The  first commercial steel pipe was made by welding discarded musket barrels together , end to end .   In 1815 ,  William Murdock had invented a coal burning lamp system ;  he used the continuous welded pipeline of musket barrels to transport coal gas throughout London . This allowed shops and factories to remain open longer than previously when lamps / candles had been lighted by oil or tallow .  The demand for increased quantities of welded pipe ushered in a variety of innovations for developing new pipe and tube processes and birthed the welded and seamless pipe industries of today .