The U.S. Valve Industry in World War II(3)

AIDING FUEL TRANSPORT

Another area where the valve industry earned its stripes was in the control of new, larger critical petroleum pipelines. During the first months of the war, the petroleum tanker route from the Gulf Coast to the northeastern United States was interrupted by deadly attacks by German U-boats. This resulted in dangerous shortages of petroleum in the manufacturing centers of the Northeast. New emergency pipelines such as the “Big Inch,” a 20-inch crude and gasoline line, which ran from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, solved the transportation problem.

The Big Inch could move product at the rate of 235,000 barrels (about 9.9 million gallons) a day. The pipeline was dotted with isolation valves throughout its 1,475-mile length from Beaumont, TX to Linden, NJ. In addition, multi-valve pumping stations were needed throughout the length of the line. Additional trunk pipelines as well as smaller feeder lines required vast quantities of pipeline valves, mostly built to American Petroleum Institute API-6D standards.

These charts show the stepped-up production of steel valves to meet the goals of the War Production Board.

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