Iron and steel.
The remarkable advance in material prosperity of the
United States within a few years is shown in most striking detail in the production and manufactures of iron and steel.
The calendar year 1899 was a record-breaker in the production of ironore throughout the world.
In the
United States the total output was 24,683,173 long tons, an increase of 5,249,457 long tens over the aggregate of the preceding year.
The nearest approach to the total of the
United States in 1898 and 1899 was the output of
Great Britain in 1880, which reached 18,026,049 long tons.
The output of the
United States in 1899 aggregated in value $34,999,077. The chief ore-producing States in their order and with their respective outputs were:
Michigan, 9,146,157 long tons;
Minnesota, 8,161,289 long tons;
Alabama, 2,662,943 long tons; and
Pennsylvania, 1,009,327 long tons.
Virginia and
West Virginia combined ranked next with 986,476 long tons.
The contributors to the aggregate output were twenty-four States and
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Diagram of a modern blast-furnace. |
Territories, and the increased production was principally in
Michigan and
Minnesota.
The amount of
pig-iron manufactured in the
United States in 1899 was 13,620,703 long tons.
In the eleven years 1889-1899 the total production of ore in the
United States was 178,507,234 long tons,
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an average annual output of 16,227,930 long tons.
In the production of 1899 the red hematite constituted the most prominent general class of iron-ore, yielding 20,004,399 long tons, or 81 per cent. of the total.
Brown hematite yielded 2,869,785 long tons; magnetite, 1,727,430 long tons; and carbonate, 81,559 long tons.
Michigan produced the largest amount of red hematite,
Virginia the largest brown hematite,
Pennsylvania the largest of magnetite, and
Ohio the largest of carbonate.
In 1890 the
United States for the first time gained the lead among the
pig-iron producing countries of the world, but lost it to
Great Britain in 1894.
The following year, however, the
United States again outranked
Great Britain, and has since kept ahead of that country.
In 1899 the five great
pig-iron producers of the world stood in the following order of importance:
United States, 13,620,703 long tons;
Great Britain, 9,305,318;
Germany, 8,142,017;
Russia, 2,672,492; and
France, 2,567,388.
It is also a matter of record that in 1899 the
United States produced 30 per cent. of the total ore output of the world, or 25,000,000 long tons out of a total of 85,000,000 long tons, in round numbers.
It is further interesting to note that the capitalization of the groups of operating companies aggregated $1,455,696,000.
The steel industry also showed the
United States to be at the head of all other countries, with a production of almost 40 per cent. of the world's steel output.
It was estimated, for the year 1899, that the total steel output of the world was 26,841,755 long tons, divided among the producing countries as follows:
United States, 10,702,209 tons;
Germany, 6,290,434;
Great Britain, 4,933,010;
France, 1,529,182;
Belgium, 729,920;
Austria-
Hungary, 950,000;
Russia, 1,250,000;
Sweden, 257,000;
Italy, 80,000; and
Spain, 120,000.
The output in 1899, in the
United States, of rolled steel was 10,357,397 tons, and in 1900 over 11,000,000 tons.
In the iron and steel trade with foreign countries, in the twenty years preceding 1900, the position of the
United States was exactly reversed; and within the last five years of that period the
United States changed from an importing to an exporting country.
In 1880 five times as much in value of iron and steel was imported into the
United States as was exported therefrom.
At the close of this period the country exported six times the value of its iron and steel imports.
These exports, in the fiscal year 1899-1900, aggregated $121,858,341, thus ranking next to breadstuffs, cotton, and provisions, the three
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higher in value.
There were in the iron and steel exports twenty-one classes valued at from $1,000,000 to $9,000,000 each.
In the calendar year 1900 the export trade in iron and steel manufactures aggregated $129,633,480. The marvellous development of the iron and steel trade above indicated contributed to make the
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A modern blast-furnace. |
United States, in the opening of the twentieth century, the world's greatest producer of iron, steel, coal, copper, cotton, breadstuffs, provisions, and many other articles entering the daily requirements of man.
If any further evidence was required to indicate the supremacy of the
United States in the allied iron and steel industries, the gigantic
United States Steel Corporation, organized in February, 1901, by a pooling of the interests of more than a dozen great operating companies, known on the “street” as the “billion-dollar steel combine,” would probably be sufficient to satisfy any doubt.
Each of the
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corporations in the new concern was widely known for the large capital it commanded and the vast amount of work it had already accomplished, and the possibilities open to consummation by a combination of these great concerns became a matter entirely beyond the range of human calculation.
The leading figures
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Rolling sheet-iron. |
in this consolidation of extraordinary interests were
Andrew Carnegie, the
Pittsburg iron and steel king, and
J. Pierpont Morgan, the New York banker, who financiered the combination.
The combination began operations with a total capital of $1,154,000,000, divided into $850,000,000 in capital stock, and $304,000,000 in bonds, and with a cash account of $200,000,000.
