Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-10
IT MEANS MUCH
A 70-Mile Natural Gas Pine
Contract Worth $5OO,O0O
SIGNIFICANTLY AWARDED.
Pittsburg, With Her Wrought Iron,
Knocks Out the South.
OIL AND NATURAL GAS TOO SUBTLE
To be Trusted in the Very Best Of Cast Iron
From Cheap Pig.
SIGNIFICANTLY AWARDED.
)IL AND NATURAL GAS TOO SUBTLE
BIG VICTORY FOLLOWS A CRUCIAL TEST

The supremacy of Pittsburg iron in the
markets of the country has been once more
conclusively demonstrated. Contracts for
upward of 20 miles of large pipe for
mains for the Columbus (o.) Natural Gas
Company, have just been awarded to
Northern concerns after fierce competition
with two of the largest pipe manufacturers
south of the Ohio river; Pittsburg concern
as usual, the American Tube and Iron
Company, securing the bulk of the order.
The significance of this victory for the
Northern factories is not so much sectional
as in the fact that, after rigid investigation
and tests by the Columbus people, the pref
erence was given to wrought-iror pipe over
cast-iron. The manufacturers of cast-iron
pipe, notably Dennis Long & Co., of Louis
vile, and the Addyston Pipe Foundry Com
pany, of Newport, KY, made strong fight
for their products, and with good prospects
at one time that they would WIN the day;
but the wrought-iron people asked that COM
parative tests be made, a request which was
granted, and resulted in decision in favor
of their manufactures.
HOW IT STRIKES HOME.
Pittsburg makes no cast-iron pipe. The
introduction would be a blow to one of the
city's principal industries. This city now
furnishes the great bulk of the wrought-iron
pipe used in the country, which means that
it equips all pipe lines, whether for oil or
gas. Had the cast-iron people, therefore,
secured the Columbus contracts, it would
have given them a foothold that they
have never yet been able to secure, and
proven an entering wedge for supplanting
the wrought-iron product throughout the oil
and gas fields. The result, however, is re-
garded by pipe men here as settling the
question now and forever.
Another feature of the matter worthy of
note is the fact that had the cast iron pipe
been selected, a serious blow would have
been struck at the Pittsburg pig iron inter
est. No Pittsburg pig enters into the manu-
facture of cast iron pipe, cheap Southern
pig iron being used exclusively, which
answers admirably for certain grades of iron
but the pipe product of which will not
stand the test when put under high pressure.
Iron men generally concede that the great
activity In the iron trade at present is due
almost wholly to
THE UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND
for wrought iron pipe; hence the introduc-
tion of cast iron pipe for use as oil or gas
mains would prove a blow to that interest
from which it would suffer severely, and
Pittsburg, being the center OF the interest,
would suffer most of all. Having either
their works or their principal Offices here,
are seven of the principal pipe manutac-
tories of the country as follows: The Ameri-
can Tube and Iron Works Company, the
National Tube Works Company. the Penn
sylvania Tube Works Company, the Oil
City Tube Works and Boiler Company, the
Pittsburg Tube Works Company, the Du-
quesne Tube Works Company and the Con-
finental Tube Works Company.
A glance at the above list will indicate,
better than anything else, the immense sig
nifcance of the Columbus award. Here are
seven concerns, employing thousands OF
men, consuming thousands of tons of pig
metal produced by the furnaces of this
region and turning out millions of dollars
worth of pipe annually, whose production
would be materially curtailed were the
cheap cast-iron pipe to obtain foothold in
the regions where pipelines are necessary.
The value of the Columbus contract in
dollars and cents is not so much a matter of
moment, in view of the competition noted
above, although it will approximate $780,
600. the significance of the award being, as
set forth, in the establishment of the superb
ority of wrought-iron pipe over cast-iron.