Michael Joseph Owens was born on January 1, 1859, in Mason County, West Virginia, the son of John and Mary (Chapman) Owens. His father was a coal miner with unusual mechanical genius but decidedly unpractical. It was his mother who was responsible for the practical qualities that played such a prominent part in his career.
Michael had helped his father in the mines, and at the age of ten, recognizing the family's needs, he took employment in a glass factory in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he shoveled coal into the "glory hole" or unit employed for resoftening glass during various stages of its manipulation in blowing. At that time glassblowers worked in two five-hour shifts per day. Black with soot and coal dust Michael would return to his home, bathe and clean up, and be ready for another blackening during the afternoon period. By the time he was fifteen he had become a glassblower. In 1888, he began work in Toledo, Ohio, in the glass factory of Edward Drummond Libbey. Three months later he became its superintendent, and then the manager of a branch factory at Findlay, Ohio.
In 1893 Michael had charge of the famous exhibit of the Libbey Glass Company at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Somewhat before this time he had begun a series of experiments which led to the perfection of a completely automatic bottle-blowing machine. At first he applied an exceedingly simple principle, using a piston pump to suck glass into a mold from the surface of a pot of molten metal, then placing the gathered mass over another mold into which the article was blown by reversing the pump. The first bottles were decidedly crude, but in time this experiment resulted in a machine of over 9000 separate parts which, as recently modified, is capable of blowing four finished bottles per second. Preliminary patents for these machines were taken out in 1895. As the machine was developed, other patents were secured, that of November 8, 1904 representing it essentially perfected.
In 1903 Owens with Libbey and others organized the Owens Bottle Machine Company. Of this concern, later called the Owens Bottle Company, Owens was manager from 1915 to 1919, and vice-president from 1915 until his death. He was also vice-president of the Owens European Bottle Company, organized in 1905 with a plant at Manchester, England. When Irving W. Colburn began his researches in 1900 on a machine for the continuous drawing of flat sheet glass, Owens, together with his partner, Libbey, provided funds for the perfection of the machine. They purchased the patents in 1912, and in 1916 formed the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company, whose first factory was built at Charleston, West Virginia. Of this company Owens was vice-president until his death.
Owens possessed unusual mechanical ability but lacked the scientific knowledge required for the perfection of his plans. He displayed wise judgment, however, in consulting others, and a device thus brought to perfection he always considered a joint invention, though the fundamental idea had been his own. In 1919 he retired as general manager of the Owens Bottle Company to devote more time to his inventions. In addition to his bottle and sheet-glass machines, he perfected machines which were used in other factories for the blowing of lamp-chimneys and tumblers. During his lifetime he was granted forty-five United States patents. Some of these patents were taken out jointly with others, but the majority were awarded to him independently. After his death a number of patents were granted that had been applied for during his lifetime. He died in Toledo.
Michael was founder and served as vice-president of the Owens Bottle Company, the Owens European Bottle Company, and the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company. During his lifetime Michael Owens was granted forty-five United States patents on apparatus for controlling the operation of molds, annealing ovens, blowing glass, fire-finishing glass articles, the formation of special bottle necks, the making of sheet glass, the dumping of raw materials from the bottom of freight cars, the charging and operating of gas producers, the transferring of hot glass from furnaces to the blowing and drawing units. Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio, is named in his memory.
Michael Owens married Mary (McKelvey) Owens of Bellaire, Ohio in 1889.
