In a message dated 5/1/2005 1:52:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:


> I would think there's a good possibility that the frou-frou sections you're
> amazed by could have been made up (and soldered together) from smaller
> pieces which might've been easier to fabricate in whatever sort of presses they
> had.

it's not the size of the section that interests me, but rather the pressing
of the sheet of galvanized into what I think is called a complex conic section,
where the flute spiral around the axis (as opposed to just up and down).

Cast iron, being poured, offers itself nicely to such a mold.  But galvanized
iron, being pressed from flat sheets, seems difficult to mold in this way.

c