ot New YobK 



t he 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



DECEMBER, 1890 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



SINCE COLUMBUS. 



I. EARLY STEPS IN IRON-MAKING. 

 Br WILLIAM F. DURFEE, Engineer. 



TO all familiar with the iron and steel industries of this coun- 

 try it will be manifest that the story of their technological 

 development can not possibly be told exhaustively in a magazine 

 article, whose length is scarcely sufficient for an adequate descrip- 

 tion of a single one of the larger mechanisms employed in work- 

 ing iron or steel at the present time. Therefore, all that will be 

 attempted in these papers is such a description of the beginning, 

 growth, and present state of the technology of these vulcanian 

 industries as will enable non-professional readers to obtain an 

 intelligent idea of the more important improvements in machin- 

 ery and methods that have contributed to a progress which, by 

 successive steps, albeit oftentimes short, slow, and uncertain, has 

 brought these industries safely through the manifold perils of 

 three hundred years to their present wonderful expansion.* 



All authorities agree in the opinion that iron was unknown to 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of America. Tools, weapons, orna- 

 ments, and culinary vessels made of copper were occasionally 

 found in their possession, but nothing of iron. 



* In the preparation of these papers I am indebted to James M. Swank, Vice-President and 

 General Manager of the American Iron and Steel Association, for the opportunity to consult 

 the library of the Association ; and for extracts from his very valuable contribution, Iron in 

 all Ages, to the history of the manufacture of iron and steel. I am also under obligation 

 to E. C. Potter, Second Vice-President of the Illinois Steel Company, for engravings and 

 photographs of parts of the very extensive works of that company. John Thomas, Super- 

 intendent of the Thomas Iron Company, Ilokendauqua, Pennsylvania, has kindly furnished 

 me with some interesting facts relative to the first anthracite blast-furnace ; and from J. 



VOL. XXXVIII 10 



