D. M. Steward Manufacturing Company receiving large number of orders for lava insulators

The D. M. Steward Manuafacturing Company, of Chattanooga, Tenn., reported that their trade in patent lava insulation during the last four months of 1889 was a long way in advance of that of any other similar period. They received a number of single orders for 100,000 pieces, and hundreds for from 1,000 to 25,000 pieces. Among their regular and largest customers are such concerns as the Thomson-Houston Company, Bergmann & Co., the Western Electric Company, the Sperry Electric Company, the Detroit Eleectric Company, etc. "We never lose a customer," the company say. "Our insulation stands a greater heat than anything used for insulating purposes, and we make pieces to fit to one-thoudandth of an inch. No other insulator that stands heat can be worked so close to size. We have recently bought a newly discovered mine of the very best grade of crude material we ahve ever seen for insulators, and have tested it by working up about ten car-loads. We are more than pleased with it. As a test we have heated an insulator to a white heat, and plunged it into cold water without cracking or injuring it in the least."