By Marie Hughes, director of the Chambers County Museum at Wallisville
This is part two of the article on the Glass family of Oak Island, Texas.
“My brothers and I established Stab Cat, Inc. in 1993,” said Sam Glass of Oak Island. The youngest of the three Glass brothers, Sam is known as the dreamer of the group. He began driving pile at just 15 years old and was always looking for a better, easier way to accomplish the task at hand.
Gifted with the ability to imagine solutions and design the tools to fix them, Sam often brought his ideas to life on the drafting table. Those sparks of ingenuity would later blaze a trail in the pile driving world. He once described himself as the dreamer of the three brothers who could dream up an idea, take a T-square and triangle, and put it on paper. Like his brothers, he always tried to make things better.
“They say necessity is the mother of invention, and no truer words were ever spoken,” said Sam.
That belief was reinforced on March 10, 1992, when the Sam Rayburn Reservoir reached a record pool elevation of 175.15 feet. The Corps of Engineers declared a state of emergency and could not release any more water through the dam. Lake Sam Rayburn had never overflowed the spillway since it had been built, yet developers had constructed condos, golf courses, and subdivisions downstream.
The Corps of Engineers contacted Bomac Construction in Beaumont, Texas, where Sam and his brother Joe were working, and the company mobilized equipment and men. The task was to install 1,100 linear feet of 30-foot sheet pile behind the spillway to slow the velocity of the water when it topped the spillway.
“We were working against the clock with two rigs setting sheets all day and two driving them down all night,” said Sam. He served as general foreman, and he and his crew worked 111 hours the first seven days and 98 the next seven.
“That’s when the light bulb went off and Stab Cat was born, because I knew there was a better way,” said Sam.
Much of the danger stemmed from a method known as “working tops,” a term that came from the union hall days. The process involved a top man sitting astride the top of the sheet already in the ground, standing in stirrups to line up the next sheet before moving the stirrups and repeating the process.
“One thing that made it so dangerous was when the operator would pick up the sheet and swing it around; if the wind caught it or if you and the operator were not on the same page things could go south quickly. As a top man, you were in a very vulnerable position,” said Sam.
An incident from the early 1970s left a lasting impression. Sam recalled working tops at the Houston Medical Center for a nonunion company that had signed an agreement with Pile Drivers Local 2079. The sheets being set were about 35 feet long, placing him 35 feet in the air.
“It was wintertime, so at first I didn’t put two and two together, but I noticed that in the mornings the operator was fairly smooth, but as the day went on the wilder he would get,” said Sam. “He had a Stanley thermos bottle, but come to find out, it wasn’t coffee he had in it, it was vodka.”
During one swing, Sam’s leg was pinned between sheets.
“He swung the sheet around to be stabbed and he got my leg pinned between the sheets, luckily, he didn’t knock me off the top of the sheets,” said Sam. He immediately told the piledriving foreman to put the oiler in the seat and get him down. “When they did the operator had jumped in his truck and hauled butt!” he said.
Those experiences underscored the danger of the occupation.
“Piledriving is a very dangerous occupation,” said Sam. He noted that he and his brothers had five personal friends, all union pile drivers, who were killed on the job.
Sam explained that his family worked union because it was safer and paid more money. OSHA did not come into effect until 1971, and meaningful workplace safety improvements did not arrive until the 1980s. He said that at least by working union, safety issues could be taken to a steward, who would call the business agent and shut the job down until the problem was fixed.
A 1968 job with his father at Tri-City Beach, Texas, reinforced that belief.
“I went up the leads about two a.m. to work on the pile hammer and one of the rungs on the ladder pulled out in my hand,” said Sam. “By the grace of God, I didn’t fall.”
When he made it back down, the job was shut down until everything was fixed. Sam said that experience was one of the reasons his family worked union.
The Patent Stage
“We finally got the prototype built and we had a meeting around the kitchen table at Joe and Dorothy’s house,” said Sam. He explained that the three brothers agreed they needed to patent the threader. Joe’s wife, Dorothy Glass, handled the books and cooked many meals for the family during that time.
The brothers searched the Houston Yellow Pages and randomly selected a patent lawyer named Eugene Riddle. The firm Riddle worked for primarily handled pharmaceutical patents, and Sam described him as an older gentleman who was very old school.
Joe and Sam loaded the prototype into a truck and drove to Houston, where Riddle’s office was located on about the 50th floor of a downtown building.
“I guess from the time we met him he could see that we were not the suit and tie type and he took a liking to us and us to him,” said Sam.
Riddle asked whether they had the prototype with them. When they told him it was in the parking garage, he went down to see it and watched as they demonstrated how it worked. Sam recalled that Riddle examined it for what seemed like a long time before making his decision.
“Okay, I’ll get the patent process started,” said Riddle.
Sam explained that Riddle had clear guidelines for taking on a patent. First, it had to be marketable, which the Stab Cat threader was. Second, the inventors needed to stay within their field of expertise.
“Y’all boys did,” Riddle told them, according to Sam.
Riddle arranged for an illustrator to draw the prototype and warned the brothers that the man had such a heavy accent they might not be able to understand him. When the illustrator arrived, Sam said he was an older man with a Russian accent who placed a yardstick beside the prototype for scale and freehanded the entire illustration while seated on an artist’s stool.
His wife, who had the same accent, walked two large Russian wolfhounds outside while he worked. Sam described the couple as unique and the illustrator as an amazing artist.
In 1995, the brothers applied for a second patent. Sam explained that the original Stab Cat was made of metal and was heavy, while the second version was a composite of metal, aluminum, and high molecular plastic. That version is still custom-built today.
Although sheet pile threaders have existed since the 1930s, Sam said Stab Cat Universal Threaders are unique for many reasons.
“We received the U.S. Patent 5,618,125,135 on April 8, 1997,” he said.
The Production Phase
“Now we had the patents to go into production mode,” said Sam. He explained that brother Eddie joined the effort at that time. Although only Joe and Sam’s names appear on the patents, Eddie played a major role in building the Stab Cat brand.
Joe and Sam were still working full-time jobs, while Eddie had retired. Sam said Eddie drove from Plaquemine, Louisiana, to Oak Island every weekend to help build threaders and spent the rest of the week demonstrating and selling them.
“All three of us brothers basically worked seven days a week,” said Sam.
He credited Stab Cat’s success to having a product that worked and to their deep connections in the piledriving industry. Each brother brought different skills to the table. At the time of the first patent, the brothers collectively had more than 100 years of experience working in the piledriving industry around the world.
Joe retired in 2000 at age 62 and went into the business full time. Sam retired in 2015 at age 67 and also joined the business full time.
Stompper Mandrel ~ Pioneer Patent
“On April 2, 1996, we were granted patent U.S. 5,503,503 for the Stompper Mandrel,” said Sam.
He explained that the company he, his father, and his brothers worked for early on was Raymond International, the largest foundation company in the world at the time. The company drove piling under the Pentagon and skyscrapers across the country.
Sam described the specialized pilings Raymond used, which were similar to corrugated culvert pipes and required a steel mandrel inserted inside. Rather than driving the piling into the ground, the mandrel allowed it to be pulled into place.
“When you have a vinyl sheet of piling, you’re not going to just beat it in the ground, it’s just going to shatter and explode,” said Sam.
The brothers realized that if steel could first be inserted and adhered to the piling, the vinyl sheets could be driven to the necessary depth and then removed to repeat the process.
“That’s the theory we started with,” said Sam.
Others had attempted to drive vinyl piling without success. The vinyl material, which contained plastic, fiberglass, carbon, and other components, required a different approach. Sam said vinyl piling was necessary in areas where corrosive materials would attack metal piling, and the method worked.
“So, the brothers put their heads together and came up with the design for the Stompper Mandrel,” Sam said, adding that they received a Pioneer Invention patent in 1996.
When the brothers began the patent process for the third patent, Eugene Riddle was retiring and referred them to Karen Tripp.
“We hit pay dirt again as far as getting paired with the right lawyer,” said Sam.
He said Tripp knew patent law thoroughly and not only secured the patent but also submitted their work for the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association’s Annual Award in 2005.
“They gave out two awards that year and one was for our Stompper Mandrel,” said Sam.
The other award went to John M. Michaels, an inventor working for a large oilfield tool company. Sam noted that Michaels’ employer had several in-house patent attorneys, but Tripp held her own.
Sam delivered the PowerPoint presentation with help from Joe’s grandson and his grand-nephew, Paul Davis.
“Bill White, the mayor of Houston at that time, gave us the Inventor’s Day Award,” said Sam.
A newspaper article later reported that the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association selected Michaels and James “Joe” and Sam Glass as Outstanding Inventors of the Year for 2005, honoring their contributions to technologies used worldwide. The article noted that approximately 400 patent lawyers voted on the award.
First Commercial Use
“The first job we ever did with the Stompper Mandrel for money, believe it or not, was at the Wallisville spillway and dam (Wallisville Tx.),” said Sam.
He explained that vinyl sheets about 30 feet long were installed beneath the spillway gates. Sam detailed his earlier work at the site in the 1970s after returning from Vietnam, when the dam was first being constructed. He described the original river channel, the relocation of the town of Wallisville, and the construction of the locks and levees.
Sam recounted the massive equipment used, the crews involved, and the scope of the project, including miles of piling intended to create a complete lake system. The project was ultimately halted after multiple federal injunctions related to environmental concerns.
“Stab Cat Inc. in 1997 put in the vinyl sheets using a Stompper Mandrel and vibratory hammer,” said Sam.
He explained that vibratory hammers differ from impact hammers by drawing moisture toward the sheet, liquefying the soil in front of the vinyl piling.
Industry Adoption and Expansion
“There were three vinyl manufacturers in the United States at the time,” said Sam. He explained that Stab Cat leased the Stompper Mandrel to manufacturers when needed.
CMI attempted to acquire the mandrel, but because the brothers already held the patent, the company eventually purchased the rights after legal correspondence.
“One of the big jobs we did with the Stompper Mandrel was right after 9-11,” said Sam.
He explained that New York City transported garbage by barge to Staten Island, where soil leakage had been reported. Stab Cat drove vinyl sheets to seal the leakage.
The brothers later received a fourth patent, U.S. 6,231,274 B1, on May 15, 2001, for a lifting device for composite sheet pile, and a fifth patent, U.S. 5,803,672, on September 8, 1998, for a hydraulic ram push-off for composite steel.
“Stab Cat threaders have set miles and miles of steel sheet piles and the Stab Cat Stompper Mandrels have sealed many super fund sites with the vinyl piles,” said Sam.
He noted that he and Joe sold the rights to the Stompper Mandrel, which remains in use today. All Stab Cat Threaders and Ground Release Shackles continue to be built in Oak Island, Texas.
“What began as a necessity to help pile drivers increase production in a safer manner has expanded across trades and fields of work,” said Sam.
He said Stab Cat products are now used in pipeline maintenance, ironwork, steel erection, and trench work, with the goal of expanding into new industries while improving safety and productivity.
“Stab Cat is Veteran owned and family operated and the next generation will continue the legacy,” said Sam. “I served in the Army and am leaving it in the capable hands of my grandson, Navy veteran, David L. Pingry.”
Sam said he and David are currently working on a new patent.
“The question I am asked the most is how Stab Cat got its name,” said Sam.
He explained that “Stab” came from pile driving terminology, while “Cat” came from a saying used by their father, L.E. Glass.
“If something he built worked, he would say, ‘Ain’t that a Cat’s @$$,’” said Sam with a laugh.
Reflecting on the journey, Sam concluded, “Some might say we lived the American Dream, which is true. Through hard work and family unity, we overcame challenges, but I give all the credit to God’s grace for getting me through Vietnam and 50 years of pile driving.”