The birth of the glass industry marked the beginning of the revival of the manufacturing sector in Colle Val d'Elsa, which was once closely linked to the activity and prestige of its numerous paper mills which then fell into disuse.

Colle started to become an industrial centre of a certain importance, located within an area otherwise characterised by deep-rooted backwardness. In 1850, in addition to the glass furnace, there was a small ironworks, seven paper mills, a factory which made felt hats, two fulling mills, two dye-works, two tanneries, two furnaces for pottery and terracotta, two travertine quarries and several lime furnaces, seven flour mills and one for macerating myrtle bark.

Un forno di fusione per il vetro

The Masson ironworks joined these factories in 1855.
At the end of the first decade after the Unity of Italy, industrial activity in Colle was at its height: approximately 800 people out of a population of just over 8000 were employed in local industry; a considerable percentage for Italy in those days.