[Newspaper]
Publication: The Indianapolis Journal
Indianapolis, IN, United States
p. 4, col. 7
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 Shroyer, 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 expense 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 tubes. 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.
