“An industry whose product is spreading the fame of Williamsport all over the United States and even into foreign lands is the Standard Wood Pipe Company.”

Wood pipe manufacturing began here in 1910 with the establishment of the company at the foot of Rose Street. The owners were Max M. Brown and Jacob C. Brown.

Wood was preferred years ago over cast iron and other metal pipes because they quickly fell ruin to a process called electrolysis-damage done to metal pipes by electrical railways running over them, causing the pipes to disintegrate and burst. Sulfur, salts, mineral water and chemicals also quickly destroyed metal piping but surprisingly, had little effect on wood pipes.

During 1914, orders for the Williamsport wood pipe placed by municipalities and railroad, coal and manufacturing companies totaled in the millions of dollars. In one mail delivery alone, orders for more than $1M in pipe arrived at the Williamsport mill.

With the outbreak and involvement of America in World War I, the Standard Wood Pipe Company operated exclusively for the government, working day and night under the supervision of army officers. Pipe was made for five army camps, a shipyard at Hog Island near Philadelphia and for 16 different units of the DuPont Powder Company for use in its ammunition factories.

Eighteen miles of pipe was laid at Camp Union, on Long Island, NY, where 60,000 troops were quartered. Shiploads of Williamsport wood pipe were sent to France under special guard and laid right up to the front-line trenches.

In 1921, among the firm’s largest contracts were 13 miles of pipe for Atlantic, NJ. Pipe was also supplied to Pleasantville, NJ, where several lines were laid out through a marsh and into the ocean for five miles. Pipe for the Texas Oil Company and 10 miles of 30-inch pipe for the water works in Birmingham, AL, were other large contracts.

Wood used by the firm in the manufacture of wood pipe was limited primarily to white pine although maple redwood, Douglas fir and cypress were occasionally used.

Three sawmills owned by the Standard Wood Pipe Company supplied wood to the plant continuously. The firm also owned large stands of timber in the West Branch Valley. Wood was shipped to Williamsport in the company’s own fleet of five-ton trucks. Lines of the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Railroads led directly into the plant.

In 1917, the company moved to a new location at the foot of Chatham Street. Another expansion was required in 1921, when the firm occupied several large buildings on a seven-acre tract at the foot of East Jefferson Street. In the early 1920s the company was turning out more than a mile of wood pipe a day.

Pipe made in the plant was classified into 17 different diameters running from 1 ½ inches to 48 inches and in lengths from four to 12 feet. Pipe up to three inches in diameter was smoothly bored from white pine logs. Pipe from four to 48 inches was made by assembling staves.

Each section of pipe at the plant, whether smooth bored or staved, was spirally wound with iron bands containing a tensile strength of 65,000 pounds to the square inch. After banding, the pipes were then passed through a bath of asphaltum coating, heated to a temperature of 250 to 300 degrees.

Pipes were then passed over a table of sawdust where they received an additional protective coating. When completed, the coating was said to be tough that it would take a strong man with a chisel many days to remove it.

The Standard Wood Pipe Company fell victim to the Great Depression in 1930. It was resurrected under different management, however, a decade later with the name of Eastern Wood Products, Inc. That firm played a significant role in supplying piping to the nation during a time when World War II made all metals scarce.