Louis T. Glass, 1845-1924
Louis
T. Glass was born in New Castle, Delaware (Maryland), on the 6th August, 1845, and came to Butte County in California while
still a boy. His father was Samuel G. Glass and his mother Susan Glass, born
Springer (married 1836).
Louis T. Glass started out as a Western Union telegraph operator in 1868, and
remained with the company for ten years. In 1879 he had accumulated sufficient
capital to buy an interest in the Oakland and San Diego Telephone companies,
and in 1889 he became general manager of the Edison General Electric Company in
San Francisco, also known as the Pacific Phonograph Company (founded on the 7th
January, 1889). In
addition he was director of the Spokane Phonograph Company, Spokane Falls in
Washington, and director of the West Coast Phonograph Company, Portland in
Oregon.
On
the 23rd November, 1889, Louis T. Glass and his Canadian born business
associate William S. Arnold (naturalized US citizen in 1882) demonstrated the first
nickel-in-the-slot phonograph in the Palais Royal Restaurant, 303 Sutter Street
in San Francisco. They had been permitted by the proprietor Frederic G.
Mergenthaler (born in Strasbourg, France) to demonstrate the music machine in the restaurant. The machine, an Edison
Class M Electric Phonograph with oak cabinet, had been fitted locally in
San Francisco with a coin mechanism invented and soon patented by Louis T.
Glass and William S. Arnold. In 1890 the patents for coin mechanisms for both
cylinder and disc playing machines were assigned to R. W. Smith in San Francisco,
who apparently was the local representative for the New York based company
Automatic Phonograph Exhibition Company headed by Felix Gottschalk. Before the
patents were assigned to R. W. Smith and sold, Louis T. Glass and William S.
Arnold produced and operated about 15 nickel-in-the-slot machines in San
Francisco during the six months from November/December, 1889, until May, 1890.
The first nickel-in-the-slot machine was, as mentioned above, installed in the Palais Royal restaurant on the 23rd November. The second coin-op phonograph was
installed in the same restaurant or saloon on the 4th December due to the
immediate success. On the 10th December, 1889, Louis T. Glass og William S. Arnold installed
another machine in the White Wings saloon and the following machine was
installed on the 10th January, 1890, in the inner waiting rooms on the ferry
between Oakland og San Francisco. The fifth machine
was installed in the Conclave saloon on the 18th February, 1890. Before the
"First Annual Convention of Local Phonograph Companies of the United
States", held on the 28th-29th May in Chicago, the first 15 coin-op
machines in San Francisco had brought in $4,019. At the convention Louis T.
Glass as the official inventor of the coin-op phonograph concept accurately said:
"...Nevertheless, gentlemen, there is money in
the nickel-in-the-slot phonograph. There is an immediate result for every
company in the United States. If you will look over the income that we have had
there you will see that where you furnish interesting material, the receipts do
not materially drop off, and I believe that for three or four years there is an
enormous amount of money right in the nickel-in-the-slot phonograph...".
In
1892 Louis T. Glass went over to the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph
Co., and in 1894 the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Co., and in 1898 he was
elected vice-president and general manager of both companies. Louis T. Glass
was one of the originators and developers of the 'express switchboard', which
came into general use on the Coast in the early 1890s, and he also made the
first installation of the harmonic party line system for selective party line
service. Louis T. Glass was unfortunate as the vice-president and general
manager of the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Co. to be indicted for bribing
supervisors after the Great Earthquake of the 18th April, 1906. The aim of the
bribery was according to the investigations of the Oliver Grand Jury to prevent
other telephone companies from obtaining telephone franchise in San Francisco.
In
1905 Louis T. Glass and his brother-in-law John Sabin formed the Philippine
Telephone and Telegraph Co. to develop telephones in the islands. He became the
first president of the company with office address at the Shreve Building, and
was in fact president until the company was dissolved in 1922. Also involved in
the company was his son-in-law Richard F. Beamer. In 1912 Louis T. Glass
withdrew from active service with the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph
Co. and the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Co. to devote all his time to the
Philippine project. For decades he was supported in business by his wife Sarah
Frances Glass, born Perkins (1850-1911) (married 1872).
Louis
T. Glass died 79 years of age on the 12th November, 1924, after a long and
interesting life as a pioneer and major corporate player in the San Francisco
area. According to the obituary in the "San Francisco Chronicle"
Louis T. Glass passed away in his home on 375 Fourteenth Avenue in San
Francisco, by then also his daughter Frances Glass Beamer’s family home.
Today the grave of Sarah Frances and Louis Glass can be found at the Cypress
Lawn Memorial Park (Garden, Section
D, near Lot 512) in Colma, San Mateo
County, California.
Gert J. Almind