There once was a pipe company in my town ?

[WNYTONY]

I agree about the typo. That said, who knows, they could have been mass-producing pipes (even at 25k a month) & sending them to Sears or something like A&P.

I find it odd that there's little mention of them online outside of references to this article and one notice in the 40s. You figure a place that had to have produced a few million pipes over the years would leave something behind more substantial than a newspaper clipping.

I'll get working on it.

[NeverBend]

Our newspaper does a Turning Back the Clock column where they post stories from the old newspapers from 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.
This one was in today's paper - from 1915. Apparently there was once a pipe company here ?
I wasn't thinking of smoking pipes until I saw "briar from France and Italy". That means smoking pipes, right ?
25,000 pipes a day in 1915 sounds like a large number though ?
Any thoughts or anyone ever heard of WH Utter & Son ?
Just thought some of you pipers may be interested in seeing this.

Tony,

Thanks for the great find and topic.

W.H. Utter is listed as a Box Maker in 1916, with Mr. WH and another Utter on the board of directors. Perhaps this was their first (main) business?
https://books.google.com/books?
id=Q_BYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=wH+Utter+%26 +Sons+history&source=bl&ots=rjeZItoRpD&sig=Uxrp5-7oWjXMxauCRz9NwGCLwjc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4nKTY m9TJAhVIHh4KHfU6BEUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=wH%20Utte r%20%26%20Sons%20history&f=false

They're listed as a Pipe Maker in the 1949 RTDA. They survived at least this long so you'd think that some would have ended up on eBay.
http://pipepages.com/49rtda18.htm



Inexpensive pipes and I've never seen their brand, ever. @AndyCAYP may be correct that they made pipes under labels for stores (private labels) but the 1949 RTDA registry indicates that they had pipes under their own labels too, even if only a few. They may have made better pipes in 1949 or before but certainly by this time they would have had more productive ways of making the bowls. New York was the pipe capital of the USA in 1949 .

25,000 pipes a day means: 250 pipes a day per employee. 125,000 a week (aal employees andassuming a normal 40 hour work week) and ~6,000,000 a year. There were some companies making pipes in the millions but I think the weekly number was substituted for the daily number (at least).

At 25,000 pipes per week, that would be about 1.2 million a year for the company or 12,000 per employee and 4 pipes an hour (per person). That's plausible. Based on the 1949 prices that would mean a wholesale price about ~.28c / pipe, or $3,360 a year per employee and in that works for the industry, era and salary range. Utter could have made money paying their workers ~$1,000-$1,200 on average. No idea if Utter Pipe business had grown or shrunken between 1915 to 1949.

Savinelli, with more advanced frazing machines takes 20 or so minutes to make a finished pipe (based on their data). My example is 4 pipes an hour, (15 minutes) although I'd like to know how they made the bowls, since that would have been a bottleneck.

No prices on the 1915 pipes and given the machines available, I'd think that my revised estimate is the upper limit and in 1915 it may have been half as much but there's no data, just my conjecture on how they could have made so many bowls.

Pete

[BryGuySC]

Tony,

Thanks for the great find and topic.

W.H. Utter is listed as a Box Maker in 1916, with Mr. WH and another Utter on the board of directors. Perhaps this was their first (main) business?
https://books.google.com/books?
id=Q_BYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=wH+Utter+%26 +Sons+history&source=bl&ots=rjeZItoRpD&sig=Uxrp5-7oWjXMxauCRz9NwGCLwjc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4nKTY m9TJAhVIHh4KHfU6BEUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=wH%20Utte r%20%26%20Sons%20history&f=false

They're listed as a Pipe Maker in the 1949 RTDA. They survived at least this long so you'd think that some would have ended up on eBay.
http://pipepages.com/49rtda18.htm



Inexpensive pipes and I've never seen their brand, ever. @AndyCAYP may be correct that they made pipes under labels for stores (private labels) but the 1949 RTDA registry indicates that they had pipes under their own labels too, even if only a few. They may have made better pipes in 1949 or before but certainly by this time they would have had more productive ways of making the bowls. New York was the pipe capital of the USA in 1949 .

25,000 pipes a day means: 250 pipes a day per employee. 125,000 a week (aal employees andassuming a normal 40 hour work week) and ~6,000,000 a year. There were some companies making pipes in the millions but I think the weekly number was substituted for the daily number (at least).

At 25,000 pipes per week, that would be about 1.2 million a year for the company or 12,000 per employee and 4 pipes an hour (per person). That's plausible. Based on the 1949 prices that would mean a wholesale price about ~.28c / pipe, or $3,360 a year per employee and in that works for the industry, era and salary range. Utter could have made money paying their workers ~$1,000-$1,200 on average. No idea if Utter Pipe business had grown or shrunken between 1915 to 1949.

Savinelli, with more advanced frazing machines takes 20 or so minutes to make a finished pipe (based on their data). My example is 4 pipes an hour, (15 minutes) although I'd like to know how they made the bowls, since that would have been a bottleneck.

No prices on the 1915 pipes and given the machines available, I'd think that my revised estimate is the upper limit and in 1915 it may have been half as much but there's no data, just my conjecture on how they could have made so many bowls.

Pete

I gotta say, Pete, you are an unending fount of knowledge.

[AndyCAYP]

They're listed as a Pipe Maker in the 1949 RTDA. They survived at least this long so you'd think that some would have ended up on eBay.

Pete,

First, your knowledge of this pursuit is always awesome and pretty awe-inspiring. Thanks for being around and being active, the world needs more people like you.

When I have a minute I'm going to figure out if there's some sort of system in place to receive notifications when a title is added to eBay. Given my current schedule and the limited amount of time I have to goof off online, and my propensity to forget things not directly work or family related, I think it's safe to say I'll forget to make a weekly search for the brand to catch any current auctions. Plus, too, I'm not finding any pics or mention of pipes from this company elsewhere online so it can't come up all that often. As you said though, some must have survived.

[NeverBend]

When I have a minute I'm going to figure out if there's some sort of system in place to receive notifications when a title is added to eBay. Given my current schedule and the limited amount of time I have to goof off online, and my propensity to forget things not directly work or family related, I think it's safe to say I'll forget to make a weekly search for the brand to catch any current auctions. Plus, too, I'm not finding any pics or mention of pipes from this company elsewhere online so it can't come up all that often. As you said though, some must have survived.

If you see one, please let me know and if you figure out how to get eBay to do an alert, please let me know that too, thanks!

Utter, based on the 1949 models, probably sold their better bowls or as finished private labels. That would have pushed up their margins a bit.

I gotta say, Pete, you are an unending fount of knowledge.

Bryan, I didn't know anything about Utter until Tony's post. I just looked it up and applied the economics from other companies.

[WNYTONY]

I gotta say, Pete, you are an unending fount of knowledge.

I was just waiting for him to chime in - knew he'd know something about it, as he always seems to

[BryGuySC]

From The Jamestown NY Post Journal, Friday evening, Feb 2, 1951

Attachment 4410

[fastnbulbous]

@WNYTONY ,

My Father is from Olean (allegheny, actually, but close enough).
I will be part of the search crew, but have not found anything so far (aside from the google books ref).

It would be awesome to find some.