432 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



little business; no capital invested from the outside; none of the 

 present-day commercial enterprise. Every small manufacturer was a 

 workman, and furnished his own capital. Such statistics as we have 

 of the decade before the war show that all combined the little fur- 

 naces and factories used somewhat more than three hundred thou- 

 sand tons of coal per annum. In 1906 forty-six million tons were 

 mined in the Pittsburgh district. Farming and matters relating to 

 river traffic were the greater industries, and Pittsburgh was the market 

 and outfitting emporium west of the Alleghenies. 



When at length a little charcoal iron began to be produced, the 

 sturdy artisans of Pittsburgh worked some of it up into articles such 

 as plows, axes, saws, scythes and other farm implements; locks, scales 

 and malleable iron castings. But the Pittsburgher did not reach out 

 after business; he scarcely even asked for it; all of which is in con- 

 formity with the Scotch-Irish principle of stubbornness. He did not 

 advertise, nor send out salesmen. It has been said that not a traveling 

 salesman was sent out of Pittsburgh before the war. Whereas the 

 Yankee business man of other western towns went after trade, the 

 Pittsburgher's attitude was that of confident indifferentism. " This is 

 the head of navigation," he would say — " everything has got to come 

 here, sooner or later." And he was right. Whether he builded better 

 than he knew, we can not say; but events have proved that his in- 

 dustrial fortress was impregnable. 



It was during the years of the war, and the period immediately 

 subsequent, that Pittsburgh " found herself." The first oil discovery 

 was made just prior to the actual breach between the north and south; 

 and the production of oil, added to the other resources of the region, 

 gave a new impulse to the industrial situation. The terrible years 

 from 1860 to 1865 stimulated rather than depressed business condi- 

 tions in Pittsburgh; since the needs of the War Department, of out- 

 fitting, furnishing of arms and armament, building of river craft and 

 gunboats, and the point of vantage that was offered for the transfer 

 and transportation of troops and supplies, were tremendous factors. 



The things that have made for the development of Pittsburgh in the 

 last generation have been set forth and printed and distributed the 

 country over, and translated into all the languages of the globe. To 

 try to enumerate them would involve a burdensome task, unnecessary 

 to the present article; and only a few leading figures may be given, 

 merely to suggest what is now being done. 



The coal production of 1906 has been stated at 46.000,000 tons; 

 the figures for 1907 being not yet accessible. The traffic tonnage, by 

 rail and river for the same period was 122,000,000 tons; 12,000,000 

 tons having descended the Ohio Eiver from Pittsburgh. The traction 

 cars carried during the year 200,000,000 people. The total bank 

 deposits at the close of the year were over $340,000,000. The real 



