The Victaulic company develops and manufactures mechanical pipe joining systems. They are the originator of the Victaulic coupling, a grooved component that joins mechanical pipes together securely rather than butt the two ends of a pipe together to form a joint. Devised in the early 1900s in England by an officer in the Royal Engineers, grooved coupling pipe joining systems were a concept for a special kind of joint designed to join pipes or cylinders employed in the transportation of gases or chemicals under high pressure. The invention was patented as the victaulic pipe joint.