It is now just a hundred years since the first successful attempts in Europe to produce glass bottles and jars by mechanical means. Previous publications have referred to the work of Howard Ashley, who patented the first blow-and-blow machine in 1887, but James Windmill, who built the first press-and-blow machine in 1886, has been largely ignored. They and other pioneers during the following twenty years established all the principles on which automatic machines operate today. An account is given of some of their successes and failures, and of the glassmakers with whom they worked. -- AATA