Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-08-21
FATHER OF The
STEEL INDUSTRY
Man Who Started Great Indus.
Try is Rapidly Becoming
Centarian
PreCarious Condition Of His
Health Prevents Banquet
In His Honor

CpCCldI " nv lIluVuV'
Bethlehem, Pa, Aug. 2l:-John
Fritz, known far and wide as the
father of the steel industry in the
united States, attained his ninetieth
birthday anniversary today. The din
ner given at the Waldorf-Astoria in
New York ten years ago in celebra-
ton of the eightieth birthday Of Mr..
Fritz is still remembered as one OF
the most remarkable gatherings ever
assembled in this country of captains
of invention and industry and the
central figures of finance allied with
the iron trade.
1t was hoped that some similar
affair might be held to commemOr-
ate Mr.. Fritz's ninetieth year, but
the precarious condition Of his health
caused the idea to be abandoned. For
the past six months the veteran iron
master has been in very poor health
and during much of the time has been
belfast. During this time messages
Of inquiry and cheer have been re.
ceived at his home almost daily from
leading men in the iron and steel
world, from Andrew Carnegie down
to the active present day plant man.
ayers, many Of whom in years past
were numbered among Mr.. Fritz's
boys"
John Fritz long ago earned his title
Of father Of the steel industry not
by any single invention or discov-
cry, but by a contribution of new de-
vices, new methods and practical
work in building up the industry in
the United States. With only a dis.
trict school education, gained near
his birthplace in the middle part Of
Pennsylvania, he gained a position IN
the steel industry that has been rec
ognized by the whole world.
At the age Of sixteen Mr.. Fritz
left his fathers farm to work in a
country machine shop, with a view
OF learning the trade Of a machinist.
After various experiments in steel
making at Morristown and Safe Har.
Dor, he went to Johnstown, where
he remodeled an old mill and built
what is now known as the Cambria
Iron Works. 1t was at this period
that, in connection with his brother
George, he designed and erected the
we'll known three high boomers"
with their automatic tables and the
three high MILL" These inventions
started an economical revolution in
steel manufacture.
When the United States govern
ment, some twenty-five years ago, de-
cided to build a modern navy Of ar
mor-plated vessels equipped with
guns of great calibre, there was no
plant in the country where the plates,
guns and forging for such ships
could be made. Bethlehem was Sc
lected as the site for the projected
plant and Mr.. Fritz was chosen as
the man to build it. He went to Eur
ope and spent some months in study
ing the plate and gun making plants
there, and when he returned he built
a plant that surpassed its European
models. Among other features it con-
tanned the greatest hammer and the
most powerful press in the world.
When Mr.. Fritz built this, the first
armor plant in America, such men as
Schwab, Corey and others who subse-
quently became famous in the steel
industry, were still boys.
Mr.. Fritz is the only man/now liv-
ing Of the small group that introduce
ed into the United States the Besse-
mel steel process. "A great economi-
cal revolution was thus effected,
from which has flowed the tremenu-
Gus development seen today In steel
manufacture in the United States. In
1898 the British Iron and Steel Insti-
tute gave MIR. Fritz the Bessemer
gold medal, which is the highest dis
tinction a SHOEMAKER can receive.