Chattanooga Glass Company

This significant Chattanooga business was founded in 1901 by Charles Rief to provide glass bottles for his brewery. Soon the company also began producing bottles for the infant Coca-Cola bottling industry, established in the city in 1899. With the advent of prohibition, the company abandoned the production of beer and whiskey bottles and concentrated almost exclusively on producing bottles for the soft drink industry, becoming one of the chief producers of the famous "Coke" bottle. In the early days the "Hutcheson" stopper system was used to seal Coke bottles. The rubber stopper on the inside of the glass bottle made a loud "popping" noise when pressed to open, giving the soft drink the nickname "pop." The metal crown seal was adopted later. In 1916 the introduction and adoption of the famous "hobble-skirt" Coke bottle gave uniformity to drink bottles.

Coke bottler J. Frank Harrison, a relative of pioneer Chattanooga bottler John Thomas Lupton, bought the business in 1925 and expanded it to provide bottles for various cola producers. In 1960 Dorsey Corporation acquired the company. Since 1985 the company has been a part of Diamond Container General, with corporate offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.