Short answers, pulled from the story.
Robert Lucas Chance purchased the British Crown Glass Company's works in Spon Lane during November 1822. The site sat between Birmingham and the Black Country within the industrial heartland of the Midlands.
Lucas and William became partners after a partnership with the Hartley Brothers dissolved in 1836. They renamed the enterprise Chance Brothers and Company following this dissolution.
Chance Brothers glazed the Crystal Palace to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. This firm also supplied glass for the Houses of Parliament which were built between 1840 and 1860.
During World War II, the company produced up to 7,000 cathode-ray tubes per week for early radar sets. These tubes used Hysil glass which is a borosilicate glass similar to Pyrex.
Flat glass production ceased at Smethwick in 1976. The remainder of the works closed in 1981 ending more than 150 years of glass production there.