Worker of the Month - Agnes Slay
by J. D.
Hanes
Issue No. 202 - February 1990
As was mentioned in last month's article, we were fortunate to have a husband and wife, as guests at our Study Group meeting, who had both worked at the Cambridge Glass Company. Last month our "Worker of the Month" was Dan Slay, who worked in the Mold Shop. This month our worker is Dan's wife, Agnes Slay, who worked in the Selecting Department.
Agnes worked at the Cambridge Glass factory from 1948 until the
first closing in 1954. All this time, she worked in the Selecting
Department.
She explained that in this department they would take the ware off of the lehr and inspect it. If the ware had even the tiniest flaw, it was put into the cullet bin. If the ware passed inspection it was given a Cambridge label. It was then wrapped and put in a crate to be taken to the Shipping Department.
If the ware was to be engraved or etched, it was not wrapped. It was placed in trays and the people from those departments would come and get the ware. After being etched or engraved it would be inspected in those departments for the final time, and then sent on to Shipping.
Another fascinating thing that was done in this department was the assembling of the bobeche and prisms. Agnes told us that Tillie Turner and Marge Anderson were the two ladies that did this job. As most of you know, Cambridge imported the prisms from Europe. However, the bobeche was made at the Cambridge Glass factory. After these were inspected by Agnes and the others, they would go to these two ladies (Tillie and Marge) who would put them together with the prisms. (To me this seems like a very tedious job. JDH)
Agnes said that she did enjoy working at the factory and liked being able to handle all of the beautiful glass.