In the late 1890s Michael J. Owens, an employee of the Toledo Glass Company, envisioned a new machine that could produce machine-blown glass bottles. With considerable financial and other assistance from his employers, he eventually succeeded in producing such a machine. In 1903 the Owens Bottle Machine Co. was established with a generous $3 million in capital. Also established was the Kent Machine Co., whose role was to design and build the machines that built the Owens bottle machines, and also built the bottle machines themselves, with the Owens company dealing with licensing (the Owens company retained ownership of the machine and instead collected a royalty of half the savings over hand labor). These two related companies continued in this way until the end of 1912 when the Kent-Owens Machine Co. was formed to produce machinery and tools. It appears that this was a renaming and refocusing of the Kent Machine Co., which otherwise seems to have disappeared at this time. Meanwhile the Owens Company continued on until it merged with the Illinois Glass Co. to create the Owens-Illinois Glass Co., which would merge with the Corning Glass Works to create the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Co. In 1983 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers would proclaim Owens' invention "The most significant advance in glass production in over 2,000 years".

Kent-Owens hand milling machine, from July 1916 Machinery

Within a couple of years of its creation, the Kent-Owens Machine Co. began manufacturing horizontal milling machines and a hand screw machine. By the 1920s Kent-Owens was building special machinery such as cotton pickers. They purchased the Diamond Alloy Tool Co. of St. Louis, MO in 1922, which made special alloy cutting tools. Kent-Owens was eventually acquired by the Ex-Cell-O Corp. and the Toledo plant was liquidated in 1971.

Information Sources

• 1903-10-22 American Machinist.

  Contracts have been let for a factory building at Toledo, O., for the Owens Bottle Machine Company and for a building for the Kent Machine Company, which turns out machinery for the manufacture of bottle machines.

• 1905-10-26 National Corporation Reporter, in a listing of new corporations.

  The Owens Bottle Machine Company, Toledo; $3,000,000; M. J. Owens, Clarence Brown, F. L. Beddes.

• 1910 book, Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo.

  The Owens Bottle Machine Company is the outgrowth of an invention by Michael J. Owens, perfected while he was in the employ of the Toledo Glass Company in the late '90s. Prior to 1903, Mr. Owens spent some four years experimenting on a machine that would blow bottles and do away with the old process of blowing them by hand, and in that year he was so successful that the Owens Bottle Machine Company was organized with a capital stock of $3,000,000, to manufacture the machines for bottle manufacturers in the United States only. During the four years prior to 1903, Mr. Owens was aided by a competent crew of mold makers and mechanics and had the financial support of E. D. Libbey and several other experienced Toledo glass men, who together willingly made an expenditure of over $150,000 to bring the invention to a success... The Kent Machine Company in Toledo is an auxiliary concern that manufactures the Owens machines for the Owens Bottle Machine Company. The capacity of an Owens machine is 225 gross in a day of twenty-four hours... The officers of the Owens Bottle Machine Company for 1910 are: Ed D. Libbey, president; Clarence Brown, vice-president; W. S. Walbridge, secretary and treasurer; M. J. Owens, manager; F. L. Geddes, assistant secretary; and W. H. Boshart, assistant treasurer.

• November 1911 Machinists' Monthly Journal ("Official Organ of the International Association of Machinists"), Vol. XXIII No. 11, p. 1161, in a report from their business agent in Toledo, Ohio.

  We also have at the time of this writing a new schedule before the Owens Bottle Machine Co. and the Kent Machine Co., there it might be well for the brothers to consider this matter before coming this way, as it appears that there may be some trouble before an agreement is reached...

• 1913-01-06 Industrial World, in a listing of "Charters to New Corporations".

  Kent-Owens Machine Company, Toledo, machinery and tools; $500,000. William S. Waldridge, D. Libbey, Charles A. Schmettau, Germain C. Wilcox and Frederick L. Geddes.