Cast Iron Soil Pipe & Fittings Handbook, Chapter 1, Cast Iron Soil Pipe History, Uses and Performance

Cast Iron Soil Pipe & Fittings Handbook

Chapter 1 - Cast Iron Soil Pipe History, Uses and Performance

The origin of cast iron soil pipe manufacture both in the United States and abroad is interwoven with historical developments in the production of cast iron pressure pipe. Prior to 1890, general information and statistical data on cast iron pipe did not distinguish between pressure pipe, which is used to transfer liquids under pressure, and soil pipe which was developed to serve as a companion product for gravity-flow purposes.

History of Cast Iron Soil Pipe

The early development of pipe systems was related to the growth of cities. As people began to concentrate within confined geographical areas it became necessary to divert water from its natural course to provide for drinking, bathing, sanitation and other needs. Ancient civilizations constructed aqueducts and tunnels and manufactured pipe and tubing of clay, lead, bronze and wood. All of these materials proved unsatisfactory since they were prone to deterioration and frequent breakdown. They did, however, fill a need and were used for hundreds of years until the introduction of cast iron as a pipe material.

The earliest recorded use of cast iron pipe was at Langensalza, Germany circa 1562 where it supplied water for a fountain. However, the first full-scale cast iron pipe system for the distribution of water was installed in 1664 at Versailles, France. A cast iron main was constructed to carry water some 15 miles from Marley-on-Seine to the palace and surrounding area. The system is still functioning after more than 300 years of service. It represented a genuine pioneer effort, since at the time of installation, production costs on cast iron pipe were considered prohibitive. This was due principally to the fact that high-cost charcoal was used exclusively as a fuel to reduce iron ore until 1738, when charcoal was replaced by coke in the reduction process. Immediately following this development, cast iron pipe was installed in a number of other distribution systems in France, and in 1746 it was introduced in London, England by the Chelsea Water Company. In 1785 an engineer with this company, Sir Thomas Simpson, invented the bell and spigot joint, which has been used extensively ever since. It represented marked improvement over the earliest cast iron pipe which used butt joints wrapped with metal bands and a later version which used flanges, a lead gasket and bolts.

Early Production and Use in the United States

Cast iron pipe was first used in the United States about the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was imported from England and Scotland to be installed in the water supply and gas lighting systems of the larger cities, principally those in the northeastern section of the country. One of the first cast iron pipe installations was at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where it was used to replace deteriorated wooden mains. The iron industry in the colonial United States was limited to the production of raw materials. This iron was shipped to England where it was remelted used to manufacture finished goods. England's failure to permit the colonists to manufacture finished goods played a large part in the United States Revolutionary War. Eight foundry owner's signatures appear on the Declaration of independence. As early as 1801, the City of Pennsylvania sought to promote domestic manufacture of the product, but this campaign was not successful until 1819, when production was started at a number of charcoal furnace plants in New Jersey. At about the same time, a foundry located at West Point, New York, also produced limited amounts of cast iron pipe.

The first manufacturer of cast iron pipe in the United States was located at Weymouth, New Jersey. Metal direct from the blast furnace was cast into 16-inch diameter pipe for the City of Philadelphia. It was used to replace the old pine log pipe for the force main from the pumping station to the reservoir, although wooden pipe continued to be used for the distribution system. The iron was obtained by melting New Jersey bog ore and the pipe was cast into molds laid horizontally in the casting beds used to cast pig iron. The small blast furnace was tapped in the usual manner and the stream of molten metal filled one mold and was then diverted to another. Production at this foundry and at other foundries which started to produce cast iron pipe in 1819 was strictly limited, and the industry was dormant until 1830, when a foundry designed specifically for cast iron pipe production was constructed at Millville, New Jersey. The foundry used the same ore and the same casting process as that at Weymouth, but it produced cast iron pipe on a regular basis and had a capacity of 18,000 tons of pipe per year. The company at Millville had been in existence since 1803.

Prior to the early 1850's, horizontal green sand molds and dry sand or loam cores were used exclusively to produce cast iron pipe. By 1854 the "cast-on-end-in-pit" principle of pipe manufacture, using dry sand molds and dry sand cores, started to gain wide acceptance for the production of pressure pipe. It was introduced by George Peacock, who is also credited with inventing the drop pattern used in machine molding, and the application of core arbors to the green sand molding of fittings. Vertical casting was used to produce pressure pipe in 12-foot lengths, while horizontal molds continued to be used for shorter lengths of pressure pipe. A green sand core was developed for use with the horizontal mold, and this was the first method employed to manufacture cast iron soil pipe.

As the demand for cast iron pipe increased, eastern Pennsylvania and the adjoining sections of New Jersey developed as the earliest site of the industry, with the largest works located in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia. The plants in eastern Pennsylvania used anthracite coal to reduce iron ore, and after 1861, when coke made from bituminous coal was widely adopted, cast iron pipe manufacture was started in western Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Growth and Dispersion of Foundries, 1880 - 1890

Prior to 1880, the foundries of New Jersey and Pennsylvania supplied the great majority of the nation's cast iron pipe requirements, but during 1880-1890 production spread to the South and the Midwest. The advance in municipal improvements in these areas and the dispersion of the pig iron industry encouraged the location of plants closer to the new markets and in places where pig iron and fuel costs were low. The largest number of cast iron pipe foundries built during 1880-1890 were located in the southern and mid-western sections of the country. Most of these were of comparatively large capacity, so that by 1890, the share of total output by the foundries of New Jersey and Pennsylvania had declined to 43 percent.

During the census year 1890, there were 33 establishments in the United States engaged principally in the manufacture of cast iron pipe. The large number of foundries constructed during the period indicated the rapid growth of the industry between 1880 and 1890. Table 1 presents a statistical summary of the cast iron pipe industry in 1890. The data presented by the Census Office was the first statistical tabulation of cast iron pipe works, separate from the operations of general foundries, that had ever been published. It was not indicated just how much of total cast iron pipe production was pressure pipe and how much was soil pipe, and the foundry breakdown does not reflect the construction of a number of plants undertaken during 1890.

Almost all of the establishments producing cast iron pipe in 1890 were engaged in its manufacture as a specialty. Foundries devoted to general work produced a small amount of pipe, but this was primarily for the local trade or for specific applications. The demand for standard sizes of pipe necessitated its production on a large scale in foundries designed and equipped specifically for this type of work. A number of pipe manufacturers also produced hydrants, fittings and connections, and a few of them made hydraulic and gas machinery, machine shop equipment, and general foundry products. However, this non-pipe production activity constituted only a small part of the total business of these establishments. Most of the foundries used pig iron exclusively to manufacture pipe, but a few used small quantities of scrap iron.

During the 1880's a number of municipal codes were instituted dealing with the use of pipe in building construction, and both pressure pipe and soil pipe were manufactured to meet the specifications of these codes. One of the first plumbing codes was published in 1881 at Washington, D.C. and it contains the following references to soil pipe installations and specifications:

Sec. 17. When necessary to lay a soil pipe under a building, such pipe shall be of iron with leaded joints, and shall be so located as to be accessible for inspection. Such pipes shall be kept above ground if practicable, shall not be less than 4" in diameter, and shall extend above the roof of the house; this extension shall be at least 4" in diameter.
Sec. 19. The weight of all iron pipe used underground shall not be less than -

For 6" pipe, 20 lbs. per linear foot
For 5" pipe, 17 lbs. per linear foot
For 4" pipe, 13 lbs. per linear foot
For 3" pipe, 9 1/2 lbs. per linear foot
For 2" pipe, 5 1/2 lbs. per linear foot

Sec. 20. All iron soil and sewer pipes shall be coated inside and outside with coal tar applied hot. All changes in direction shall be made with curved pipes, and all connections with Y branches and 1/8 bends.

An important development in soil pipe manufacture occurred in the late 1880's, when John Foran introduced a machine that made possible the economical production of green-sand cores. Prior to this time, green-sand cores were made either by ramming the core material in a core box, or by using tempered sand packed upon a core arbor by hand, or dropped through a sieve upon a revolving core barrel. The on-side method of soil pipe manufacture with green-sand molds and green-sand cores remained in exclusive use until the advent of centrifugal casting for soil pipe production.

Emergence of the Cast Iron Soil Pipe Industry

The decade of the 1890's marked the emergence of cast iron soil pipe manufacture as a distinct industrial activity. Cities continued to install water works and sewage systems at a rapid pace, and the total number of cast iron pipe foundries in the United States increased to 64 in 1894 and 71 in 1898. The total in 1894 was divided equally between pressure pipe and soil pipe foundries, and by 1898 there were 37 foundries devoted to soil pipe production. They were located in 13 states and had an annual melting capacity of approximately 560,000 net tons. New York with 7 foundries was foremost among the states in soil pipe production. There were 4 foundries each in Alabama, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois; 3 foundries each in Maryland and Wisconsin, 2 foundries each in Ohio and Indiana; and single foundries located in Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Consequently, by the turn of the century the cast iron soil pipe industry had penetrated the Northeast, the South and the Midwest.

In 1899, the Central Foundry Company with a capital stock of $14 million was incorporated as a consolidation of 34 of the nation's principal cast iron soil pipe manufacturers. It operated as one concern, and some of the individual plants absorbed by the company were closed. In 1900 the company was operating 14 soil pipe foundries in different parts of the country with an aggregate daily capacity of about 500 tons of finished products. By 1903 additional operations had been combined, and the number of foundries operated by the company was reduced to 9. There were 3 plants in Alabama at Anniston, Bessemer and Gadsden, and one plant each at Baltimore, Maryland; Medina, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Lansdale, Pennsylvania; South Pittsburgh, Tennessee; and Vincennes, Indiana.

Following the turn of the century, Alabama quickly moved to the lead among the states that produced cast iron soil pipe. In 1900 the state was the third largest pig iron producer in the nation due principally to its deposits of iron ore, coal and limestone, which were located in close proximity. The manufacture of pressure pipe had become a factor in the iron industry in Alabama prior to 1890, and soil pipe production was started there during 1888-1893. The state offered the advantages of excellent foundry irons and low production costs, which served to attract investment capital, and eventually the hub of the soil pipe industry was shifted from the Northeast to the South, and more specifically to Alabama. By 1915, soil pipe foundries had been constructed in this state at Birmingham, Bessemer, Pell City, Gadsden, Anniston, Holt, Attalla and Talladega, and they contributed about 35 percent of the nation's soil pipe requirements.

The production of cast iron soil pipe and fittings in the United States, which reached a peak level of 280,000 net tons in 1916, slackened during World War I and totaled only 111,000 net tons in 1918. Following the war, building projects, which had been deferred, were undertaken, and as construction activity increased so did the demand for building materials, including soil pipe. During the early 1920's, the industry invested heavily in new plants and equipment. In Alabama, at Anniston, 5 new foundries were constructed which raised the city's annual output to 140,000 net tons and made it the largest production center for cast iron soil pipe in the world. By 1922, the nation's production of cast iron soil pipe and fittings had reached 357,000 net tons, and approximately 180,000 net tons or 50 percent of this total was produced in Alabama.