Owens-Illinois Glass Company

                                 (1929-to date)

                    (Owens-Illinois, Inc. ~  since 1965)                    

This corporation is now generally known simply as “O-I”.            

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Owens-Illinois Glass Company was the result of the 1929 merger between two glass-making giants of the industry:  Owens Bottle Company (Toledo, OH – predecessor Toledo Glass Company began operation in 1896) and Illinois Glass Company (based in Alton, Illinois, with glass production dating from 1873).  See this page on  Illinois Glass Company’s  “I in a diamond” trademark.

Formerly headquartered at Toledo, OH;  now based at Perrysburg, OH,  Owens-Illinois, Inc. had (and has)  many glass manufacturing locations worldwide.  (See list of 20 currently operating glass container plants in North America, farther down on this page).

Known as Owens-Illinois, Inc. since 1965, (and officially known as just “O-I” since 2005), this corporation is currently (2024)  the largest manufacturer of glass containers in the world.

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“Diamond and oval with I inside” trademark

Several trademarks have been used over the years by Owens-Illinois.  Shown on this page are pictures of typical trademark variations used on glass containers, especially during the early years.  Most of the pics show the first and most widely recognized mark used,  beginning in 1929.

As pictured, it can vary slightly from one container to another.  This mark consists of a “Diamond and O (oval)  entwined, with an I in the center” and dates from 1929 into the middle and late 1950s. (Latest confirmed date code with this older trademark embossed on a bottle is 1966).   The mark may not have been, in actual practice, engraved onto all their bottle molds (in their inventory or being used at that time) until sometime in the year 1930, simply because of the time and effort involved in re-tooling/altering large numbers of molds already in use.  The mark is sometimes misinterpreted as the representation of an “eye” or of the planet Saturn.

Although author and researcher Julian Toulouse, in his ground-breaking reference work “Bottle Makers and their Marks” (published in 1971) promoted the idea that the diamond and oval trademark was used only up to 1954, implying a neat, clean “cut-off date”, in actual practice many bottles with this mark have been found that date several years after 1954.  (More info, below, in the paragraph on the “I inside an O” trademark).

On very small bottles, the mark may be rather indistinct and the “I” may be virtually invisible, or just a tiny dot.  It may be misinterpreted as the number “1”.

On the typical bottle, there is usually a number to the left of, to the right of, and below, the trademark.  (Note: The above arrangement is the most commonly seen, at least on soda bottles, but some containers, such as liquor flasks, are frequently marked in other ways and thus the codes may be arranged in a different configuration. See the paragraph on this page below,  titled “Liquor Bottle Permit Numbers”).

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PLANT LOCATION CODE NUMBERS

Typically, the number on the LEFT of the diamond logo is the plant location code number, the number on the RIGHT is a year date code, and the number below the logo (if present) indicates the mold number (mold identifying number, “mold cavity number” or serial number).    NOTE:  this arrangement generally applies to Non-Liquor bottles.  On many liquor bottles made by Owens-Illinois, the number on the left is a Liquor Bottle Permit Number, not a plant location code.  Please see the paragraph farther down for more info on this subject).

For example, plant code #2 stood for the Huntington, WV plant; “3″ indicated the Fairmont, West Virginia plant (that number was used up to 1981, later “3” was used by Muskogee, Oklahoma); “4” was Clarksburg, West Virginia;  “7″ indicated Alton, Illinois; “9″, the Streator, Illinois factory; “12″ was Gas City, Indiana; “14″ was the Bridgeton, New Jersey plant, #21 is Portland, Oregon;  #22 is Tracy, California;  #20 is Oakland, CA;   #23 is Los Angeles, CA, etc.

Note: Several of the plant numbers used by O-I were re-used by other plants that opened in later years, so it is important to take into consideration the date code, the bottle style and other characteristics to positively identify which plant location made a particular bottle.

For more info with a more extensive, detailed chart of known Owens-Illinois plant location codes, please check out the article by Bill Lockhart and Russ Hoenig at this URL:

The Bewildering Array of Owens-Illinois Glass Co. Logos and Codes.

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DATE CODES

As stated above, a date code usually appears to the right of the Owens-Illinois logo.  On many bottles, a single-digit date code along with the “Diamond/Oval/I” mark may indicate the 1930s.  From information compiled in Bill Lockhart’s article (link below) on Owens-Illinois’ date code markings, it appears that, on containers with this earliest trademark, if a single digit date code (such as  a “1 or “4” placed to the right of the logo) is followed by a period, the chances are very good the bottle in question dates from the 1940s, especially the 1940-1947 period.   However, there are some exceptions to this general rule, and single-digit date codes were also used in later decades along with the later “I inside an O” mark (but without a period placed to the right of the code).
Most bottles from the late 1940s into the 1950s and 1960s have two-digit date codes.

NOTE: any bottle which is also marked with the brand name/ trademark DURAGLAS dates from 1940 or after, never before that year.  This can help narrow down the production date of some glass containers.

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THE “I INSIDE AN OVAL”  or  “I INSIDE AN O”  TRADEMARK

The second primary mark used by Owens-Illinois Glass Company was phased in during the mid-1950s with the removal of the diamond.  Julian Toulouse (Bottle Makers and their Marks, 1971), states this mark was used beginning in the year 1954.  Trademark information does indicate the mark was in use beginning March 1, 1954  (see link to Justia page below).   However, research over the years has shown there was actually a gradual changeover from the “old” to the “new” trademark on containers beginning in 1954, in actual practice, which occurred over a period of four or five years or more.   In fact, some bottles with the “old” mark are documented as bearing date codes as late as 1966!  (See note below discussing a bottle made in 1966 which carries the “old” trademark on the base!).

Some bottle molds already in use were not re-engraved until as late as 1957, 1958, 1959, even, as mentioned, in 1966.  However, after about 1958 the great majority of O-I containers carried the “new” (second) principal trademark, which merely consists of an I inside an oval, or circle.  On some bottles this mark is very tiny or indistinct, often looking like a small “0” (a zero, or the letter O) with the “I” in the center that’s hard to discern.

According to the trademark information shown on this page from the Justia.com site (link below), this mark was apparently still in use as late as August 15, 2016.  The mark was officially “cancelled” as of March 16, 2020.    There may have been a long date “overlap” with this mark and the following mark (O-I),  in which both marks seem to have been in simultaneous use by Owens-Illinois.

https://trademarks.justia.com/716/85/oi-71685923.html

 

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“O-I” trademark

The “O-I” mark (being the third major trademark embossed on the company’s glass containers) was officially registered by the United States Patent & Trademark Office on March 20, 2007, under registration #3219434.  “First use” of this mark is claimed to have been on December 17, 1997, according to information posted on the justia.com website, here:
https://trademarks.justia.com/785/97/o-78597477.html

This trademark is in current use on most Owens-Illinois glass containers made within the United States (as of 2024).

 

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“OWENS” appears on the base of some clear prescription bottles.  Illustrated among the pics on this page is the base of a bottle made at the Columbus, Ohio facility (plant #18) with a date code of “7” which in this case probably stands for 1937.  I don’t know how late the word “OWENS” was embossed as a trademark on the base of those medicine bottles.

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LIQUOR BOTTLE PERMIT NUMBERS

IMPORTANT NOTE: Many liquor bottles and flasks made by Owens-Illinois have a DIFFERENT mold code configuration on the base, as compared to the way the numbers are arranged on most other types of bottles they made.  Typically, the bottle is marked with a number known as  a “Liquor Bottle Permit Number” followed by a dash and a second number which is the date code – indicating the year the bottle was made.   Many liquor bottles made by Owens-Illinois have the “Diamond and Oval with an I” logo embossed sideways on the base of the container.

For a list of liquor bottle permit numbers assigned to many glass companies in the United States after 1935, please check out this page I recently added to my site: 

Liquor Bottle Permit Numbers – Numerical List.  

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NOTE: In July of 2013 I received a photo, submitted by Taylor McBurney,  showing the base of a Yacht Club Beverages ACL soda bottle, carrying a 1966 date code, but bearing the old logo!  This is the very latest instance of use of the “old” O-I mark that I am aware of.  Presumably, when this particular mold was pulled out of the storeroom, and used to produce some more bottles (probably for a relatively small order),  it wasn’t considered important enough to take the time to re-engrave the trademark.  Update: (posted October 1, 2019) – also check out the base photo of a possible 1978 bottle, shown farther down on this page.  There is also a photo of a bottle base (submitted by Crystal Arant) that appears to be from 1968 or 1969!

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Other marks include  “ILLINOIS”,  a brand name apparently used for a line of prescription bottles (similar to their bottles marked “OWENS”);   “DURAGLAS”  a trademark used after 1940 which is embossed on innumerable bottles of many types;  and “LOWEX” another brand name which was used for their borosilicate glass formula employed especially for power line insulators.  For more information on the brand name Duraglas, you might want to check out my page here:
Duraglas trademark on bottles.

Although Owens-Illinois has made containers of many different shades of color over the years, the great majority of glass bottles commonly found (especially older containers that show up often at flea markets, antique malls, yard sales, junk shops, ebay, etc) are found in clear (colorless), green (emerald, forest green or “seven up” green) and amber (“beer bottle brown”) glass.

The “Diamond & oval with I” mark is by far the most common identification mark on glass containers found in trash dump sites in the United States from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.  (The second most common mark encountered is probably the “Large H over small A” used by  Hazel-Atlas Glass Company.)

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Electrical Insulators

Owens-Illinois took over operation of the Hemingray Glass Company factory, located in Muncie, Indiana, in 1933.  Hemingray was a prolific maker of electrical insulators (of many types and sizes) for power lines, telegraph, telephone and other uses.  Within a year or two, most glass insulators produced at Muncie were carrying date codes. Owens-Illinois continued to have the great majority of insulators marked with the “HEMINGRAY” brand name, with very few exceptions in later years.   Other brand names used by O-I  on insulators include “Lowex” and “Kimble“.  Many millions of insulators were made at Muncie,  the very last being manufactured in the year 1967.  (Please see my webpage on the Hemingray Glass Company  for more information on Hemingray insulators.)

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Owens-Illinois Inc. currently [2020] operates 20 glass manufacturing facilities within North America.   They are located in:  Atlanta, Georgia;  Auburn, New York;  Brockway, Pennsylvania [2 plants];  Ringgold, Virginia;  Lapel, Indiana;  Los Angeles, California;  Muskogee, Oklahoma;  Kalama, Washington (plant acquired in 2015, formerly Bennu Glass); Oakland, California;  Portland, Oregon;  Streator, Illinois;  Toano, Virginia; Tracy, California;  Waco, Texas;   Zanesville, Ohio;  Lexington, North Carolina;  Windsor, Colorado;   and in Canada:  Montreal, Quebec and Brampton, Ontario.

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For more detailed discussion on Owens-Illinois Glass Company and their date codes, and a detailed, updated chart of  O-I plant location codes, please check out this comprehensive article written by Bill Lockhart and Russ Hoenig:  The Bewildering Array of Owens-Illinois Glass Co. Logos and Codes.

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Click here for a page from O-I’s official website:

https://www.o-i.com/our-story/how-glass-bottles-and-jars-are-made/

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Note: For a webpage on this site with an extensive list of glass companies that made electrical insulators (which are now considered collectible items), please check out this page:  Glass Insulator Manufacturers .

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Click here to go to the alphabetical listings of trademarks found on bottles, jars, insulators and tableware:  Glass Bottle Marks (starting here with Page  One).

Please click here to go to my website  Home Page.  

Please check out my summary page on  Sea Glass / Beach Glass. Many older Owens-Illinois bottle and jar bases might be found among so-called “Beach Glass”. 

 

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Here are a couple other webpages on my site that might be of interest, as I included a few pics of Owens-Illinois bottles and bases on them:

“Federal Law Forbids Sale or Reuse of the Bottle” marking on liquor bottles.

Numbers seen on the bases of Glass Bottles and jars.

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