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THE AM ERIC AN-SC AN DIN AVIAN REVIEW 
Ik These Kilns, Erected Where the Timber Is Felled, and Tended by Skilled Burners, 
the Highest Quality of Charcoal Is Produced 
the best and most honorable traits of Swedish character. The old 
mountain men’s homesteads and cabins, which in many a place give 
peculiar local atmosphere, still recall to our minds the sturdy “silver 
men, mountain men, and yeomen.” 
With the beginning of industrial progress, however, came the 
need for greater combinations of men with larger capital; the tiny 
huts beside the smaller waterfalls were but the seeds of future metal 
works, which grew up during a development of two hundred years and 
exerted one of the finest influences in the civilization of our country. 
Yet even the iron works were subject to the immutable law of change, 
and a new age demanded different methods and a larger scale. The 
mighty forces of steam and electricity transformed conditions, and the 
gigantic production which ensued revealed new and unsuspected possi¬ 
bilities for iron working and allied industries in Sweden. 
In Bergslagen iron, as has already been mentioned, played the 
chief role, but it must not therefore be forgotten that the silver mine of 
Sala and the copper mine of Falun were important factors in history, 
the latter in its day forming one of the best sources of income for the 
Crown. The Mining Company of Stora Ivopparberg (Great Copper 
Mountain), which took over the Falun Mine, is the oldest existing 
company in the entire world. Its oldest charter is dated February 24, 
1347, but records show that there were still earlier charters. This com¬ 
pany and the large Grangesberg Company together control the iron 
mining of Sweden, and with the further help of the General Swedish 
Electrical Company “A. S. E. A.” and the Swedish Metal Works 
have created markets in every part of the world for the products of 
