In 1893, Stephen Bradley, Sr. founded the Fiber Conduit Company in Orangeburg, New York. Bradley's neighboring Union Electric Company power plants used exhaust steam from their generators to dry lengths of fiber conduit before they were sealed with liquified coal tar pitch. In turn, the Fiber Conduit Company's conduits were used to run electrical wiring throughout numerous newly constructed buildings across the country for the next forty years. Bradley, along with several competitors, installed miles of the fiber electrical conduit in skyscrapers, such as the Empire State Building.