THE AGE OF STEEL 



from the mine until it appears as molten metal from 

 the furnaces, it is not touched except by mechanisms 

 driven by steam, compressed air, or electricity. And 

 yet, so rapid is the growth of the iron and steel industry 

 that there is almost always a demand for more workmen. 

 For this reason, and perhaps because of the "Ameri- 

 can spirit" among workmen, innovations in the way 

 of labor-saving machinery are not resisted among the 

 mine laborers. The American workman seldom re- 

 sists or attacks machinery on the ground that it "throws 

 him out of a job," as does his English cousin. It 

 would be unjust to attribute this attitude to superior 

 acumen on the part of the American workman, and 

 it is probably a difference in conditions and surround- 

 ings that accounts for the diametrically opposite views 

 held by laborers on the two sides of the Atlantic. 

 But after all, results must speak for themselves, and 

 the advantage all lies in favor of the progressive atti- 

 tude of the western laborer, if we may judge by the 

 relative social status and financial standing of Euro- 

 pean and American workmen. 



THE CONVERSION OF IRON ORE INTO IRON AND STEEL 



Since steel is a compound substance composed es- 

 sentially of two elementary substances in varying 

 proportions, it appears that the name "steel," like 

 wood, refers to a class of which there are several vari- 

 eties. This, of course, is the case, but for the moment 

 we may consider steel as a single subst?nce composed 

 chiefly of iron and containing a certain percentage of 



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