully-functional models were made and displayed by itinerant glassworkers as part of their shows. Popularized by the Woodroffe brothers in the mid-1800s, they were constructed of hundreds of delicate, colorful pieces of glass.

Illustration of a steam engine made of glass

The Great Double Working Glass Steam Engine Fairy Queen!, 1861. Collection of the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass, CMGL 45696.

Why would anyone make a steam engine out of glass? To prove that they could! These models were both a feat of glassmaking and a method of demonstrating how steam power functioned during a time when real steam engines powered machinery and many modes of transportation. Audiences were entranced, and newspaper reviews often recommended glassworkers’ shows for the engines alone.

Glassworkers promoted the engines heavily in their advertisements, giving them fanciful names like Fairy Queen, Excelsior, Columbia, and the Crystal Gem. They held poetry competitions and gave prizes to those who submitted the best verse. This is perhaps how William Somers came to write his poem. Here is his full composition:

The Glass Steam Engine

The world in its wisdom, has long stood aghast,
Supposing each step in its progress the last,
But still ’tis advancing by steady degrees,
‘Till we ask in amazement, when will wonders cease?
When will wonders cease, we may justly enquire,
When we see a Glass Engine, complete and entire,
In fine working order, from boiler to beam,
And working away under full head of steam.
Mechanics, and artisans, here may engage,
To study this exquisite work of the age,
Surpassing all others in wonder and skill,
And as ages roll by, ’twill a wonder be still.
An Engine of Glass! why, that can never be,
E’en in this wond’rous age of the world’s history,
Incredulity starts, in most utter surprise,
We can hardly believe the plain sight of our eyes;
But there it now stands in its pearly array,
The greatest achievement of this latter day,
Its parts all adjusted, by magical skill,
With all the minutia of whistle and bell.
Its joints, and its gearings, are finished with care,
No friction occurs, and not even a jar;
And when the hot steam is sent coursing its veins,
Like a war horse it pants to break loose from the reins.
An engine, transparent, instructive, and new,
Like a real thing of life with its vitals in view,
The steam from the boilers sends life to the heart,
And life it goes bounding throughout every part.
Then, hail to the progress of science and skill,
From whose storehouse such wonders are forthcoming still;
The palm we will render with pleasure and hope,
To this scientific Bohemian Troupe.

Video of a glass steam engine in motion.

Several contemporary artists have been inspired by the glass steam engines and their makers, including Bandhu Dunham. His kinetic sculptures series includes The Crystal Gem, seen in motion here. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass.

See Woodroffe’s glass blowers for a short time only

Science, art, skill, and beauty! All were on display in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in April 1880. Woodroffe’s Original Bohemian Glass Blowers enticed potential customers inside with a window display of glass objects then dazzled them with lampworking demonstrations and their working glass steam engine, Fairy Queen.

Newspaper ad for woodroffe troupe in harrisburgh, pennsylvania

April 14, 1880 advertisement for Woodroffe’s Original Bohemian Glass Blowers in the Harrisburg Telegraph. Source: Newspapers.com

The Woodroffe brothers – George, Charles, and William – had a major impact on the itinerant glassworker trade. Among other things, they were some of the first to travel with troupes of glassworkers rather than alone or in pairs. Their many groups traveled around the United States and the world during the 50+ years they were active, making them some of the best-known glassworkers of the period. This particular troupe was led by William Woodroffe, the youngest brother.

Location

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, was dominated by the steel and railroad industries in the late 19th century. In 1880, census takers recorded more than 30,000 people living in the city.1 Woodroffe and his troupe set up their lampworking exhibition near the Susquehanna River at 109 Market Street, in a building previously used by Patterson’s Carpet Store. Today, the spot holds Dauphin County buildings, but 140 years ago it was close to the intersection of two street cars – likely a location where many people came and went.

After they closed their exhibition in mid-April, they traveled to Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and then on to Reading, Pennsylvania.

Featured glassworkers

Aside from Woodroffe himself and agent Clarence King, it is unclear who was in the group at this time. Based on contemporary advertisements, possible members include Edwin Hopkins and Will Brown.

Show highlights

For 15 cents, spectators received an “elegant present” and the chance to see Woodroffe’s troupe in action. Once again, the advertisement is short on details, but articles about the troupe from the period provide some insights. An article in The Daily Union-Leader describes watching a troupe member “twist, blow, contract, expand, and otherwise put [glass] into ingenious shape.”2 Another article from the Harrisburg Telegraph states, “The wonderful manner in which these skilled glass blowers can manipulate the brittle substance is well worth a visit to see.”3

Of course, a major draw would have likely been the glass steam engine, Fairy Queen. The troupe claimed this engine was the largest steam-powered glass model in existence, and that it had been on display at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Woodroffe brothers did have at least three steam engines on display at that particular world’s fair, although surviving advertisements identify those models as the Crystal Gem, the Australasia, and Excelsior. It is possible they added the Fairy Queen at a later date, although – considering that any number of other troupes claimed the same history for their glass engines – it is equally possible that Woodroffe’s troupe is stretching the truth to bolster interest in their show.


Curiosity highly gratified: 6 weird and wonderful things to see at an itinerant glassworker’s show

Come one, come all, to see amazing feats of glassworking! For more than 300 years, talented, traveling glassworkers entertained and educated crowds on the art, science, and skill of glassmaking and the dizzying array of wonders that could be made of glass. Add in a dancing competition or a beauty pageant and the event was a guaranteed hit. Intrigued? Here are six weird and wonderful things you might have seen at an itinerant glassworker’s show.

1. Working glass steam engines

Functional steam engines made of glass were the stars of the 19th-century itinerant glassworker’s show. Made of hundreds of small pieces, these dazzling engines fascinated audiences. They were both a feat of glassmaking and a method of demonstrating how steam power functioned during a time when real steam engines powered machinery and many modes of transportation. Soon after the first engines became popular, every traveling glassworking troupe had at least one of their own.

These glass engines were not simple models, but colorful, inventive delights. Their names alone conjure a sense of whimsy: the Fairy Queen, Excelsior, Queen of Beauty, the Australasia, the Crystal Gem. Troupes gave prizes to those who composed the best poems about their engines, and fans did not disappoint. Here are a few lines from a poem by William Somers:

When will wonders cease, we may justly enquire,
When we see a Glass Engine, complete and entire…
Incredulity starts, in most utter surprise,
We can hardly believe the plain sight of our eyes…
The steam from the boilers sends life to the heart,
And life it goes bounding throughout every part.

Video of a glass steam engine in motion.

Several contemporary artists have been inspired by the glass steam engines and their makers, including Bandhu Dunham. His kinetic sculptures series includes The Crystal Gem, seen in motion here. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass.

2. Glass thread spun at thousands of yards per minute

Today the word “fiberglass” brings to mind insulation, boats, and bathtubs. It’s manufactured in large quantities and used in all sorts of practical applications. But for many hundreds of years glass fibers were an integral part of itinerant glassworkers’ shows. As early as the 1600s, one glassworker advertised that he could spin “10,000 yards of glass in less than half an hour.” A century or two later, glassworkers were claiming they could spin a pound of glass into millions of yards of thread at the rate of thousands of yards a minute. The end result was “infinitely finer than silk and equally as elastic and flexible.”

Itinerant glassworkers made this glass thread using a special spinning wheel. Some went a step farther and wove the threads into neckties, bonnets, shawls, and dresses. One bonnet was so famous it went on its own tour of post offices across the United States.

3. Scientific experiments

The earliest known itinerant glassworkers incorporated scientific experiments like Cartesian divers into their demonstrations. Often, they would describe the movement of the “divers” as magical – the glass figures would supposedly respond to the commands of the glassworker (rather than to the pressure applied to the top of the glass tube). One glassworker claimed the figures in his glass container would obey commands in four different languages!

By the mid-1800s, audiences were hungry for scientific knowledge, and some glassworkers centered their entire shows around science and natural philosophy. Professor S. Owen gave a lecture on natural philosophy, all while demonstrating the “action of water in vacuum” with a philosopher’s hammer, the “principle on which thunder is produced” using vacuum bulbs, and the “elasticity of the air” with balloons. Other popular experiments included pulse glass circulators, cryophorus deception glasses, and hydro-pneumatic fountains.

gif of glass cartesian diver in use

Glass Cartesian diver. Source: Kathryn Wieczorek.

4. The celebrated Glassoblowoprestitwistidigitator

He’s positively supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Actually, this title was used by at least two different glassworkers in the 1800s: William Woodroffe and W. Jerome Earl. It’s uncertain what these men did to merit this mouthful of a title, but it certainly sounds exciting.

5. Ships, trains, fire engines, and … skeletons?

Beyond glass steam engines, itinerant glassworkers built all sorts of models and machines from glass. Just a few examples include: models of famous ships, well-known monuments and bridges, and carriages pulled by teams of horses.

Scott, a British glassworker, displayed a “beautiful Hydraulic Skeleton, in Glass, which is kept in continual motion by itself, showing how the blood passes through the different channels of the human frame.” It was so spectacular that it was “patronized by the Royal Family, and every Family of distinction in England.”

Illustration of a glass engine in the shape of an old-fashioned fire engine

The Columbia, a hand fire engine, could shoot water 15 feet into the distance. CMGL 112113.

The Woodroffe brothers displayed a steam-powered glass train that ran around a track “eight feet in diameter.” The train carried two cars and a coal car and was able to move at a speed of six miles per hour. The Woodroffes called it “one of the wonders of the nineteenth century.”

Madam Nora’s Original Troupe of Glass Blowers, Glass Spinners, and Glass Workers promoted the Columbia, a glass hand fire engine that reportedly spouted a stream of water 15 feet into the distance. It’s one of the few models and machines that has survived until today — you can see Columbia (and the glass steam engine Excelsior) in the Lightner Museum.

6. Beautiful babies, homely men, and talented dancers

During the 1800s, many glassworking troupes added other entertainments to their shows. These included everything from lectures and dances to competitions with glass prizes. The homeliest man and the best male dancer won Turkish pipes at one show in Massachusetts, and troupes led by the Woodroffe brothers gave prizes to the “best comic singer,” “best jig dancer,” “best lady dancer,” and the “handsomest lady,” among others.

Perhaps the oddest add-on was the baby beauty pageant or, as one advertisement put it, the “Grand Carnival of Croesus and Contest of Infantile Beauty.” Both the Woodroffes and Madam Nora’s troupe held these competitions at their shows and gave cases of their best glass to the winners and runners up.


These are only a few of the curiosities audiences could see when they attended an itinerant glassworker show. Learn more about their shows, their lives, and the world around them on this site. Keep up with new posts by subscribing to my monthly newsletter.

version of this post was originally published on the Corning Museum of Glass blog on September 15, 2017.

Madam Nora and her original troupe of glass blowers

What comes to mind when you hear the name Madam Nora? Perhaps a woman, draped in colorful fabrics and jangling bracelets, reading a fortune over a crystal ball or channeling spirits at a seance?

Nora Allen, popularly known as Madam Nora,1 was a traveling entertainer who used glass in her act, but there were no thumping chairs or dire predictions. Instead, she conjured fantastical sculptures made of glass, like the animals and ships pictured on this broadside for Madam Nora’s Original Troupe of Glass Blowers, Glass Spinners, and Glass Workers. Allen led this troupe of itinerant glassworkers for several decades as they traveled around the Northeastern United States.

broadside with text describing Madam Nora's troupe and their demonstrations. The broadside also features an image of Madam Nora surrounded by lampworked animals and models and another image of her son, William Allen, holding a ship he has made.

Madame Nora’s Original Troupe of Glassblowers. 1876? Collection of the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass, CMGL 132079.

Featured glassworkers

The broadside advertised a show in April (possibly 1876) featuring Allen; Mr. Oliver Lock [sic], “the prince of glass blowers”; Mr. Wm. Allen, “the youngest and most talented artist before the public”; Prof. Thos. Edwards, “glass worker and descriptive lecturer”; and Mr. T.J. Jordan, “glass spinner and weaver”; along with manager Alfred Seabury. Allen was billed as “the only lady glass artist in the profession” (not quite true, but we’ll get to that in a minute).

Nora Allen’s troupe is a good example of two trends in the itinerant glassworker business. First, she employed family members, namely William Allen (her son) and Alfred Seabury (her second husband). Later, when William married, her daughter-in-law Adalorra also joined the troupe.

A second trend was the movement of artisans between troupes. Oliver Locke was a member of The Great Bohemian Troupe of Fancy Glass Blowers before joining Allen’s troupe, and later led his own group of glassworkers on tour.

Show highlights

Curiosity seekers could pay 15 cents to see Allen’s troupe demonstrate lampworking techniques including glass spinning, blowing, and weaving. They would also see the “art” of silvering glass. If this show followed later examples of the troupe’s exhibitions, each glassworker would demonstrate a particular skill for the audience.

General Garfield, the troupe’s glass steam engine, was on display and in motion. As an added bonus, Saturday’s entertainment included a baby show (a contest to decide the town’s most beautiful baby). What more could a 19th-century entertainment seeker want?

Women in charge

While the show boasted an impressive lineup, perhaps the most interesting detail appears in tiny type at the bottom of the broadside. Not only was Nora Allen the group’s headliner, she was also the “Sole Proprietress,” an unusual role in an era when women had limited rights and career opportunities.

detail of broadside showing Madam Nora as the sole proprietress

As mentioned above, Allen was not the first or only woman glassworker in the business, but it is possible that she was the first to lead her own troupe. Others that followed her example include Madam J. Reith and Madam Anderson.

Allen and her troupe continued to tour for several more decades. The troupe’s lineup changed over the years, but Allen remained the headliner until they disbanded. Thanks to the survival of this broadside, part of Allen’s remarkable story is preserved.

A version of this post was originally published on the Corning Museum of Glass blog on June 24, 2015.


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