U.S. Steel Conference Table
In 1894, the Swiss-born engineer Ralph C. Stiefel came to the Ellwood City from England to work for the Ellwood Weldless Company. Along with becoming a stockholder in the company, Stiefel accepted the position of general manager and introduced his own patented process for making seamless tubing. Ellwood Weldless became the first company in the United States to make tubing by the Stiefel method making it one of the leaders in the tubing industry.
By 1908, the U.S. Steel Ellwood plant had consolidated the Shelby Steel Tube Company (Mill A) and National Steel Tube Company (Mill B) into the National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation) and all the seamless tube works was produced in Ellwood City. Due to the growth, the Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof with an annual capacity of 350,000 gross tons of tubular goods by 1942 and employment during World War II reached 4,000 employees.
In 1974, U.S. Steel closed its doors in Ellwood City and the last seamless tube was produced at the National Tube Company. When the plant closed everything that was not sold off, was to be shipped to the Gary, Indiana plant however not everything made it. In the U.S. Steel (Ellwood Works) conference room was a beautiful hand made table with a glass top and under the glass were samples of all the products the Ellwood Works produced. These pieces of tubing were not made for this specific purpose but were taken from parts of tubing made to customers order and thus demonstrate to some extent the wide adaptability and range of shapes and sizes of this interesting material. The Shelby Seamless Steel Tubing could be formed into a large variety of shapes and uses were almost limitless.
The legs of the table were taken off of the table and the table top went to Mr. Stiefel’s family. Someone asked his daughter what she planned to do with the decorative piece. Since she had no plans for the piece, it was given to the local citizen who had himself worked at U.S. Steel and hung in his home, where it still hangs today.
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My great great grandfather Cooney owned the land that the mills were built on.He was a stone mason that built St.Agatha’s,and several other buildings in Ellwood.