Abstract: The article describes the creation and the structure of the information base covering statistical sources related to the history of Russian pipe industry in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, reviews the sources used, justifies topicality of the study and briefly characterizes pipe industry in this period. The author names four stages characterized in terms of their content and interrelation of elements, the presence of quantitative values and their analysis. The article gives examples of schemes for creating different tables that make up the basis of the resource as well as specific examples of their structure. The research novelty is the goals set and the way they are achieved. These have not been addressed by historians before as far as the industry, the chronological and territorial framework and some other parameters are concerned. Moreover, the use of mass statistical material in such a form is clearly individual and unique. In particular, the thematic digital information resource created which demonstrates operating rates of individual plants and the branch as a whole does not have analogs and can be further developed in accordance with the parameters introduced. In total, this resource consists of 25 Excel files containing 181 917 numerical values of which 73 591 are the values of sources the resource is based on. The methodology suggested for the creation of such an information base and analysis of its data can be considered a new approach to the source study of digitized mass statistical sources. 

Abstract: The article presents a source study analysis of the statistical collection "The Iron Industry of Southern Russia", published by the Statistical Bureau of the Council of the Congress of Mining Industrialists of Southern Russia in 1901-1917. The subject of this work is an in-depth study of the quantitative data presented in the named collection in relation to pipe production. The author examines in detail the quality and reliability of the calculations presented in the historical source regarding the production of iron and metal pipes and their parts, their production and stock in sections of monthly and annual information, as well as of the increasing total. In order to determine the comparative reliability of production and market indicators, the author used mathematical methods. In particular, to identify possible inaccuracies and errors, the author compared the indicators of the source's various tables, which were also subjected to a cross recheck. In addition, the author applied the systematic approach when the examined data were included in a system of other indicators. The study's main findings are the revealed inaccuracies in calculations and the detection of errors, which when eliminated and the corrected data used instead creates the foundation that significantly improves the quality of the historical material. Additionally, the author proved that the existing errors and inconsistencies do not distort the overall structure of the production and market indicators, as their total number and share is extremely small in the total volume of the quantitative data, which thus makes it possible to recognize the statistical collection "The Iron Industry of Southern Russia" as a reliable source.