Note: ACIPCO Fifty Years Ago takes a quick look at the company’s proud past as a leading manufacturer in the water/wastewater industry. American Cast Iron Pipe Company continues a torrid pace in the first half of 1948 on the heels of a busy post-War 1947. In an expansion of the water supply system in Laurens, South Carolina, the contractor is using a new ‘roustabout’ crane to speed work and cut costs while installing 8 miles of 16-inch AMERICAN piping. In Gadsden, Alabama, AMERICAN flanged 36- and 42-inch pipe is being used in a steam generating plant under construction. The pipe is for the construction of cast iron intake and discharge lines to and from condensers circulating cooling water.  According to a Pipe Progress article at the time, AMERICAN piping was chosen because of “its permanence and non-corrosive qualities. These points are especially important in the construction of a steam generating plant because failure of the pipe would result in a shutdown of the plant.” In Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, more than a mile of AMERICAN piping is being installed as part of a sanitary sewage project. Also, ACIPCO is supplying 12-inch and 30-inch pipe for the Municipal Filtration Plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as well as 6-, 8- and 10-inch pipe for a sprinkler system at a glass bottle manufacturer in Jackson, Mississippi.

A worker in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, tightens the bolts on ACIPCO ball and socket piping prior to its installation in this photo from a 1948 PIPE PROGRESS. An employee at the City Water Department in Dallas is shown with Paula, the mother of two puppies she delivered on a railroad car en route from Alabama to Texas.  The pups, Stinky and Pinky, were found with their mom in a gondola carrying ACIPCO pipe. Weak and hungry from their trip, the dogs were allowed to keep a home in AMERICAN piping in a yard at the Water Department until they were healthy enough to live elsewhere.