Hermann Hammesfahr (February 20, 1845 – November 23, 1914) was a Prussian-American inventor who invented a type of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

cloth in which glass was interwoven with

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

. He was awarded the

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

by the United States Patent Office in 1880. This was the earliest fiberglass of any kind that is known to have been patented.

Family origins

Hammesfahr was born in Evangelisch, Flachsberg, Wald Solingen, Rhineland,

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and died in

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New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

—the son of Carl Wilhelm Hammesfahr (1811–1878) and Caroline Wilhelmine Remschied (1806–1878). The Hammesfahr family is an old Solingen steel family tracing its roots back to the medieval armorer's guild.

The "grandfather" of fiber optics

This patent and a number of associated patents also provided the practical foundation for the development and production of

fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

(Hammesfahr has been called “the grandfather of fiber optics”) and

. All were purchased by the Libbey Glass Company in Toledo,

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. An immigrant from Prussia, he was known for his keen aesthetic achievements and technical innovations. Until recently, Hermann Hammesfahr and his contributions have been obscured, buried in scientific journals and first-hand historical accounts—and in many cases erroneously attributed to others, such as Edward Drummond Libbey, owner of Libbey Glass Company.

1893 Chicago World's Fair

Libbey Glass purchased the fiberglass patent among others from Hammesfahr with the intention of displaying the fabric in a spectacular manner at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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. At first, the company wove lamp shades from the glass fabric. Then it caught the eye of actress Georgia Cayvan who requested a dress be made from it. Hammesfahr designed a dress and the Libby Glass company showed it off at the Columbian Exposition. The dress was a sensation.

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

’s electric light bulb also debuted at the fair, as well as the

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondola ...

; however contemporary accounts indicate it was the glass dress that attracted the attention of women across America.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87764690/marriage-of-hammesfahr-kse/

Flexible Glass Fabric

Many onlookers were impressed by the dress at the 1893 World's Fair and a copy was purchased for $30,000 by Princess Eulalia of

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. However, the dress was reportedly impractical and no one else is known to have bought another dress. Hammesfahr's granddaughter modeled a glass dress her mother had made at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and reported that the dress scratched and was fragile. Despite this, the dresses, neckties, and other attire made from the glass fabric succeeded in publicizing the flexible glass thread technology. Hammesfahr's creation inspired new, innovative uses for glass fabric. It could withstand corrosive chemicals so chemists and druggist used it to filter solid particles out of liquid. Tangled glass fibers -

glass wool Glass wool is an Thermal insulation, insulating material made from glass fiber arranged using a Binder (material), binder into a texture similar to wool. The process traps many small pockets of air between the glass, and these small air pockets r ...

- made a great insulator and was used by industry to surround steam pipes. Glass fabric was even used as bandages. Georgia Cayvan in her glass dress 1893

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammesfahr, Hermann 1845 births 1914 deaths Prussian emigrants to the United States 19th-century American inventors Glass applications