Lost art restored; glass pipe and conduit manufacture; Guptill perfected method

PENDLETON GLASS TUBE-WORKS.

Directors and Visitors Make an Inspection —

Company to Be Reorganized.

Yesterday was a gala-day for the Pendle­ton glass tube-works. Early in the morn­ing quite a crowd of fine-looking men and women alighted from the Indianapolis train, and were soon joined by other ar­rivals from the East. The visitors were met with carriages and taken out to the Pendleton tube-works, where the manager and inventor, R. G. Guptill, had every­thing nicely arranged for their entertain­ment. Here they were shown through the immense buildings, and closely examined the many different patterns of intricate machinery which is used in the manufact­uring of the tubes and cement. Tubes of various sizes were molded in their pres­ence, and each step fully explained to the visitors.

The pipe has been successfully subjected to the severest electrical and other tests of its strength. All possible objections to its practical and general use seem to have been overcome. The capacity of the present plant is from one to two miles of pipe per day, although it is not yet in full opera­tion. It is made in two and three foot sections, having a diameter of one, one and one-half, two three and four inches. Machinery will also be added for six and eight-inch pipe. The company has already been requested to bid on over four hundred miles of pipe. The enormity of the demand is so evident that the board yesterday decided to reorganize on a stock basis of at least one million dollars, and in a few days the stock will be placed upon the market. The company intends to increase its facili­ties to fifteen or twenty miles of pipe per day. Among the directors are ex-Senator Schroyer, a wealthy manufacturer of Logansport. Ind.; Secretary of State Mat­thews, Auditor of State Henderson, Attor­ney-general Smith and other capitalists.

After a close inspection of the manufact­uring of the tubes the visitors were taken to the Patterson House, where a feast was prepared and a public reception was ten­dered the visitors. In the afternoon the factory was again visited, and the board of directors held a business meeting to con­sider matters pertaining to the future pros­perity of the enterprise.

The following from the Pittsburg Com­moner and Glass-worker was shown to Mr. Guptill yesterday: "The difficulty is not in the manufacture of glass tubes but in their application to the most desirable uses. Glass tubes can be made, but they cannot as yet be successfully cemented together so as to be fit for conduit work either above or below ground. There is no known sub­stance in the world of chemistry of equal expansive power with glass which could be used to cement the pipes, making them air and water-tight. Platinum is the only sub­stance which approaches glass in expansive qualities, but the great expanse of this material renders its use impracticable."

Mr. Guptill said that he considers the elastic cement which he has invented for joining these tubes to be as important as the plan of molding the ubes. The com­position of the cement is a secret of the in­ventor, but it is almost as elastic as rubber and has been tested in all kinds of temperature and found to be the article required.