Concrete Pipes

The first efforts produced straight tubes of concrete about 1.8 metres in length but with very low strength even after adequate curing. To increase the strength, a grid of wire reinforcement was introduced into the pipe and incorporated into the concrete during spinning. As the reinforcement was being used well before spot welding was available, much ingenuity was brought to bear on equipment design before satisfactory pipes were produced. At this stage, development was a straight pipe or barrel and loose collars were made on the same spinning principle for use as connectors. The next innovation was the incorporation of a collar unit on one end of each pipe and the introduction of steam curing.

The Humes concrete pipe was a great step forward, replacing inferior quality hand made pipes with a cheaper, stronger and more reliable means of constructing water supply, sewerage and drainage systems. The pipes were cast into a spinning mould and the centrifugal force achieved an even distribution and high density of concrete in the pipe wall, providing strength and durability.

The new concrete pipes were widely accepted, aided first by droughts that stimulated water reticulation and then by the First World War. The latter caused a serious shortage of imported wire for reinforcing, and the ingenious solution to its replacement was to collect all the old cable discarded at mine sites etc. and other places where cable was used. As these were wire-wound cables, the Hume brothers had to devise a machine to untwist the wire after it had been softened by annealing. As with many other companies, the firm diversified after 1914, taking up war contracts such as producing hundreds of collapsing periscopes for trench use and bugles.

By 1920 progress in concrete pipe making had been so great that a further increase in capital was necessary and so Hume Pipe Company (Australia) Limited was floated to take over the assets of Hume Brothers Cement Iron Company. Through the new Company, the Hume centrifugal spinning process was licensed overseas to USA, Japan, Germany, England, South Africa, India and New Zealand and by 1922, Humespun pipes were in use throughout Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, aided by the Government scheme for soldier settlement on the land. This scheme required large irrigation systems which the concrete pipe now made possible, particularly as the equipment for manufacture could be brought to near the construction site.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering