450 



IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY IN 1886. 



Southern and Western States, 21,689 tons ; to- 

 tal, 92,540 tons, against 80,543 tons in the last 

 half of 1885. These statistics of the production 

 of all kinds of pig-iron and of Bessemer steel 

 rails and ingots for the first six months of 1886 

 may be more than doubled to give the total for 

 the entire year. The annual reports of the 

 American Iron and Steel Association are not 

 made till May ; but as a basis, with increase 

 for the production of other kinds of iron and 

 steel for the entire year 1886, may be taken the 

 following principal statistics in 1885: 



Bar, rod, hoop, skelp, and shape iron, net tons 1,200,958 



Plate and sheet iron, except nail-plate, net tons 345,069 



Iron and steel cut nails and spikes, kegs of 100 



pounds 6,696,815 



Steel, or combined iron and steel cut nails and 



spikes, kegs of 100 pounds 1,823,127 



All-rolled iron, including iron nails and excluding 



rails, net tons 1,789,711 



All kinds of teel, net tons 1,917,350 



The growth of the iron and steel industries 

 of the United States in the past twenty years 

 is remarkable. Pig-iron is now produced in 

 twenty-six States and two Territories, and the 

 production increased from 931,582 net tons in 

 1865 to 5,178,122 tons in 1882. Pennsylvania 

 leads in producing one half the total amount in 

 the country. In the past six years the South- 

 ern States show an increase in production of 

 52 per cent. In Virginia the increase was 

 from 29,934 tons in 1880 to 163,782 tons in 1885, 

 or 447 per cent. ; in Alabama the increase 

 was from 77,190 tons to 227,438 tons, or 194 

 per cent. ; and in Tennessee from 70,873 tons to 

 161,199 tons, or 127 per cent. Illinois also 

 shows an increase, while there has been a de- 

 crease in New England, New York, New Jer- 

 sey, and Missouri, partially attributable to the 

 greater cheapness with which the raw mate- 

 rials can be brought together in States which 

 show the increase. At the close of 1885 the 

 whole number of blast-furnaces in the United 

 States, not counting those abandoned or not 

 likely to be put in blast, was 591, and nine new 

 furnaces were erecting in the South. The Car- 

 negie furnaces at Pittsburg, Pa., can produce 

 600,000 net tons of pig-iron annually, which 

 is probably the largest furnace capacity under 

 one management in the world ; and the fur- 

 naces of the North Chicago Rolling-Mill Com- 

 pany at Chicago and Milwaukee produce 432,- 

 000 net tons a year. In the past twenty years 

 this country has increased its production of 

 pig-iron 456 per cent. Germany comes next 

 in relative progress, with an increase of 237 

 per cent. Then follow Austro-Hungary, 152 

 cent. ; Great Britain, 76 per cent. ; France and 

 Belgium, each 64 per cent. ; and Sweden, 53 

 per cent. Sixteen years ago Great Britain 

 made one half of the world's total product of 

 pig-iron ; since then she has declined, though 

 she still excels us in the production of both 

 pig-iron and steel. But our consumption is 

 much greater, this country consuming one 

 fourth of all the pig-iron and one third of all 

 the steel produced in the world. In the first 

 seven months qf 1886 we imported from Great 



Britain 454,813 gross tons of iron and steel, 

 including 19,930 tons of rails and 193,354 tons 

 of pig-iron ; and we are large buyers of spie- 

 geleisen steel blooms and wire rods from Ger- 

 many. This country has an advantage in the 

 constant discovery and opening of new coal 

 and iron mines, generally in proximity. Within 

 two years there has been a remarkable devel- 

 opment of new iron-ore fields in Minnesota 

 and Michigan. In one year, from 1884 to 

 1885, the shipments of ore from the Vermilion 

 district in Minnesota increased from 62,124 

 gross tons to 225,484 tons; and from the 

 Gogebic district in Michigan, from 1,022 tons 

 to 111,661 tons, the ores from both districts 

 being especially adapted to the manufacture of 

 Bessemer steel by the original process. The 

 North Carolina and Tennessee mines are in- 

 creasing their production. In 1885 a rich man- 

 ganiferous iron-ore field was discovered and is 

 now worked at Batesville, Arkansas, the ore 

 being used for the manufacture of spiegeleisen 

 and ferro-manganese. The present production 

 of domestic iron-ore in this country is esti- 

 mated at 7,600,000 gross tons, about one third 

 of which comes from the Lake Superior mines. 

 The beginning of Bessemer steel-manufacture 

 in this country was at Wyandotte, Michigan, 

 late in 1864, and at Troy, New York, early in 

 1865, and in May of that year the first steel 

 rails were rolled at Chicago. From 1865 to 

 1882 the American production of steel of all 

 kinds, principally Bessemer steel, increased 

 from 15,262 net tons to 1,945,095 tons. The 

 increase in the manufacture of steel rails was 

 from 2,550 net tons in 1867 to 1,460,920 tons 

 in 1882, while in the same period the natural 

 decrease in iron rails, for which steel rails are 

 everywhere substituting, was 905,930 net tons 

 in 1872 to 14,815 tons in 1885. No other 

 country shows such rapid growth in steel in- 

 dustry. The immense increase in the manu- 

 facture of steel rails is due to the activity in 

 railway - building in the United States, the 

 number of miles of railway in operation in 

 this country having increased from 34,000 

 miles in 1865 to about 130,000 miles in 1886. 

 Domestic manufacture is encouraged by the 

 fact that our importation of iron and steel rails 

 decreased from 458,055 gross tons, value, $17,- 

 360,297, in 1871, to 4,203 tons, value, $104,- 

 494 in 1885. The increase in American steel 

 industry in the past two years is indicated by 

 the following facts: In September, 1884, there 

 were in the United States twenty standard Bes- 

 semer steel works with forty-five converters, 

 and one new plant erecting. In August, 1886, 

 there were twenty-seven standard Bessemer 

 steel works, with fifty-eight converters, and sev- 

 en new plants erecting. The increase is due to 

 erection of plants for making plates for steel 

 nails, billets for machinery steel, wire-rods, 

 wire, and other purposes. The annual ingot 

 capacity increased from 2,490,000 net tons in 

 1884 to 4,102,000 tons in 1886. This increase 

 is partly due to the erection of new plants, but 



