The South Bend Tribune from South Bend, Indiana • 78

South Bend standpipe (Continued from page 3) into pipes directly from the river. Although it would be expensive to build and erect, a standpipe continually full of water would make equal pressure available from each water main in the city whenever needed. Leading local advocate of the Holly system was William H. Beach, proprietor of a South Bend paper mill Arguing merits of the standpipe system was Leighton Pine, superintendent of the Singer Sewing Machine Co. cabinet factory here.

They debated the issues in newspapers, on street comers, on theater stages, in meeting halls and in the court house. In ia dramatic move, Pine built a small standpipe model with a faucet at the bottom. When it was filled with water and the faucet turned on, a small jet of water spurted up half the height of the pipe. The demonstration so stirred many people attending a meeting in the court house that they left the room shouting in favor of the standpipe system. drawn wagon in front of fire station in 1901.

SOUTH BENDS mayoral election of 1872 revolved around the standpipe Vs. reservoir controversy, and William Miller, the standpipe candidate, won in a landslide. On July 7, 1873, the Common Council appointed Mayor Miller, Joseph Worden, Peter Weber, Alexander Staples and S. R. King to a committee to provide thejerection and construction for said city of a suitable and sufficient system of water works, Of what is called a standpipe system Two bond issues totaling $165,000 were floated to pay for the project, which was put in the charge of engineer John Birkinbine.

His specifications called for a standpipe to consist of a wrought iron pipe five feet in diameter and 200 feet high, resting upon and secured to a base casting with nozries to accommodate pumping and distributing mains. By August, excavating was underway for a masonry foundation 32 feet square and seven feet high. Early in October, Thomas Glennon Co. of the National Boiler Works of Chicago brought a group of boilermakefs to South Bend and began constructing the actual tube of the standpipe. It took three weeks to build it using 108 sheets of iron totaling 41,382 pounds.

The iron sheets were fastened together by 7,856 rivets, adding another ton to the tubes weight While this was going on, other boilermakers were putting in place the base casting which would hold the South) Bend firefighters of Company No. 1 with big tube erect This was a casting with an interiial diameter of five feet It was two inches thick and 414 feet high. By Nov. 1 everything was ready to raise the 200-foot pipe and place it in the base casting, a tall order to be sure. A similar engineering project had failed in Toledo, Ohio, when the tube fell while being raised and broke apart when it crashed dowa THOMAS GLENNON Co.

hired Alexander Staples, a South Bend city councilman whose business was moving large buildings, to erect the huge standpipe. Staples assembled a crew of men and the necessary spars, ropes, capstans, blocks and tackle. A minor accident occurred on Nov. 6 when a rope broke and two poles fell to the ground, but nothing was damaged and the work continued. At 3 p.m.

Nov. 14, the actual lifting of the standpipe began. Workers elevated it about 22 feet the first day, on two capstans and with 12 men turning them. The next day, Saturday, Nov. 15, some 5,000 excited people gathered to watch the work continue.

At 4 p.m. the massive iron tube reached an, attitude of 70 degrees, and it hung in that position all that night. The work resumed Sunday morning, but by nightfall it still was leaning away from plumb. At 11 Monday morning it was nearly in position, and at 2:30 m. the hoisting job was complete.

The significance of the event was conveyed by The Tribune: We have the pleasure of informing our readers that today there was accomplished in our city one of the greatest triumphs of engineering and mechanical skill ever attempted in this country High above every house top in the city and looming up far beyond the highest of our church spires, stands in its symmetry the immense tube, a monument alike to the enterprise of our city, and of all who were connected with it travelers in passing trains will notice it and anxiously inquire its purposes and proportions. Visitors will flock to the city and gaze in awe at the truly wondrous structure, and our citizens will point with just pride to a public improvement of no mean magnitude. Once the tube was in place Mayor Miller stood up on a capstan and congratulated the people of the city. Then the crowd called for a speech from Staples, but his remarks were brief: Gentlemen, I can raise a stand- 1963 King Feature Syndicate. Inc.

World right raeerved. 0 1983 lng Feerurei Syndicate, Inc. World right raeerved. "Well, my bartender is Mike Muldaney, and Mike Muldaney says "First of all, she objected to the blueprints. She wanted greenprints.

South Bend Tribune, Sunday, 983 FOUR.