Seamless Tube Industry
Ellwood City, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
A block away was the plant in which Ralph C. Stiefel, the Swiss-born engineer, invented the rotary piercing process for making steel tubing, 1895. He helped found Ellwood Weldless Tube Co., which became a nucleus for National Tube Div. of U.S. Steel.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1895, Swiss-born engineer Ralph C. Stiefel worked out the rotary piercing process at a plant in Ellwood City — a way to punch and roll a solid steel billet into seamless tubing without a welded seam. The breakthrough helped launch the Ellwood Weldless Tube Company, which grew into a core piece of U.S. Steel's National Tube Division.
Why it matters
Seamless steel tube made possible everything from oil pipelines to boilers and bicycles, and this modest western Pennsylvania town was where the industrial process behind it was born.
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Related people
- · Ralph C. Stiefel
Themes & tags
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