THEIR BUSINESS IS CRYSTAL CLEAR

Jay Bond of Edgewater Glass Co. etched a floral design onto glass.

Wade Mansker of Edgewater Glass Co. watched a mirror sheet proceed through the edging machine.

It can be used for windows, showers, doors, room dividers, table tops, bookshelves, car windshields, soda bottles, decorative items by the thousands, even building construction.

Glass is one of the most useful products in the world, but one most consumers don't think about much -- until it breaks or redecorating fever strikes.

The U.S. glass industry produces more than $5 billion worth of glass products a year and provides employment for more than 200,000 workers. Although only 150 major companies produce glass, thousands of smaller companies cut, decorate and shape glass products for consumers.

Several of those companies are located in Cape Girardeau and serve a clientele that ranges from homeowners faced with replacing a window that didn't survive a backyard softball game to major companies that want to use glass as a focal point in their decor.

Gordon Brookman and John Baker deal with both in their businesses.

Baker's company, Cape Paint & Glass, 15 N. Middle, concentrates primarily on large commercial jobs. Baker and his wife Karen own the company, which was founded more than 50 years ago as a glass shop.

Edgewater Glass Co., 324 S. Plaza Way, owned by Gordon and Anne Brookman, was founded in 1965.

"We do everything here, from cutting a 5-by-7 picture frame glass to residential, commercial and automotive glass work," said Brookman.

Cape Paint & Glass and Edgewater Glass are just two of a number of local glass companies, including some who specialize in auto windshield and glass work. One is James Glass Co. Inc., 2321 Bloomfield Road, which replaces an average of 25 to 30 vehicle windshields a week.

There are more than 100,000 kinds of glass, including flat glass, which is used in windows, mirrors, room dividers and some types of furniture.

Other glass familiar to most people includes glass building blocks, which can be used to form walls and for other decorative purposes; colored structural glass, available in many colors, and used in buildings as exterior and/or interior walls; and safety glass, which is up to five times as strong as regular glass.

Cape Paint & Glass, which is observing its 55th anniversary this year, uses all types of flat glass to provide a number of services to commercial accounts throughout the area.

"We've been covered up the past two years," said Baker, whose company employs 15 people. "We do everything with glass here. We make job estimates, cut glass and/or mirrors and install them."

Mirror work accounts for 2 to 3 percent of the company's glass jobs.

"We do a lot of mirror work on commercial jobs," said Baker. "Most banks use a lot of mirrors, and some other offices are using more and more mirrors."

Cape Paint & Glass has installed 12-by-14-foot plate glass windows in a number of area banks and has installed tinted glass in some medical facilities, including Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"Occasionally we have to use a crane to lift these large sheets into place," said Baker. "This type of glass is three-eighths of an inch thick and a 12-by-14-foot plate will weigh almost 900 pounds."

One-inch insulated glass has been used in a number of cases. The insulated glass includes two sections of quarter-inch glass, and a half-inch of insulation.

Cape Paint & Glass, originally founded as a glass store in Cape Girardeau, handled paint 40 years before phasing out of the paint business about five years ago to again concentrate on the glass business.

Edgewater Glass Co. specializes in a number of areas, including etched glass and mirrors and stained glass.

"We do some commercial jobs, but we don't go after the really big commercial jobs," said Brookman. "We do a lot of residential and auto glass work, and we've shown increases in business every year since we started."

Edgewater Glass is also the only shop between Memphis and St. Louis which has an "etching" machine.

"This allows us to put fancy edges on plate glass, table tops, shelves, shower doors and mirrors," said Brookman. "We felt there was a need for the machine in this area because it puts a more professional edge on the glass."

Edgewater Glass also provides fancy etching work on doors, windows and large plates of glass.

"We can provide a frameless glass door, three-eighths- to one-half-inch thick, and provide etchings on the door to match the wallpaper," said Brookman.

Stained glass is also a big item for Edgewater Glass.

"As many as 75 percent of new homes being built now have some stained glass included in the plans," said Brookman. Stained glass is being used over doorways, in some windows, in bathrooms and as decorative accents on furniture like china cabinets and gun cabinets.

"We do a lot of interesting things with glass," said Brookman. "If it's related to glass we can do it."

The company, which employs 15 workers, also specializes in mirror work.

"We do a lot of customer mirror walls and bathroom work," said Brookman. "We utilize a lot of eighth-inch glass and/or mirror blocks for custom bathroom work in homes."

The Edgewater Glass building was specially designed for a glass company, allowing the company to stock huge supplies of all types of glass.

"We have an overhead hoist to unload large glass shipments here," said Brookman. "And we have special storage shelving, including one area for auto windshields."

In recent years, the company has added automatic door openers to its business.

Edgewater Glass constructed and moved into to its current location in 1971.