STEEL AND THE WORLD'S RICHEST MAN

Carnegie Hall/Talena Reese/Pexels The Bessemer Process, patented in 1856 by Sheffied-based inventor and engineer Sir Henry Bessemer, was the first method used to mass produce steel. Sir Bessemer was not the only person to realise that impurities in pig iron could be removed by an air blast but he had the financial backing to bring it to market. Whilst it was somewhat adopted in England, it was little used in America at the time. Given that post Civil War America was experiencing a boom and desperately needed steel to build out its railways and erect its skyscrapers, this was a country crying out for cheap steel and plenty of it. Enter Andrew Carnegie. The Scottish-American industrialist was the master of vertical integration and technological development. When he founded Carnegie Steel in 1875 his Pittburgh plant was designed with the Bessemer Process in mind. He assumed near total control of the iron ore and coal inputs by locating the factory next to large anthracite coal and natural gas deposits and constructing his own blast furnaces for on site coke production. He was also strategically placed to ship his finished steel through the mouth of the Ohio River or place it on cargo trains or barges heading to the rapidly expanding and steel hungry West. Not content to be America's dominant steel supplier, he continually reinvested profit back into the company to improve the process whenever necessary. When he sold Carnegie Steel to US Steel in 1902 the $480 million price tag made him the world's richest man. Such was his insight into making money through strategic processing he is credited with saying: “Take away all our money, our great works, ore-mines, and coke-ovens, but leave our organization, and in four years I shall have re-established myself.” * * James Howard Bridge, The History of the Carnegie Steel Company (New York: The Aldine Book Co., 1903)