[Newspaper]
Publication: The Indianapolis Journal
Indianapolis, IN, United States
p. 1, col. 6
LOST ART RESTORED.
The Glass-Tube Works at Pendleton Gives
Successful Exhibition of What It Can Do.(
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
Pendleton, Ind., April 23. — The Pendleton Glass-tube-works Company, having completed the buildings and placed all the necessary and costly machinery in position made the first attempt to-day to mold glass tubes. This was supposed by many to be a lost art, one that the Egyptians are known to have practiced, but which, since the fall of the Ptolemies, civilization has been a stranger to. The usefulness — even the necessity — of the art has been known and lamented for centuries, yet no inventor could perfect his machinery, nor hit upon the right combination and mixture to make the casting of glass a success. R. G. Guptill, whose invention is now being experimented with, had the satisfaction to-day of seeing his fondest hope realized. The tubes are molded in halves and cemented with a compound that is also his invention.
A large crowd was present to witness the first output, for the factory’s future prosperity depended on the success or failure of the performance. The intricate machinery, which R. G. Guptill had recently patented, proved to be a grand success, and the company is delighted with the result. Many tubes from one to four inches in diameter were molded in the presence of the visitors. The machinery did its work in a manner that convinced the most skeptical that the factory will prove a success and soon supply to the world a means of placing electric wires underground, and thus avoiding the usual danger to life and limb. The company has more orders for tubes than it can fill for several years.
