America's first colony, Jamestown, initiated glass production with the hope that it would be an important product in the mercantile trade with the mother country. Although, the production of glass was successful, the quality did not measure up against that of British producers and the glass business soon waned in Jamestown. At the end of the eighteenth century, Pittsburgh found that it had all of the raw materials to make high quality glass and imported skill glass blowers from England to begin full production. So glass preceded the production of steel and became Pittsburgh's first large scale industry.