Yes, it sounds shocking, but the center of Glitter’s universe has been Bernardsville, New Jersey, for a long, long time. So, Mr. Local History researchers got together and began digging in. Here’s their story.
RETROSPECTIVE:
Mr. Local History Research Team
As with all Mr. Local History retrospectives, we often update the post when we learn stories and are sent photos from our internet community. We will continue to grow this piece as information becomes available. If you have a comment or photo, feel free to post at the bottom of this page or drop us a note.
First, Let’s Talk About Glitter
Glitter comprises hundreds, even thousands or tens of thousands, of tiny pieces of various materials. Common glitter materials include copolymer plastics, aluminum foil, titanium dioxide, and iron oxides. These materials are usually produced in thin sheets painted with bright metallic or iridescent colors reflecting light. The sheets are then cut up into tiny pieces to make glitter that sparkles brightly when its many pieces reflect light in a colorful spectrum.
The beauty and cosmetics industry is one of the leading global consumers of glitter. Glitter is a staple ingredient in makeup products such as eyeshadows, lip glosses, nail polishes, and body shimmer. Fighter jets: Most military aircraft have chaff tubes, “millions of tiny aluminum—or zinc-coated fibers,” to boggle radar-guided missiles and tracking systems. Fishing lures: Glitter is undoubtedly a component in many plastic fishing lures. And yes, Money: To make it hard to counterfeit and give it a cool look. Tell us in the comments section below about your best glitter application story!
My sister loves glitter. She puts it in greeting cards and sends in the mail. When you open it, glitter goes everywhere and stays for weeks!
Brooks Betz
Introducing Meadowbrook Glitter
Nestled in the Mine Brook river valley in the quiet little boro of Bernardsville, New Jersey, lies a beautiful picturesque pasture with milk heifers and purebred Guernsey cattle feeding in the valley of the 2nd Watchung Mountain. The dairy business is gone, but about 75 Herefords and Guerneseys remain.
While the Mine Brook meanders and the train passes by on the hour, many people don’t know that the largest glitter manufacturer in the world is hidden among the trees on the farm. Often referred to as the Meadowbrook Glitter Factory, the Meadowbrook Innovations sits at the base of the iconic sledding “suicide hill” at the top of Pill Hill Road. Let’s see what we can learn from a visit to this historic hidden Jersey gem.
Mr. Ruschmann originally called his sparkly cuttings “Schnibbles” and later “Metallic Jewels.”
Meadowbrook Farm History
Before talking about glitter and Mr. Ruschmann, we thought it’d be fun to take you back to the beginning of Meadowbrook Farm, founded by Richard Vliet Lindabury Esq and his family. During the late 1800s, the farm was much larger. Owned by Richard V. Lindabury (1850-1925), the 1,000-acre farm included the Bernardsville Town Hall and pond. The tract was subdivided by the Lindabury children before the 200+ acre farm was purchased by Ruschmann in 1943. Lindabury was one of America’s first Guernsey breeders and had the oldest accredited herd in the United States.
The history of Meadowbrook’s glitter business began in 1934 when Henry Frank Ruschmann, originally a cattle rancher in Bernardsville, New Jersey, invented a machine to cut plastic films into tiny pieces, which eventually became glitter. Ruschmann’s discovery came about by accident while he was working as a machinist. When glass glitter became unavailable during World War II, Ruschmann found a market for grinding scrap plastics into glitter. In 1943, he bought Meadowbrook Farm in Bernardsville.
In 1984, after work I would go home with glitter in my hair, pockets, everywhere. After the 5th day, I had enough! Six years later in 1990, when we ripped out the carpeting at my parents house, we found glitter under the carpets!
Steve Schwed
Mr. Ruschmann partnered with Harry Goetz and named their firm Goetz and Ruschmann. While living on the Bernardsville farm, Ruschmann dabbled as a machinist. Then, in 1948, Ruschmann moved a small developmental machine from the Maplewood shop into the family home at Meadowbrook Farm to cut “glitter schnibbles” from plastic scrap. The cuttings would help pay the farm’s operating expenses to produce milk on the dairy farm and raise purebred Guernsey steer. That same year, Ruschmann founded Meadowbrook Farm Inventions (MFI) to produce industrial glitter in large quantities. Starting first in the playroom, MFI became Meadowbrook Inventions, Inc. in 1953, later expanding to his greenhouse as the business grew.
Two Essential Glitter Patents
Ruschmann filed two essential patents accepted by the United States Patent Office in the early 1940s. The first was how to make the film strips, and the second was how to make them. Ruschmann invented and patented a high-speed machine that cut apart the developed glossy photo prints in roll form that consumers snapped with the familiar old Kodak Brownie box cameras. The cutting inscribed a grooved (deckle) edge for the consumer to tear photos from the small booklet into which the prints were clipped.
Patent US2502890A – Film Clip
In the handling of films for development thereof, it is the practice to simultaneously process :a number of film rolls or strips at one time, and at the same time maintain ownership identification of each film roll or strip throughout the process. To facilitate such practice, film suspension racks or hangers, for suspending the film rolls or strips in developer, washing, and fixing solution tanks, having means to also hold identifying data relating to the respective film rolls or strips have been utilized. It is an object of this invention to provide an improved and simplified construction of film suspension rack or hanger for this purpose.
US Patent Abstract – US2502890A – Details
Patent – US3650168A – Operating upon strips of thin material
A rotary slitter, for slitting a strip of thin material into narrower ribbons and establishing the speed of travel of those ribbons, is provided with output-disengaging means of dynamic nature, moved by and with the elements of the slitter, enabling the minimization of tension on the exiting ribbons. A pair of ribbon-engaging rollers, driven at a peripheral speed slightly greater than the speed of travel of the ribbons, receives the ribbons from the slitter in side-by-side relationship and under slight tension. From the rollers the ribbons may optionally pass to an anvil member with which a cutter cooperates to cut the ribbons into discrete small pieces.
US Patent Abstract – US3156283A – Details
Ah, the glitter factory! Every time I picked up their UPS shipment of glitter filled cardboard barrels, I would find glitter on me, my clothes, and in my car for days. LoL.
Willie Dade, former UPS driver.
Henry & Bertha Ruschmann
Henry Rischmann was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1926. He arrived in New York on the MS Bremen and was hired right at the pier as a machinist by the Westinghouse Company, Irvington, NJ. Ruschmann lived in Irvington, New Jersey, and in 1943, moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, to pursue a career in cattle ranching. He purchased the 215-acre Meadowbrook Farm in 1943. He would later move his glitter factory from Maplewood to Bernardsville.
“The Ruschmann family has lived here since 1943. We all grew up on the farm. Bernardsville has always been close to our hearts. We all love the farm, nature and the animals.”
Bertha Elizabeth Ruschmann / Bernardsville News
While Henry became known to Bernardsville residents as the “Glitter Guy,” Henry supported the WWII war effort with his metals expertise and was part of the Manhattan Project. Henry Frank Ruschmann died on December 7, 1989, after a long illness.
During the 1960s, son Henry W. Ruschmann joined Meadowbrook Inventions, working his way up to COO of product development, purchasing, and sales. In product development, he would source, for example, the most brilliant and weather-resistant aluminum and polyester and work with customers to design glitter for each customer’s process. He instituted quality control to assure batch-to-batch uniformity in brightness, size, shape, and dimensions.
Meadowbrook Industries Today
The glitter factory has operated for over six decades in a 45,000-square-foot industrial building in a central part of the property. Currently, it consists of two lots: Lot 1, which fronts on Pill Hill Road, is 90.67 acres, and Lot 2, which fronts on Route 202, is 124.5 acres. The farm produces over 6,000 hay bails annually and still raises cattle.
Today, Meadowbrook Inventions, Inc. is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of glitter and now operates from two New Jersey manufacturing plants: one on Meadowbrook Farm in Bernardsville and the other in Randolph, New Jersey. Middlebrook Inventions produces over two tons of glitter daily on average and controls almost 90% of glitter’s world market. In addition to glitter, Meadowbrook produces visual cues, geometric microparticles, and security taggants. Their glitter products are used in various applications, including cosmetics, adhesives, fashion, greeting cards, floral, fiberglass, craft, printing, and aerosols. The company has approximately 25 full-time employees.
In 1981, in a Johannesburg South Africa cafe, the gentleman next to me asked me where I was from (with my American accent). No one knows where Bernardsville is, right? After several Q&A, I told him.
Merrill Farhat Medansky
He responded with “Do you know Peter Ruschmann?” This guy in South Africa did business with the Ruschmann’s sequin factory. What a small world.
Multiple firms worldwide manufacture over 20,000 varieties of glitter in different colors, sizes, and materials. One estimate suggests that 10 million pounds of glitter was produced between 1989 and 2009. And YES, Meadowbrook is the world’s pioneer of biodegradable glitter.
According to filings from the estate of Mrs. Bertha Elizabeth Ruschmann, the Ruschmann family applied to the Bernardardsville Board of Adjustment in July 2024 to subdivide Meadowbrook Farm. No development is in the works.
Bonus:
The “Good Shepherd” Watches Over the Meadowbrook Farm
Driving along historic Route 202, you can still see Henry Robinson’s wood-carved ” The Good Shepherd” on the Meadowbrook Farm. Robinson’s second large outdoor project stood 24 feet tall in the Meadowbrook Farm field. Over 23 years, Harry created over 50 statues and was the only artist who created sculptures from dead trees.
The iconic shepherd was noted for looking over the Meadowbrook Farm and the Gentle Shepherd Nursery School children across the street.
More MLH-Related Stories
Glitter is actually a high-level national security concern. It’s in the paint on our cars and even on stealth bombers
Was there another brother, Rudy? We haven’t seen Henry in a year or two. Hope he is well. Love his cow bell.