STEEL. 



591 



railroad were constructed, for 1886, 8999 miles, and 

 for 1877, 12,500 miles. These new roads demanded 

 steel rails, tools, locomotives, bridges, and cars, all 

 using steel, and the general prosperity of the coun- 

 try created an extensive demand in manufacturing, 

 agricultural, and other enterprises requiring the use 

 of iron and steeJ. Old roads, finding their trade 

 heavier, put in steel rails and built heavier bridges. 

 Congress appropriated large sums of money for new 

 vessels, armor, and guns, all requiring steel of the 



Production of Bessemer Pig in 1887. 

 States. Tons. | States. Tons. 



Pennsylvania 1,843,449 New Yo:k C2 6C6 



Illinois 54M,111 i Colorado 23.iS;5 



Ohio 3.J1, 144 j Maryland 18,413 



Missouri 122.725 | Michigan 



Wisconsin 1 09,585 



West V irgin ia 73,070 



New Jersey 63,773 



Tennessee 1 1,500 



Total....3,22U,517 



A large part of the Bessemer pig produced in the 



very best quality in vast quantities. The population j Lehigh and Schuylkill Valleys, and in Maryland, 

 increased by about a million, and these required I New York, and New Jersey, is made from foreign 

 steel for domestic and other purposes. Finally, iron ores, or foreign ores mixed with native ores, 

 and steel were much used in the building of new Furnaces. The number of steel and iron furnaces 

 iron and steel works in the South. Notwithstanding ! in blast in the United States at the close of 1884 was 

 the great demand, the prices were kept within rea- 236 ; on June 30, 1885, 228 ; on June 30, 1887, 306, 

 Bonable limits. The year 1888 started badly on ac- and at the end of 1887, 339. At the close of 1887 

 count of freight-rate wars, strikes, the blizzard, and j there were 583 furnaces in the United States, andSO 

 the uncertainty as to the tariff. These affected the 



earnings of the roads, but the consumption of steel 

 for miscellaneous purposes, and tlK manufacture of 

 steel rails for renewals, extensions, and new roads, 

 was large. The bridge-works, the foundries, the 

 machine shops, the car builders, the car-wheel man- 

 ufacturers, and the locomotive builders are still 

 very busy. 



Import* of Iron and Steel. 



The foreign value of the imports of iron and steel 



new furnaces in course of erection. 



Production if ftfel. The production of Bessemer 

 steel ingots in the United States in 1887 was 3,- 

 288,357 tons, a gain of .746,864 tons over the produc- 

 tion of 1886, nearly double the production of 1885 ; 

 about seven-eighths of. our total production for this 

 rear being made by the Bessemer processes. 

 Eleven States contributed to this production, Massa- 

 chusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West 

 Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 

 souri, and Colorado, there being 41 works witli 86 

 converters employed. In 1887 there were 2,290,197 

 tons of Bessemer steel rails produced. 



The open hearth steel production of 1887 was 

 860.717 tons, an increase of 115,467 over that of 

 1886. This was made in nine States, by 39 plants. 

 The number of open hearth steel works at the end 

 of 1887 was 53, with 104 furnaces. There weio 

 19,203 tons of steel rails by the open hearth process 

 in 1887. The States producing open hearth steel 

 are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Cali- 

 fornia, and Alabama. 



The production of crucible steel in 1887 was 84,- 

 421 tons against 80,609 tons in 1886. This was 

 made in ten States Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. 



manufactures, represented in the above table, to- The production of steel by various minor processes 

 gether with machinery, cutlery, firearms, and other i amounted in 1887 to 6265 tons, blister, puddled, and 

 articles whose weights were not obtainable, was 856 - i malleable cast steel being included. 

 420,607 in 1887, and $41,630,779 in 1886. The value j In 1887, 2,373,335 tons of steel rails were produced, 

 of the iron ore imported in 1887 was $2,206,958, and an increase of COS, 796 tons over 1886. These wero 

 in 1886 it was 81,912,437. The imports of pig iron produced in fifteen States, Pennsylvania furnishing 

 in 1887 included 176, 153 tons of spiegeleisen. We i 54 per cent. , and Illinois 30 per cent. In 1887 there 



were 57,362 tons of street rails produced. 



The production of steel by all processes in Great 

 Britain and the United States, in 1887, was as fol- 

 lows : 



Ingots. 



Bessemer Steel. . . . 

 Open hearth steel. 

 Crucible steel. 



Other steel Nominal if any 



Total... 



Great Britain. United States. 

 2,034,403 2,036,033 



981,104 

 About 100,009 



332,069 

 75,376 

 5,093 



3,545,507 3,3G9,OU 



import iron ore principally from Spain, Elba, Al- 

 geria, and Cuba. 



Erports of Iron and S/eet. 

 Our iron and steel exports consist principally of 



finished articles ready for use, such as firearms, 



printing presses, hardware, axes, saws, and other 



t >ols, shovels, scales and balances, sewing machines, 



locomotives, and other steam engines, boilers, stoves 



and ranges, machinery, car wheels, castings, etc. 



We do not export much pig iron or rails, but in 



1887 we exported 55 locomotives. In 1887 we ex- j T!te Presence of Foreign Substances in. Steel. The 

 *2, 427,83o worth of mowers, reapers, ploughs, : carbon of course regulates the kind of steel. When 



ta , ble gives the j i(i amounts to .04 of one per cent, we get a tensilo 

 strength per square inch of about 50,000, increasing 

 to 150,000 Ibs. as the carbon rises to .9 of one per 

 cent. Manganese is used up in eliminating moro 

 injurious substances in the ore. For example, com- 

 bining with protoxide of iron, it helps to removo 

 this very injurious oxide, reducing it to iron and 

 oxide of manganese, which passes off in, the slag. 

 The presence of much manganese makes the steel 

 very hard and stiff. In plates for ships it varies 



values of the exports of iron and steel : 



Year. Valne. 



1871 14,185,359 



1H72 12,595,539 



1871} 14,173,772 



1874 17,312,289 



1875 17,976,833 



1876 13,641.724 



1877 18,549,922 



1878 15,101,899 



1879 14,223,646 



Year. Value. 



1880 $15.1*6,703 



1881 !S,2l6.m 



1882 !S.;i4S,&34 



1883 22,716,040 



1884 19.290.TO5 



1885 16.622,511 



1886 14.865,087 



1887 16,235,922 



: 



from .22 to .60 per cent. 



