[353] to do; ‘he presses the button and the machine does the rest.’ A plain flat sheet of metal is fed into the rolls, and comes out in a few seconds a complete pipe ten feet long, sometimes round, sometimes square or oval, smooth or fluted, sometimes corrugated, so that it will expand when water freezes in it; and, most wonderful of all, some of the machines produce a pipe ornamented and strengthened by a spiral seam. All the galvanizing or zinc coating is done after the pipe is made, which is the only way to make galvanized iron pipe reliable. As to rapidity of production, a machine will run out more pipe in a day than some workmen could make by hand in a whole winter. A brief account of a trifling accident may illustrate the productive capacity of modern sheet metal machinery. A machine not properly stopped at noon broke loose when the engine started up, running out pipe across the room in which it stood and back again as it was turned by the opposite wall. Before it was discovered it had nearly filled the room with pipe. That was twelve years ago. If the pipe had gone due west out of an open window and the machine had continued to run, the line of pipe would have reached by this time twice around the world. Some of the firm's machines would in the same time have run pipe three and even four times around it. It may be asked how a market can be found for such an increased production. The answer is, first, that it takes millions of feet each year to supply the thousands of tinsmiths who formerly made pipe themselves, but who have found that it is now cheaper to buy it ready made; and, second, that the improved quality and reduced price of the machine-made product led, as in other industries, to an extraordinary increase in its use. This Cambridgeport firm was the pioneer in the industry. It still holds the lead in it, in spite of sharp competition and heavy tariff taxation both in 1890 and 1894. Cambridgeport is an admirable location for an industry which uses imported materials. The ocean steamers and the railroads running from the wharves bring these materials from the producer in Great Britain to the factory in Cambridgeport for a very few cents a hundred pounds. It is in connection with cheap materials that invention and enterprise count for the most and secure the greatest advantage. Unless prevented from buying where their materials are cheapest, sheet metal industries will continue to find an exceptionally good home in Cambridge. The partners in the firm are Henry W. Lamb and David A. Ritchie, and the factory is located on the corner of Albany and Portland streets.
This text is part of:
[353] to do; ‘he presses the button and the machine does the rest.’ A plain flat sheet of metal is fed into the rolls, and comes out in a few seconds a complete pipe ten feet long, sometimes round, sometimes square or oval, smooth or fluted, sometimes corrugated, so that it will expand when water freezes in it; and, most wonderful of all, some of the machines produce a pipe ornamented and strengthened by a spiral seam. All the galvanizing or zinc coating is done after the pipe is made, which is the only way to make galvanized iron pipe reliable. As to rapidity of production, a machine will run out more pipe in a day than some workmen could make by hand in a whole winter. A brief account of a trifling accident may illustrate the productive capacity of modern sheet metal machinery. A machine not properly stopped at noon broke loose when the engine started up, running out pipe across the room in which it stood and back again as it was turned by the opposite wall. Before it was discovered it had nearly filled the room with pipe. That was twelve years ago. If the pipe had gone due west out of an open window and the machine had continued to run, the line of pipe would have reached by this time twice around the world. Some of the firm's machines would in the same time have run pipe three and even four times around it. It may be asked how a market can be found for such an increased production. The answer is, first, that it takes millions of feet each year to supply the thousands of tinsmiths who formerly made pipe themselves, but who have found that it is now cheaper to buy it ready made; and, second, that the improved quality and reduced price of the machine-made product led, as in other industries, to an extraordinary increase in its use. This Cambridgeport firm was the pioneer in the industry. It still holds the lead in it, in spite of sharp competition and heavy tariff taxation both in 1890 and 1894. Cambridgeport is an admirable location for an industry which uses imported materials. The ocean steamers and the railroads running from the wharves bring these materials from the producer in Great Britain to the factory in Cambridgeport for a very few cents a hundred pounds. It is in connection with cheap materials that invention and enterprise count for the most and secure the greatest advantage. Unless prevented from buying where their materials are cheapest, sheet metal industries will continue to find an exceptionally good home in Cambridge. The partners in the firm are Henry W. Lamb and David A. Ritchie, and the factory is located on the corner of Albany and Portland streets.
Cambridge, 1896.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.