WAUPACA RECORD LEADER

July 29, 1915

 

A THRIVING NEW INDUSTRY OF THIS CITY

 

            Not many people of this community appreciate the fact that we have in this city an important industry under the management of the organization known as the Waupaca Sand & Gravel Company.  This company was organized in 1911 for the purpose of developing the sand pits along the right of way of the Waupaca-Green Bay Railway.  The original capital stock was $15,000.  In January, 1915, its capital stock was increased to $25,000 and the field of operations expanded to include the manufacture of concrete sewer pipe and cement drain tile.  The officers of the company at present are:  President, R.F. Whale; Vice President, Alfred Johnson; Secretary and Treasurer, Wm. Dressen.

            The works for the manufacture of the pipe and tile are located on private tracks on the north end of Division street, between the lines of the Soo and the Waupaca-Green Bay railroads, thereby affording the manager excellent shipping facilities. They are housed in a concrete factory 150 feet long by 50 feet wide with a solid concrete floor upon which the green finished products are left to season for a time before they are removed to the stock pile in the adjacent yards.  The power is furnished by the power plant of the A.G. Nelson Lumber Co.; it is transmitted by means of a rope drive which is over 600 feet in length.

            The machine for making this pipe at present, equipped to make pipe and tile in all standard ……… inches to twenty-four …………is a very  ……. Out a completed … every …. Seconds.  In addition to the …….. ordinary cement ……….. erful built machine …… of …….. and steel construction.  At the foot of the front of the machine stands a circular table.  Upon this is set the mould which consists of two halves of a cylinder, clamped together, upon the latter is set the receiving cup into which is run the prepared raw material from the mixer by means of an endless chain in construction like those in use in flourmills for the elevation of the grain.  The center of the cup, being open, a plunger working vertically, by means of a walking beam and at the same time rotating works the raw material down into the corrugated mould and in a very few seconds the completed piece of pipe is taken from the stand and placed away for seasoning.  Water is used copiously on the season pieces to assist the setting process.  This machine turns out from 700 to 2000 feet of product a day, depending upon the size of pipe being made.  In the spring of 1916 the company will be making cement brick also.

            Several carloads of this product are being used in Oshkosh for sewer work while the city of Amherst is at present also using much of this pipe; the city of Waupaca will use from 3000 …….. of the sewer pipe along …. August.  It is rapidly taking it place in the making of culverts and for drains of low farm lands.  The Waupaca Highway Commission and the engineers of the leading cities of the country have endorsed the Waupaca product, while recent tests made by the City Chemist of Kansas City on some twelve inch concrete pipe from this plant show it will withstand an internal pressure of more than 100 pounds to the square inch without percolation or fracture.  This is at least 65 per cent higher than the test demanded by the Government Engineers.

            It has also been shown by test that Waupaca sand is the best raw material in the state. Each week about three carloads of this sand and about two carloads of cement are used at the plant of the Waupaca Sand & Gravel Company.  Their stock pile contains enough seasoned tile and pipe to reach, if laid end to end, a distance of more than five miles.

            The following men are in the employ of the company at the works:  R.F. Whale, manager; Oscar Nelson, foreman; Martin Larson, Frank Thompson, Norman Jardine, Chris Hanson, Leo Johnson, Olaf Hanson, George Hart.

            The accompanying illustrations, by J.L. Small, will give a slight conception of the appearance of the plant.