The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-04-29

"The first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury," saws w. j. hampton in Aims
lees. "was known as the iron age steel
being little used. owing to the difficulty
and cost of it's manufacture by the
methods then known. In 1870 the total
steel output of the world was but Il.OW
tons, but the restless energies of man
found in il such qualities of useful
ness. such possibilities OF application to
the worlds needs, that they permitted
no cessation of their search for the
ma eic alchemy that was to make steel
The universal metal BesSeiner, Sic
mems, Martin; Nlushlet and dozens of
others of less note We're devoting them.
selves to the work. and in 1886 Henry
BeSScmer, an Englishlnan, later Sir
Henry Bessemcr, introduced u process
of decarbonzing pig iron and convert
ing 1t into steel by BLOWN" air into the
molten metal in the furnace. Mushle,'s
application of Spiegeleisen TO restore
the proper per cent. of carbon perfect
ed the process. and the Bcssemcr steel
uf today was the result.
six years later the first steel rails
We're made in England. seven years
later. in June. 1867, the first Besse1ner
steel was made in America at Steelton,
Pa, and III August of the same year
the first steel rails We're made at
.JohnStown, Pa. In that year 5000 tons
of steel We're produced in this country,
1850 of which went into rails. In 1899,
thirty-tWo years later, the United
States produced l0.639.S59 tons of all
kinds of steel, 2.2IO,5S5 tons of which
were rails. While this Stupendous
growth was taking place in this coun-
try. the old world was coming on
apace, and in 1899 Great Britain. our
chief competition, produced Ave million
tons, an increase of 4,960.00O tons over
her product of 1850. and still less than
half the product of the United States.
Truly the time is well called the steel
age, and the iron Of the first half of the
century is no longer qualified to give
titular distinction to the second.
The production of cheap steel (by
Bcssemer. open hearth. crucible and
other processes) has not only brought
it into universal use in the older appli-
cations of iron in the industries, but
has encouraged the development of
newer necessities until the ingenuity of
man is taxed TO discover some further
Use to which it may not be applied.
From a watch spring. so finely
lrawn as to be almost Uncomfortable,
u a mighty warship, weighing thou
'ands of tons, is q wide reach, but
teel spans it as easily as a fairy steps
rom a sunbeam to rosebud, and the
atny spring and the giant ship are one
IN the material of their being. Steel
has made possible the skyscraper that
gigantic wonder of modern architec-
turc whose steely skeleton safely car
rieS its garb of stone or brick; it has
given us ships of war beside which the
wooden walls of the ancients would be
as tnsel; it has given us ships of COM
merce that can carry in their holds the
entire merchant marine Of Phoenicia:
It, has given us bridges that stretch
their tentacles across all chasms ana
cling forever: it has given us railways
that stand the friction of millions of
Whirllng wheels carrying their millions
~ tons of freight and their millions of
passengers and show no wear, and at
every call of man for a bearer of his
mlghtier burdens steel responds and is
not found lacking. And not less com.
prehensive and valuable is 1T in the
lesser and more numerous spheres of
usefulness"