The High Street Furnace Company was little more than a blacksmith shop when it began producing iron plows in Providence around 1820. Sold to the newly incorporated Builder’s Iron Foundry (BIF) in 1853, the new owners added products that held more promise of growth and reflected their own areas of expertise.
BIF’s stated purpose at incorporation was the “manufacture of iron facades for houses and other castings for builders and other uses.” Examples of ornamental iron work produced by BIF during the mid-1800’s can still be seen on the Library of Congress Building in Washington. Other products produced by BIF during that period included cylinders for bridge piers and prefabricated lighthouses, which were installed around the world.
In 1887, Clemens Herschel introduced the Herschel Standard Venturi, by far the most accurate flow meter available over the ensuing 100 years. In 1893, the Chief Engineer at BIF, F.N. Connet, perfected the necessary metering instruments to enable use of the BIF Venturi tube as a flow measurement tool.
Venturi tubes and meters have been two of BIF’s most important products ever since. A continuing dedication to upgrading these products led to BIF’s research and development of the Universal Venturi Tube™ in 1970. At the time of its introduction, the UVT™ was the result of thousands of hours of design engineering and rigorous hydraulic testing. The UVT greatly increased the reliability and accuracy of flow measurement. At the same time, the UVT reduced costs of both lead-in piping and surrounding structures by eliminating the previous requirement for long runs of straight pipe into a Venturi.
Almost 200 years have passed since the High Street Furnace Company produced its first iron plow. Its successor, BIF, has successfully designed, manufactured, and marketed a steadily evolving product line for over 13 decades.
Today BIF, specializes in the design and supply of venturi meters, rate-of-flow controllers, and metering accessories. Combining our expertise, and thousands of installations, BIF can meet your application requirements.
It’s been over 40 years, since the development of the UVT, but it’s design is still the standard all other venturi meters should be compared to. While others have attempted to copy the UVT’s hydraulic shape, only BIF has the knowledge, experience and years of development and testing to stand behind it.
Click HERE to learn more about the UVT.