New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-03
a NOTABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY.

INCREASED FACILITIES FOR T1PE-MAKING-A HUGE
ESTABLISHMENT IN A TOWN WHERE THERE ARE
NO TAxEs-UsE OF GAS AS FUEL.
IFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF TIE TRIBUNE !
PHILADELPHIA, March. 3t-In all large cities
there centrifugal force that Is driving manufacturing
establishments into the suburbs where they find cheap
land for works. and low rents for the dwellings OF
their operatives. The force in this city appears to act
more powerfully than elsewhere for 1t gives such an i'm
peus that macy extensive have gone far be-
yond the corporation limits TO sites, actuated
by desire to 20 so far away that future territorial
growth OF the municipality Will bring them within the
reach OF its tax-gatherers. notable example OF this
migrating tendency furnished by the recent removal
Of large branch of the ir0nwOrks of Norris Tasker
Co TO Newcastle, Delaware The firm Is one OF the
Oldest in Philadelphia, and its speciality of making
iron pipes for steam boilers and water aud gas Tx
lures, does very large business. Its works in the
southern part OF the city we're established in 1921 and
grown such dimensions that they cover TWO ana
half squares The firm wanted still more ground and
better transportation facilities The former it could
have had by paying the high prices prevailing for real
its works aud demoshDg the buildings that
the adjacent ground, but the latter was not to be
had on any terms for City Council refused to allow
railroad be constructed TO the works. SO the
frn million OF dollars out of the city and out OF
the State too and went down 10 old town In Della
ware that had been asleep for hundred years. There
fronting navigabe waters, railroad facilities and
taxes that and promised to be low for ali time
The quaint OG.ashoned village OF Castle Is still go
Tar behind the times that II does not know that public
debt is public blessing. Not only does 1t owe nothing
but 1t has real estate. bequeathed ii by William Penn,
the rental OF which pays all the town expenses so that
IT'S citizens are entirely free from municipal taxation
No wonder that manufacturers who had anxiously
watched the steady of city debt and taxes in
Philadelphia were attracted to this community Early
IN 1873 they bought 900 OF land lying along the
Delaware and by the middle of 1874 they had covered
about 20 acres with huge brick structures the towering
chmueys of which dwarfed The church spires OF the
ncichborng village Besides they built wharf 800 feet
long a railroad track to the Delaware Railroad mile
distant covered the fields adjoining the mills with
rows of brick cottages for their wokmen and by all this
animation fairly reused the from its Rip Van
Wrinkle repose.
In these huge iron mills nothing is made but iron
pipes They fan sizes from oneba inch to u inches
ia diameter The visitor wonders what such a pro
dgiOus quantity of pipe used for until he Is told how
much the steam engines throughout the country con-
sumo annually and Of amount required
tor and water fixtures, for heating apparatus and
and .'iap-weided." In the former the weld is
made only at the oS sdss' Of the While iron Plate
latter the edges are tapped and the weld 10
called The Tasker Iron Works in honor OF Stephen
r. NJ. Tssker. who planned them and superintended
tnelr construction. IDey now CONSIST OF three large
pipe mills. 10 form building l43 feet
long by $50 wide, fouDdery and machine shop ana
rolling mil for making the plates f0rhe pipes Eyentu
ally the Will be greatly extended by the erection
OF boundaries aud machine shops
An Interesting feature OF the pine mills 10 the sie
mems furnace which Ia exclusively used for heat
ing the plates tubes in processes of
nfaeture This furnace Is recent Germa veDoD and
The Tssker Works the second 10 use IL in this
Try: Inc gas IS generated ike illuminating gas but re-
by pipes IRON the receiver and burns with intense
neat Freedom from ashes and cinders Is the great ad
10 be DO greater than In the direct Of coal IN the
furnaces. The successful OF fuel for iron
Working susgests ts introduction sfor domestic pnr-
poses Perhaps the time IL not far distant when houses
in elites Will have their ranges, CRATES and stoves
supplied with cheap burning gas, aud when cOa-tusi,
einders eoalscutues shovels aud pokers will be
oSIished from the household.
yearly all the processes through which the pipe
III, he nrst bending OF tho iron plate into t1be, TO
AZ testing by hydraulic pressure and the turning
threads Ter the JOINTS, performed by ingenious
or sx almost automatic 10 their operations force
~ workmen 10 required 70 direct the machines,
e we rev msssfisi and pyepase the pipsa tos ship