In Alexander Hamilton's celebrated " Report on the Subject of Manufactures," presented to Congress on the 5th of December, 1791, just ninety years ago, it was stated with evident satisfaction that "the United States already in a great measure supply themselves with nails and spikes," so undeveloped and primitive was her iron industry at that time. In the preceding year, 1790, "Morse's Geography" claimed, in a description of New Jersey, that in the whole State it is supposed there is yearly made about 1,200 tons of bar-iron, 1,200 ditto of pigs, and 80 of nail rods;" and in 1802 it was boastingly declared in a memorial to Congress that there were then 150 forges in New Jersey, "which at a moderate calculation would produce twenty tons of bar-iron each annually, amounting to 3,000 tons." In 1880 there were several rolling-mills in New Jersey and several hundred in the United States which could each produce much more bar-iron in a year than all of the 150 forges of New Jersey would produce in 1802.

Less than fifty years ago the American blast-furnace which would make four tons of pig-iron in a day, or twenty-eight tons in a week, was doing good work. We had virtually made no progress in our blast-furnace practice since colonial days. In 1831 it was publicly proclaimed with some exultation that "one furnace erected in Pennsylvania in 1830 will in 1831 make 1,100 tons of pig-iron." But, as George Asmus has well said, "a time came when men were no longer satisfied with these little smelting-pots, into which a gentle stream of air was blown through one nozzle, which received its scanty supply from a leather bag, squeezed by some tired water-wheel." After 1840 our blastfurnace practice gradually improved, but it was not until about 1865 that any furnace in the country could produce 150 tons of pig-iron in a week. Ten years later, in 1875, we had several furnaces which could each make 700 tons of pig-iron in a week; in 1880 we had several which could each make 1,000 tons in a week; and in 1881 we had one furnace which made 224 tons in a day, 1,357 tons in a week, and 5,598 tons in a month..

In 1810, seventy years ago, we produced only 917 tons of steel, none of which was crucible steel. In 1831, fifty years ago, we produced only about 2,000 tons of steel, not one pound of which was crucible steel of the best quality. So imperfect were our attainments as steelmakers in 1831, that we considered it a cause of congratulation that "American competition had excluded the

British common blister steel altogether." In 1880 we had virtually ceased to make even the best blister steel, better steel having taken its place, and in that year we produced 1,247,335 gross tons of steel of all kinds, 64,664 tons of which was crucible steel. Our production of Bessemer steel and Bessemer steel rails in 1880 was larger than that of Great Britain.

It was not until 1844 that we commenced to roll any other kind of rails than strap rails for our railroads, and not even in that year were we prepared to roll a single ton of T rails. In 1880 we rolled 1,305,212 gross tons of rails, nearly two-thirds of which were steel rails, and nearly all of which were T rails.

The growth of the iron and steel industries of the United States during the present century is perhaps best exemplified in the statistics of the production of our blast-furnaces at various periods. In 1810 we produced 53,908 gross tons of pig-iron and cast-iron ; in 1840 we produced 315,000 gross tons; in 1860 we produced 821,223 gross tons; and in 1880 we produced 3,835,191 gross Our production in 1881 will be about 4,500,000 gross

tons.

tons.

The position of the United States among iron and steel producing countries in 1880 is correctly indicated in the following table of the world's production of pig-iron and steel of all kinds, which we have compiled from the latest and most reliable statistics that are accessible. This table places the world's production of pigiron in 1880 at 17,688,596 gross tons, and the world's production of steel in the same year at 4,343,719 gross tons. The percentage of pig-iron produced by the United States was nearly 22, and its percentage of steel was nearly 29.

Although this country cannot produce iron and steel as cheaply as European countries which possess the advantages of cheap labor and proximity of raw materials, it is not excelled by any other country in the skill which it displays or the mechanical and scientific economies which it practises in any branch of their manufacture, while in certain leading branches it has displayed superior skill and shown superior aptitude for economical improvements. Our blast-furnace practice is the best in the world, and it is so chiefly because we use powerful blowing-engines and the best hot-blast stoves, possess good fuel, and carefully select our ores. The excellent quality of our pig-iron is universally conceded. Our Bessemer steel practice is also the best in the world. We produce much more Bessemer steel and roll more Bessemer steel rails in a given time by a given amount of machinery, technically termed a "plant," than any of our European rivals. No controversy concerning the relative wearing qualities of European and American steel rails now exists, and no controversy concerning the quality of American Bessemer steel ever has existed. We experience no difficulty in the manufacture of open-hearth steel in the Siemens-Martin furnace, and our steel which is thus produced is rapidly coming into general use side by side with crucible steel. In the manufacture of crucible steel our achievements are in the highest degree creditable. In only one respect can it be said that in its manufacture we fall behind any other country; we have not paid that attention to the manufacture of fine cutlery steel which Great Britain has done. This is, however, owing to commercial and not to mechanical reasons. American crucible steel is now used, without prejudice, in the manufacture of all kinds of tools, and in the manufacture of carriage-springs and many other articles for which the best kinds of steel are required. In the quantity of open-hearth and crucible steel, produced in a given time by a given plant, we are certainly abreast of all rivals. The largest crucible steel-works in the world are those of Park, Brother & Co., at Pittsburg, Penn. Our rolling-mill practice is fully equal to the best in Europe, except in the rolling of heavy armor plates, for which there has been but little demand, and in the production of which we have, consequently, had but little experience. The quality of our rolled iron, including bar-iron, plate-iron, sheet-iron, iron hoops, and iron rails, is uniformly superior to that of foreign rolled iron. In the production of heavy forgings and castings, as well as all

lighter products of the foundry and machine-shop, this country has shown all the skill of the most advanced iron-working countries in Europe. In the production of steel castings we have exhibited creditable skill and enterprise, and we are in advance of all countries in the regular use of the Bessemer converter for this purpose.

All of our leading iron and steel works, and, indeed, very many small works, are now supplied with systematic chemical investigations by their own chemists, who are often men of eminence in their profession. The managers of our blast-furnaces, rollingmills, and steel-works are themselves frequently well-educated chemists, metallurgists, geologists, or mechanical engineers, and, sometimes, all of these combined. Our rapid progress in increasing our production of iron and steel is not merely the result of good fortune or the possession of unlimited natural resources, but is largely due to the possession of accurate technical knowledge by our iron-masters, and by those who are in charge of their works, combined with the characteristic American dash which all the world has learned to respect and admire. The "rule of thumb" no longer governs the operations of the iron and steel works of this country.

A feature of our iron and steel industries which has attended their marvellous productiveness in late years is the aggregation of a number of large producing establishments in districts, or "centres," in lieu of the earlier practice of erecting small furnaces and forges wherever sufficient water-power, iron-ore, and charcoal could be obtained. This tendency to concentration is, it is true, not confined to our iron and steel industries, but it is to-day one of the most powerful elements that influence their development. It had its beginning with the commencement of our distinctive rolling-mill era, about 1830. In colonial days and long after the Revolution our iron-making and steel-making establishments belonged to the class of manufacturing enterprises described by Zachariah Allen, in his "Science of Mechanics," in 1829. "The manufacturing operations in the United States are all carried on in little hamlets, which often appear to spring up in the bosom of some forest, gathered around the waterfall that serves to turn the mill-wheel. These villages are scattered over a vast extent of country, from Indiana to the Atlantic, and from Maine to North Carolina, instead of being collected together, as they are in England, in great manufacturing districts." While