The Chester Pipe and Tube Company was a company incorporated in 1877 in

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester i ...

by shipbuilder John Roach for the manufacture of iron pipes and

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

tubes for the steamships built at his Chester shipyard, the

Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

. Incorporated for a sum of $300,000, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company was located on of land at the intersection of Front and West Streets in Chester, adjacent to another Roach company, the

Chester Rolling Mill The Chester Rolling Mill was a large iron (later steel) rolling mill established by shipbuilder John Roach in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States in 1873. The main purpose of the Mill was to provide metal hull plates, beams and other parts for th ...

, and close to Roach's shipyard. Two large brick buildings and a number of smaller ones were erected onsite, and a workforce of approximately 200 was employed there. By the early 1880s, the company was manufacturing about 18,000 tons of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

pipes annually from 20,000 tons of

skelp Skelp (sometimes spelled scelp) is wrought iron or steel that is rolled or forged into narrow strips and ready to be made into pipe or tubing by being bent (into a cylindrical shape) and welded. The word is most commonly used in the traditional ...

iron. In 1880, Potts Brothers Iron Company Ltd., which owned a

rolling mill In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...

in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, acquired a controlling interest in the Chester Pipe and Tube Company. Colonel Joseph D. Potts, a prominent figure in the transportation business, purchased the Potts Brothers Iron Company in 1890, and thereafter became President of the Chester Pipe and Tube Company, a position he retained until his death in 1893. In June 1899, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company was consolidated with twenty other pipemaking firms in the northeastern United States to form the National Tube Company. In 1901, the National Tube Company and nine other major American steel companies merged to form the world's first billion dollar company, U.S. Steel."The Merger of Iron and Steel Interests"
by James C. Bayles, ''New York Times'', March 10, 1901.

Footnotes

References

*Ashmead, Graham Henry (1884): ''History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania'', L. H. Everts & Co., Pennsylvania. *Swann, Leonard Alexander Jr. (1965): ''John Roach, Maritime Entrepreneur: the Years as Naval Contractor 1862–1886'' — United States Naval Institute (reprinted 1980 by Ayer Publishing, ). *Warren, Kenneth (2001): ''Big Steel: the First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901-2001'', University of Pittsburgh Press, . *Wilson, William Bender (1902): ''From the Hudson to the Ohio: A Region of Historic, Romantic and Scenic Interest, and Other Sketches'', Kensington Press, Philadelphia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chester Pipe And Tube Company American companies established in 1877 Chester, Pennsylvania Manufacturing companies established in 1877 John Roach & Sons Companies based in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania