Libby-Owens-Ford Glass Co. - Specimen Stock Certificate

Specimen Stock. Printed by American Ban Note Company. Libbey-Owens-Ford Company (LOF) specialized in the production of flat glass for both the automotive and building products sectors, catering to original equipment manufacturers as well as the replacement market. The company was headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, where its primary factories were situated, alongside significant float glass facilities in Rossford, Ohio; Laurinburg, North Carolina; Ottawa, Illinois; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Lathrop, California. Established in 1930, LOF resulted from the merger of Libbey-Owens's sheet-glass division and the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company, both of which were based in Toledo.

The company's roots trace back to 1818 with the establishment of the New England Glass Company in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. This company later moved to Toledo, Ohio, and in 1892 was renamed Libbey Glass Company under the leadership of Edward Drummond Libbey. Concurrently, in 1902, Michael Owens and his team developed the first fully operational automatic bottle-blowing machine, which was later recognized as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1903, they founded the Owens Bottle Machine Company. By 1912, Owens had secured the rights to Irving Wightman Colburn's invention for plate glass manufacturing. In 1929, the Owens Bottle Company acquired the Illinois Glass Company based in Alton, Illinois, and rebranded itself as Owens-Illinois Glass Company, becoming the largest glass manufacturer globally. In 1935, Owens-Illinois Glass Company purchased Libbey Glass Company but subsequently divested it as an independent entity in 1993.