Steel Mills of Pittsburgh

Johnny Laughlin

The Boom of Steel in Pittsburgh

During the second Industrial Revolution the production of steel became revolutionized due to the invention of the Bessemer converter which was able to cut the price to produce steel from £40 to £6.50 in England. The Bessemer converter was invented almost simultaneously by Sir Henry Bessemer of England and William Kelly of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The invention of the Bessemer converter led to the mass production of steel around the world and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the steel capital of the world. Due to the new ability to mass produce steel, the price of steel significantly dropped, allowing it to become a common building material and being used to build ships, train tracks, skyscrapers, etc. During this time, Pittsburgh was producing over 60% of the world's steel and became one of the richest cities in the world and was a leader in industrialization. .

Bessemer Converter

The Rise of an Icon

During the prime years of Pittsburgh’s steel empire there was one man who rose above the rest. Andrew Carnegie created Carnegie Steel Company in 1875 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was Carnegie’s first steel plant and would end up being the first of many in his wide network of plants. Carnegie started out in the railroad industry as he was the Pittsburgh Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and then saw the potential of steel production in the United States and would visit English plants to observe the production of steel. He would end up leaving the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to focus on the steel industry. Carnegie’s trailblazing of the steel industry led to many jobs being created and the population of Pittsburgh to increase from 80,000 to 530,000 from 1870 to 1910. In 1901, Andrew Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel Company to American Financier JP Morgan for $480 million which would now be worth just over $17.7 million. Carnegie then would become a world renowned philanthropist as he would donate $350 million which was almost 90% of his personal fortune. JP Morgan would then merge Carnegie Steel Company with nine other steel companies to create the U.S. Steel Corporation, the largest corporation in the world, which was worth $1.4 billion in 1901 which is around $51.8 billion today. .

The Process

The digital archive Steel Process Lantern Slide Collection depicts the steel making process in various Pittsburgh steel companies during the early 1900s. There are various pictures portraying the different steps and aspects of the steel making process. There are multiple photos showing the use of the Bessemer converter, the main invention that revolutionized the steel making process and one of the main reasons the mass production of steel is possible. The Bessemer converter allowed for mass amounts of iron to be melted down as air was blown in to easily remove any impurities and then be combined with carbon to create steel. The archive also shows the inspecting, preparing, and shipping of the steel after the production. It also shows how the steel companies used the adjacent Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers as routes to ship out their product and receive shipments of materials that were needed in the production of steel. .

Why Pittsburgh?

The location of the city of Pittsburgh was the main reason why it became the center of the steel industry. The connection of the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers gives Pittsburgh a connection to three major trade routes and access to multiple major bodies of water. This was a major factor during the time of the Industrial Revolution because the main form of transportation of goods was through waterways. The Pittsburgh region was also abundant in coal and iron ore, two of the main resources needed in the production of steel..

Pittsburgh Today

Today the steel industry in Pittsburgh is a shell of what it used to be and there are no steel mills within Pittsburgh’s city limits. In this current day, the economy of Pittsburgh has shifted from being heavily industrial to now focused more on services. Companies like UPMC, PNC Bank, BNY Mellon, etc. all have their headquarters located in the city of Pittsburgh as it has modernized its economy over the years. .

The History of Steel

This information is vital in learning the history of the city of Pittsburgh and how it became what it is today. Pittsburgh started out as an industrial giant in the United States leading in steel production and at one point would produce over sixty percent of the entire world’s steel supply. Seeing the ins and outs of the steel making process helps to see how the natural resources surrounding the Pittsburgh area were vital in the creation of this steel empire. .

Abondonded Steel Mill