The Cavalcade of America presented by DuPont. Music In the onward march of events, there is a place of honor in the Cavalcade of America for the men whose vision and courage give America new industries. In the life of Henry William Siegel, the DuPont Cavalcade brings you the story of a man whose ambition and vision were far ahead of the business methods in general use in colonial times. Even in those early days, there were creative minds striving to bring more comforts and conveniences into the everyday lives of the people, just as today research chemists throughout the country are doing their part to make true the DuPont pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. Music As an overture, Don Varys and the DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra bring us a special setting of only Rose from Rudolph Frimmel's ever popular operetta, The Vagabond King. Music The Vagabond King, the DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra, is a very Etsy represented house YouTubers by R.I.B. Did you happen to know Louis侯? Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Henry William Stegel was born in Germany in 1729, and came to Pennsylvania when he was 21 years old. He found work in Lancaster County, in the heart of the region settled by the Germans, now known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Around the fertile tobacco fields of this country, were deposits of rich iron ore and limestone that supplied the busy furnaces of Eastern Pennsylvania. Now in 1752, we find Stegel, hard at work at the furnace of Jacob Huber, iron master. Today's work is done, and the eager young Stegel approaches his employer. Mr. Huber. Yes, Stegel. Could I speak with you a minute? No, no, not now. Some other time. I mean, hurry. But it's very important, sir. Importantly, to you or to me? To both of us, sir. Oh? Then tell it out. Mr. Huber, I... I want your permission to marry your daughter. Marry Elizabeth? But you don't even know her. I've known her for three months. That's enough to make up my mind. Then why ask me? Because it would please Elizabeth, and I'd like to keep my job. You don't make enough money yet to keep her right. You must save your wages. If I could, I would not save money now. No? And why not? Because of the future. I would put every cent I could find to make the firmus larger and turn out more iron. What we turn out all there is any market for around here. Then go further for your market. I go as far as Philadelphia sometimes. I sold yesterday only some iron kettles there. I would sell iron kettles to the West Indies. What for? For them to make sugar in. I have written to the Stedmans. They own the ship I came to America on, and they think it a good idea. Too far away. Too risky. No, I'll stick by my market close to home. But your stoves will last a lifetime. And when they're sold to all your neighbors, what then? Time enough to worry about that when that happens. Think of it now and you'll never have to worry. And have you thought of something? Yeah, I have. I have thought of a new stove altogether. Why, what good will that do if everybody has now a stove that will last a lifetime? Hey, we'll want a new one, because we'll make the best stove in the world. Like the one in my house? Oh, much better. But that stove was invented by Benjamin Franklin. We'll make a better one. Look, sir, I have here a plan for a six-plate stove that will give more heat with less fuel. It has an oven and heats two rooms at once. Everybody will have to buy it. We can sell them to people who have already stoved. We'll send them to all parts of the inhabited country. Why, this country is just beginning to grow, homes spreading everywhere. All we have to do is make something every home will want to have, must have. Then our business will grow with the country. Yeah, yeah, that is good sense. You are right. What should we do first? Make the furnace bigger? One thing that comes before that, sir. Well, what is that, more homes? Yeah, I'd like to begin by adding my home, a home of my own. That's fine, go right ahead. I'll let you have any lot of land you want. And your daughter? I cannot have a home without a wife. Gosh, Stiegel, you make such plans. Maybe it is better you should be in the family than on the outside. So much ambition will be good for the business and make my daughter happy. Yeah, you marry her in the spring. After Stiegel and Elizabeth Huber were married, he invented a six-plate stove that was considered better than Franklin's. Then he invented a ten-plate stove that has not been improved on to this day. In 1758, Stiegel, in partnership with the Stedman brothers, bought out Huber and enlarged the plant to take care of the increased business. In honor of his wife, he called new works the Elizabeth Furnace. In 1763, we find him in Philadelphia talking over his plans with his partner Alexander Stedman. Well, Henry, I didn't expect to see you so soon after getting your letter. You said nothing in it about coming to town. Yeah, I didn't know it then. I just made up my mind. I have so many plans. I want to tell you. Now, now, now, before we get to plans, suppose we talk about performances. Where is that order for the new ten-plate stoves you were going to send us here? Oh, we have been too busy at the Elizabeth Furnace to get around with them. I tell you, Stedman, business is booming. They are making money. I built a new house. Well, if the Elizabeth was too busy, why couldn't the order be filled at the Charming Furnace? Now, Stedman, you are not an iron master, or you would know that in the Charming Furnace, we make only... Of course, you are the managing partner, but I can't see by your reports why the order couldn't be filled at the Elizabeth Furnace. Unless you've taken the men off the work to build your house... Oh, no, no. I've taken a few men off, I'll admit, but not for the house, or something much more important. Ah, now we're getting at it. That's what I came to tell you about. How many men are off job? Only three. That's all who had any training. Training in what? Glass. Glass? What the blazes of glass got to do with iron? Well, they both need very hot fires, and it seems so wrong to have three fine glassblowers making stove plates. No, I could not allow that. Well, then send them away and get furnace men if it hurts your artistic soul. No, I've got a better idea. We keep these men and make glass. Ah, what do you know about making glass? I was apprenticed to a glassmaker in Germany. I tell you, Stedman, my three men have great skill. And after you make the glass, what do you do with it? Sell it. Sell it everywhere. First, window plates and bottles, and then every kind of glass you can think of. Everybody needs glass. It is so useful and beautiful. And so breakable. Yes, so we make more. Always we make it. Soon America will not have to bring in glass from outside. We'll make all of it. We'll have been trying things here at the Elizabeth's furnace with materials we get here, and we can do it. Now I will build a great glass house and make beautiful glass. Yeah, that will cost a lot of money. Yeah, of course it will. But we make a lot of money, too. You can't make money selling a few window panes and a bottle or two to the farmers around Lancaster. No, but if we sold to all the farmers in the colonies and to the cities, to everybody, if all the glass in America would be my glass, Stiegel glass. Yes, it would be a fortune. It would be two fortunes, one for each of us. Well, we get the money to start it. How do the profits we make on the iron? When would you start? I have started. I have built what I call a small glass house at Elizabeth's furnace to experiment. Now I will build a great glass house. When? As soon as I get back from England. England? I didn't know you were going there. I am Sting at once. I sail on the next vessel out of Philadelphia. What for? To get the best glass blowers in Bristol. Stiegel, you're a hard man to keep up with. Don't feel so bad about it, Stedman. Sometimes I can even keep up with myself. When Stiegel returned, he brought back with him the best glass blowers he could find in England, Belgium, Germany, and Venice. Meanwhile, the Stedmans had bought 700 acres at Mannheim, the last of the Logan tract, granted by William Penn. Stiegel's properties now included about 11,000 acres of land. He built model houses for his fellow workers. At each factory, a factory is what they're called, he built himself a stately mansion where he lived in style. The noblest of these was at Mannheim. His new business prospered. In April, 18, 1769, Stedman arrives at Mannheim on an urgent summons from Stiegel. Welcome, my friend. Welcome, Stedman, to Mannheim. Music. Good heavens, Stiegel, you've quite overwhelmed me with this reception. You might think I was King George himself. It is only a little party in your eyes. Yeah, but the cannon I heard as I approached the house, a salute of honor. That was only a signal that you were on the road and would soon be here. It was a warning to me to come welcome you. I always have it fired when I'm on my way here from the furnaces. Where's the music come from? When I built house, I had a bandstand railed off on the roof. Well, well, well, so you have, so you have. What on earth for? So all the workers at Mannheim could hear it and enjoy themselves. They're almost as fond of music as I am. You like music? I could not live without it. I love all beautiful things, Stedman, but I love my glass most of all because it is the most beautiful of all. Well, I'll admit it is magnificent. Yeah, and it sells well everywhere. You can even sell it in Philadelphia now. But we have to mark it imported before they'll buy it. But why do you send for me so urgently? Oh, I could not leave here or I would have come to you. Why, what's in the wind? Oh, it will keep, it will keep. No, no, no, I'm eager to hear it. Come inside, come in. All right. After you. Thank you. Well, what wonderful furnishing. None better can be bought in America. This is the drawing room. Ah. Fireplace is imported tile. That's so. And you will find that chair by Sauvary as comfortable as it is beautiful. Sit down. Thank you. Well, you live like a baron. Yeah, I feel like one. Just think. It was not long ago I tinned firmers for Huber. Now look where I am. All this. And I'm going to build more. Go further. All America. Hold on there a minute, Stiegel. I see what you're driving at. But this is hardly the time for expansion. What? You have some news from town I don't know about. The towns and back. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all about them. They tax foreigners out of the market. But for us it's a great thing. The merchants of Boston and Philadelphia have signed the non-importation agreement. Including glass. Including glass. And the movement is spreading toward the colonies. Yeah, but that is splendid. Then it will have to buy Stiegel glass under its own name. And that is good luck for them. There is no better glass made in the whole world. Oh, you don't believe that, eh? Well, experience has taught me to take everything you say with a hundred ways to solve. But I must say two men who ought to know good glass when they see it agree with you. Yeah? And who are they? Well, David Rittenhouse and John Barpher. Oh, yeah, yeah. I brought orders for more tubes and apparatus they use in their experiments. Rittenhouse says that there is no clearer or more perfect glass than yours. He orders quite a lot, too. Good, good, yeah, yeah. But he is a scientist. If he had a school, like a real artist, he would order Stiegel glass from his table. His house would be full of it. Why, at this time we should sell even more glass. Well, but I don't know. The merchants are short of cash. And they will not pay. They won't even place orders. Well, well, Stedman, we will not need the merchants at all. But you can't sell glass without stores. What? We can sell glass without their stores. But how? Well, we'll have our own stores. But we're manufacturers. Our business is to sell what we make. I have made arrangements to open stores of our own in New York and Philadelphia. No. We shall sell what we make, direct to the youth of it. We shall have stores everywhere. We shall cover all the colonies. People must have us. We shall open your stores, give the glass to them. Many people will buy. And how do you plan to supply all this glass? I wouldn't. No. No, I should think not. At least you'll have to go slow this time and keep your markets within your ability to supply and finance them. But we are working overtime to supply them. Yeah, not when you declare a holiday in honor of my arrival. Oh, my men work better when they are happy. Anyway, it's not a full holiday. I didn't see a single stack smoking in the glass house. Of course not. The friars have all been drawn. What? You mean they're not working at all? Of course they are working. They are working like demons. Well, what are they doing? They are building my second glass house. With two glass houses at Mannheim and the Elizabethan charming furnaces casting iron stoves, kettles, and other necessities, the Stiegel fortune and business grew to great proportions for colonial times. But his business was built on credit. The House of Stiegel towered high and glittered gorgeously in the light of public appraisal, but it was truly a house of glass, though no stress or strain had ever tested it. In the year 1772, Stiegel was apparently at his peak. One Sunday after service in the little church he had helped to build, he stepped out into the warm spring sunlight. Ah, good morning, Mr. Stiegel. Good morning, Mr. Mühlenberg. The fine day, huh? Such a blue in the sky, made also green. Oh, bluer or greener than the fine glass you make, sir. Danke, danke. As fresh and good to see as the great truth you tell us on Sunday, pastor. Oh, I am afraid it is flattery to compare my poor preaching to your glass, Mr. Stiegel. And yet, both are inspired by something mightier than ourselves, filled with a spirit infinitely capable of beauty. Good, pastor, good. Yeah, but fair words should be matched with fair deeds. Oh, I suppose you refer to the mortgage you hold on our church? The parish undertook to pay for half if I paid half. Yeah, that is true, but times are uncertain and, well, we cannot meet a note reasonable as your terms are. Yeah, I taught us much, pastor, so I brought the note with me. You want to land back again? I preach to the men often in my private chapel, but I cannot use a church as well as you, sir. So take the note. And do what you will with it. That is like you, Mr. Stiegel. I am glad to say I am not surprised, but it will take a consideration to make it legal. Very well. My terms are five shillings in cash. And for the crown, then? Let me see here. One red rose in June each year, forever. I think I can accept the terms for the parish. Eagles! Who's that? Oh, it looks like Mr. Dickinson. Eagles! Yeah, yeah, this way. I wonder what brings my attorney here in such a haste on a Sunday. If you excuse me, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Hey, Dickinson. Well, this is an unexpected visit. It's unexpected business. Business on a Sunday? Yes, tomorrow will be too late. Monday is the day set. The day set for what? The action taken against you by one of your creditors. Creditors? Yes, creditors. Good heaven, man. You realize you have creditors, don't you? Yes, of course. Dozens of them. But what of that? My whole business is done on credit. Well, here's one man who wants cash. He's got a judgment against you from the court. Yeah? Now, how much is it? Well, fortunately, it's only for a little over five pounds. Five pounds? Might as well be a thousand. What? You mean you haven't got five pounds? We're not in cash. Why should I have? I never need cash here. I have everything. Everything on credit. Why, I had no idea things were so bad. Oh, things are not bad. They are wonderful. We have more orders for glass than ever before. We can supply the orders. We'll have to build another glass house if this keeps up. Another one when you can't pay for this one? Are you mad? I have enough assets. It will be easy. But the cash for tomorrow? Oh, I Stedman boy. Yes, Stedman is embarrassed himself. He's so disinterested in all your business to cover himself. What? Stedman has sold out? Yes. So? You must get your business in order. You must liquidate and pay off some of your creditors. You must sell Mannheim. Sell my glass house? Never. But it's not making much money. What else would you sell? The furnaces. But they are making so much money. But they are not making glass. Are you willing to sacrifice everything for a bit of glass? For Stiegeldrass? Yes. In his effort to save the Mannheim house of glass, Stiegeld threw all his assets into the market. But the commercial quarrel between the mother countries and the colonies had almost destroyed commerce and paralyzed business. Stiegeld's industrial empire, overextended at such a time, fell of its own weight. First the iron furnaces were sold to save the Mannheim glass houses. But the glass house crashed the next year. By the end of 1774, Henry William Stiegeld, the magnificent dreamer, the builder of a house of glass on a foundation of iron, was bankrupt. Of all his worldly goods, only ten pounds worth of clothes and bedding were left him. It is spring in the fateful year of 1775 at the Elizabeth Furnace. Oh, I say then, I'm sorry to interrupt you, my good man, but I'm looking for the owner of this furnace. Can you tell me where I might find him? Yeah, yeah. He's up in the owner's fine house on the hill. Thank you. Why, wait a minute. Great heaven, it can't be. Ah, what is this, Dickinson? Stiegeld. Stiegeld. I was wondering if you would recognize me. What are you doing here? What? Where should I be, except at Elizabeth Furnace? This is where I began. I am caretaker here now. No friends? No one to help you? How can anyone help me? Well, of course, I most of all should know how hopelessly in debt you are. Forgive me. It isn't what I meant, so there's nothing to forgive. It's tragic to see you brought to this. And once you had everything, money could buy. Oh, I, I still have a fragment of Stiegeld glass, you see. Isn't it beautiful? I have everything that money cannot buy. Good health, a place in the sun, an eye for good color, and music. And why can't money buy these? Because the good Lord gives them away. They're free to all of us. Oh, Stiegeld, how you've changed. Perhaps it is a change for the better. Are you so at peace with the world then? Yes, if only I could pay off my debts. Yes, but then that's impossible. Well, it would be possible enough if others paid off all their debts to you. But that's impossible too. Everything was done that could be done. I doubt you could collect another farthing owing to you. Yeah, yeah, there is one debt I can collect, and I mean to collect it this Sunday. Why, what is it? The ground rent of the church I built my people. How much is that? One red rose in June, forever. Even today the Rose Festival is still observed in Pennsylvania. Henry William Stiegeld was nearly 200 years ahead of his time. His vision of quantity production so that a large number could enjoy simple articles of high quality was far ahead of the business methods in general use in colonial times. He developed one great industry in his state and founded another, blazing a trail that others followed later. His grave is unmarked, but his monument is enduring. It is found in all the principal museums America. It lies in the fine form, the exquisite workmanship, and the splendid color of Stiegeld glass. Meeting in New York City this week are more than a thousand members of the American Ceramic Society, men whose work is to produce china, glass, pottery, enamels, and tile that not only serve us all, but brighten our homes with their colorful beauty. DuPont salutes these men. Chemistry has done much not only to make glassware and other types of ceramics better and more beautiful, but to bring prices down so that everyone may enjoy such lovely things. Here are two new DuPont developments in this field. Stiegeld would have thrilled at the sight of the new glassware in transparent colors, blues, reds, greens, yellows, and other gorgeous shades. The old way to produce colored transparent glass was to put the coloring matter right into the liquid glass. Huge tanks full were made up at one time, and then tumblers and other pieces were cast or blown from this liquid colored glass. A great deal of equipment was needed, and the finished articles were expensive. Today such costly and cumbersome operations are no longer necessary. Under the present method, plain glass is molded or blown to the right shape. Then the desired shade in one of the new transparent colors developed by DuPont Chem is applied by dipping or spraying. The color is married to the glass so that it is there for keeps. Thus chemistry provides glassware in beautiful colors and with many new effects at a cost of pennies instead of dollars. Now let's look at a second recent development in ceramics, new type resistant colors. This recent chemical development means that decorative designs are now almost as permanent as either the glass or pottery they adorn. The colors in these decorations resist the alkali in soap and the acids in vinegar and fruits. Even alcohol does not harm their beauty. You probably remember how age and exposure once caused decorative colors to darken or fade, but not these new colors. For once again DuPont Research Chemistry has improved an existing product. Similar advances have been made in other types of ceramic ware. Such developments illustrate how DuPont chemists continue to create better things for better living through chemistry. Music Next Wednesday evening we will present the story of the famous McGuffey Readers among the first official school books of the nation. Our story will picture forcefully the difficulties of obtaining an education in the old days and it offers interesting contrast with the varied educational facilities available to everyone today. This particular comparison has a pertinent relation to another feature of next week's program. In announcing an educational chemical exhibit with demonstrations which will open here in New York at the Museum of Science and Industry in Rockefeller Center, we will have three guests on our program, Dr. F.B. Jewett, President of the Trustees for the Museum, Lamont DuPont, President of the DuPont Company, and Dr. C.M.A. Stein, Vice President responsible for DuPont Broad Research Program. We hope you will join us to hear the story and meet these distinguished guests and next week at the same time DuPont again presents the Cavalcade of America. Music This is the Columbia Broadcasting System. Music
