AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 465 



at what rate the technology of the manufacture of anthracite iron 

 has advanced during these years, we will compare the product of 

 the furnace of 1840 with that of the furnaces on the same ground 

 at the present time. The original furnace made in the year end- 

 ing July 1. 1841, 2,460 tons ; and the present plant (five furnaces) 

 produced during the year ending July 1, 1890, 111,828 tons, or at 

 the rate of 22,365 tons per furnace (on the supposition that they 

 were all running), which is more than nine times the product of 

 the furnace built in 1840 at that place. 



The production of pig iron in the United States for the year 

 ending June 30, 1890, was the largest in the history of the coun- 

 try, and, in fact, larger than that of any other nation in the world, 

 "being 258,216 tons in excess of the production of Great Britain in 

 1889. The following table exhibits the rate of increase of produc- 

 tion of pig iron during the past twenty years : * 



DISTRICTS. 



New England States 



Middle States 



Southern States .... 



Western States 



Far Western States. 



Totals 



Tons of 2,000 pounds. 



Year ending 

 May 31, 1870. 



34,471 



1,311,649 



184,540 



522.161 



2,052,821 



Year ending 

 May 31, 1880. 



30,95V 



2,401,093 



350,436 



995,335 



3,200 



3,781,021 



Year ending 

 June 30, lSyO. 



33,781 

 5,216,591 

 1,780,909 

 2,522,351 



26,147 



9,579,779 



From the above figures we see that the manufacture of pig 

 iron in New England has been practically stationary for the 

 past twenty years, while in the Middle States it has nearly 

 quadrupled, in the Western States it has increased nearly five 

 times,f and in the Southern States nearly ten times in the same 

 period. 



Few persons save those connected with the manufacture of 

 pig iron are aware of the enormous and insatiable appetite of one 

 of the largest blast-furnaces ; and the figures hitherto given fail 

 to convey an adequate idea of the immense quantity of materials 

 that pass through such a furnace, and it is only when the total 

 daily amount of these materials is considered that the tremendous 

 igneous activities constantly at work in that combination of hur- 

 ricane and volcano a modern blast-furnace of the first class 



* For this table and other facts relative to the output of pig iron in this country I am 

 indebted to the report of Dr. William M. Sweet to Robert P. Porter, Superintendent of 

 Census for 1890: 



f A large proportion of this increase has been manufactured in Chicago and its imme- 

 diate vicinity. This fact is confirmatory of a belief that the writer has entertained for 

 many years, that Chicago was destined to be one of the important centers of the iron and 

 steel manufacture of this country. 

 vol. xxxvm. 32 



