486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



from- Buffalo to Chicago. In 1857 a road across southern Ohio and on to 

 St. Louis was completed ; this was practically a continuation of the Balti- 

 more and Ohio Eailroad. By 1860 Ohio had what was considered in 

 that day very ample railway facilities, a condition that contributed 

 largely to the position the state at once took in manufacturing. 



Ohio ranks fifth among the states in the gross value of its manu- 

 factured products. The state has always been quick in appreciating the 

 demands of its trade environment. Its waterways, natural and artificial, 

 before the period of steam roads, gave it an advantage. No state re- 

 sponded more promptly and effectively to the era of railroad construc- 

 tion. A study of the evolution of railways in this country shows that 

 the network pattern first appeared in Ohio. Manufacturing is invari- 

 ably stimulated by shipping facilities. Excellent transportation service 

 for decades has been available for producers in this state. . Furthermore, 

 the geographic center of population, now in Indiana, has been in and 

 near Ohio for sixty years. Convenience of raw material, accessibility 

 of markets through shipping facilities for finished products, and stabil- 

 ity in the supply of labor insured by a normal equilibrium between 

 wag§s and the cost of reasonable living are essential conditions to a 

 state's maintaining its rank in manufacturing. 



The first blast furnace in Ohio was built in 1804 in Mahoning 

 County. The number of furnaces gradually increased throughout the 

 area of the Logan and Pottsville formations which contain the meager 

 iron ore. Limestone is also quite liberally distributed in this same 

 region. Charcoal was used in these furnaces for over two decades, after 

 which coal slowly supplanted wood. Local demands for cooking stoves 

 and other simple necessities stimulated the initial working of these 

 ores. To some extent, the finished product was shipped outside the 

 state. Ohio, ever since these early days, has continued to give an annual 

 output of iron ore, but the supply ceased years ago to be of relative im- 

 portance. 



While fertility of soil insuring a cheap food-supply, and easy topog- 

 raphy inviting modern transportation methods, and mobility of labor 

 sustaining manufactories, are of prime importance to industrial growth, 

 nevertheless environment has had much to do in the development of 

 states. The environment here referred to involves the extent to which 

 adjacent commonwealths have either responded to their physiography 

 ir have made progress in spite of it. Up to the present time, however, 

 Ohio owes but little of its development to mere geographic situation. 

 But extraneous influences will be of increasing importance in the com- 

 mercial future of the state. I refer especially to the midway position 

 that Ohio's lake ports occupy in reference to its own and the Appalach- 

 ian coal fields, and the Superior iron areas. At the present time Ohio 

 stands second only to Pennsylvania in its annual output of steel and 



