pa1778data.pdf

U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 8)
The reputation of the Duquesne blast furnace plant as the
most modern in the world was further enhanced by the introduction
of the Uehling pig casting machine in 1898. Designed by Edward
A. Uehling—who brought his invention to the Carnegie Steel
Company after it was spurned by his former employer, the Sloss
Furnace Company of Birmingham, Alabama—the machine replaced the
arduous and time-consuming practice of casting pig iron into sand
molds laid out on the floor of the cast house. 5
Following the construction of the blast furnaces, Carnegie
officials spent the next several years pondering the character
and extent of future expansion and modernization efforts at
Duquesne. At issue was the question of whether the mill should
continue to produce semi-finished products exclusively or whether
the product mix of the works should be expanded to include the
production of finished products by building nail and wire mills
on the site. The rationale for expanding Duquesne's product mix
was rooted in the highly competitive nature of the steel industry
in the late nineteenth century. As an exclusive producer of
semi-finished steel, the mill's fortunes were dependent on its
ability to market its output to firms producing finished
products. Although the works had been quite profitable during
the 189 0s, by the turn of the century some of its most important
customers were considering constructing their own facilities to
produce semi-finished products. Companies already engaged in
such production included the American Steel and Wire Company, the
American Steel Hoop Company, and the National Tube Company.
Facing the loss of stable markets, the company's board of
directors, led by Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab, pushed for
the construction of nail and wire mills at Duquesne as well as
the construction of a new tube works along the banks of Lake Erie
in Conneaut, Ohio. 6 In a letter to Schwab, Carnegie justified
his position in terms of the Social Darwinian principles
popularized by Herbert Spencer:
Jr., Blast Furnace Construction
in America (New York: 1917), 15-6; Richard Peters Jr., Two
Centuries of Iron Smelting in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: 1921),
60-1; Harold E. McGannon, ed., The Making, Shaping, and Treating of
Steel, Eighth Edition, (Pittsburgh: 1964), 9.
5 E. A. Uehling, "Advantages of Sandless Pig iron," The Iron
Trade Review 31(March 3, 1898): 14-16; Gary 8. Kulik, "Sloss-
Sheffield steel and Iron Company Furnaces, 1976" HAER No. AL-3, p.
5, Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service.
6 Wall, Andrew Carnegie, 767-74; Robert Hessen, Steel Titan:
The Life of Charles M. Schwab (New York: 1975), 111-13.