Louis T. Glass, 1845-1924
Louis
T. Glass was born in New Castle, Delaware, 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 business associate William S.
Arnold demonstrated their first coin-operated phonograph in the Palais Royal Restaurant, 303 Sutter Street in San
Francisco. They had been permitted by the proprietor, Fredric Mergenthaler, 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 og 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
Company and the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company, 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 Company 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 Company 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 Company and the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company to devote all
his time to the Philippine project. For decades he was supported in business
his wife Sarah Frances Glass, born Perkins (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.
Gert J. Almind