Leroy Conrath - Worker of the Month
by Cindy Arent
Issue No. 221 - September 1991
It has been several months since the Cordials Study Group has been
able to interview a former worker of the Cambridge Glass Company.
However, because of the Workers Reunion, during Convention, we were
very fortunate to interview and video tape, two brothers, Leroy and
Harold Conrath, from the hot metal department. 
Since we taped two
workers, we will make the most of it and split the article into two
parts. This month's article will describe a few of the jobs that Leroy
did in the hot metal department, and next month we will hear from his
younger brother, Harold.
The Conrath family moved to Cambridge from Marietta, Ohio, with the specific purpose of working at the Cambridge Glass Company. Leroy's father had already been a glass worker at a glass plant in Marietta. He mentioned that Orie Mosser, foreman of the hot metal department, had also moved to Cambridge from Marietta and that other workers had come from Findlay, Ohio.
1923 was the year that Leroy began working at the Cambridge Glass Company. He worked part-time for two summers until his 16th birthday, when Orie Mosser sent him home at noon to get his birth certificate. He was employed full-time after that.
One of Leroy's first jobs was holding paste or "water" molds for the blowers in a vase shop. He later moved up to the more skilled position of gatherer. The largest pieces of ware that he remembers gathering were the Swan punch bowl and the Cascade punch bowl. It took two gatherers with different sized rods to gather the Swan punch bowl. The first man would gather about nine or ten pounds of glass, while the second would only gather enough for the neck and head.
Leroy also mentioned that he worked "on the floor," for five or six
years, tending the furnaces. He described in detail how the new pots
for the furnaces would arrive on the box cars and how they were
carefully unloaded and prepared for use. Before each pot could be used,
he would glaze the inside with glass using a long bent rod. Orie Mosser
would personally check each pot to be sure that the entire interior had
been glazed and then they would ladle out the excess glass. The pot
then had to be warmed in one of the mold ovens before being placed in
the furnace for use. Leroy also said that if a pot would break while in
the furnace, the men downstairs would turn on a special burner so that
the glass could flow more easily down to the basement through a hole in
the furnace floor. (see photo on the next page) When the glass cooled,
the labor crew would use picks to break it up and haul it to the
dump. These small ovens were close to the furnaces and were used for warming
the pots.
If a pot would crack during use, many times, Leroy would attempt to
repair it through a process he called "muddying it up." He would go in
Saturday morning and cover the damaged area with mud. Then, using a
broom, he would cover the mud with whitewash which made it hard. The pot
would sit just
inside. If you look closely, you can see the hole in the middle of the
floor where the glass would go, if a pot broke.
It is impossible to include all of the information that Leroy shared
with us. He brought one of his "Production Sheets" to the interview. As
you can see, he and his shop made 1144 pieces of ware in four hours. Of
these pieces, only 44 were discarded by the selector.
This sheet is very interesting because of the various terms used by the company to describe the bad pieces. I think that my favorite is "flat feet." Leroy has donated this production sheet to our Museum, along with a small calendar book with the Cambridge Glass logo on it. The company gave out these books and Leroy used his to mark down a variety of information, from tallies of ware made and workers names, to scores of horseshoe games.
Leroy continued to work at the Cambridge Glass Company until the final closing, and then went on to work at the Variety Glass Company. He has may interesting facts and stories to share. The tapes will be available at the Museum in the near future.
Next month's article will cover the part of the tape by Leroy's brother Harold.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Cambridge Cordials Study Group has taped several former worker interviews, and most of them are available for viewing at the Museum. The Cordials also donated a T-V and video player, during the 1990 Convention, to be used in the Museum for this purpose. If you haven't already done so, it would be well worth your effort to stop by the Museum and view these entertaining tapes.