The Root Glass Company the center portion of the newly designed sample Coca-Cola bottle. With limited time remaining before the molten glass furnaces would be shut down for cleaning, Dean produced a few sample bottles that would be submitted to the national Coca-Cola bottle contest. The Root Glass Company The Root Glass Company originated as Root Glass Works in Vigo County, Indiana. Businessman and Pennsylvania native Chapman J. Root (November 22, 1864 - November 20, 1945) opened the original glass company on May 27, 1901, at Third and Voorhees Streets a year after he moved to the city of Terre Haute, Indiana. By 1904
Sneath Glass Company employee William Chapman, working under the supervision of Ray Pruden, was granted a patent for the glass mailbox in 1921. Ray Pruden was superintendent of the factory, assuming that title after Henry Crimmel’s stroke. William Chapman was a well-known glass blower who also secured a patent for an ash tray. Employees of the company also patented other products, including a drawer pull, a caster for furniture, a newspaper receptacle, and a chick feeding fount. Years later, the glass mailbox was shown in "Popular Mechanics" magazine. Sneath Glass continued making glassware for kitchen cabinet manufacturers such as Hoosier and Sellers, and