In the world today, there are only three manufacturers of these synthetic silica tubes. The high cost of manufacture, as well as the demand and limited supply has caused the price of these tubes to range between US $250 and US $450 per kilogram of glass. The market conditions of high price and short supply of synthetic silica tubes caused Mr. Perry to develop an alternative process to the one in his patent #4,596,589. Instead of synthetic tubes, It was decided to use the basic source material, silicon tetrachloride, as he knew that it was available at about US $10 per kilogram.