pa1778data.pdf
pa1778data.pdf
pa1778data.pdf
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS<br />
HAER No. PA-115<br />
(Page 8)<br />
The reputation of the Duquesne blast furnace plant as the<br />
most modern in the world was further enhanced by the introduction<br />
of the Uehling pig casting machine in 1898. Designed by Edward<br />
A. Uehling—who brought his invention to the Carnegie Steel<br />
Company after it was spurned by his former employer, the Sloss<br />
Furnace Company of Birmingham, Alabama—the machine replaced the<br />
arduous and time-consuming practice of casting pig iron into sand<br />
molds laid out on the floor of the cast house. 5<br />
Following the construction of the blast furnaces, Carnegie<br />
officials spent the next several years pondering the character<br />
and extent of future expansion and modernization efforts at<br />
Duquesne. At issue was the question of whether the mill should<br />
continue to produce semi-finished products exclusively or whether<br />
the product mix of the works should be expanded to include the<br />
production of finished products by building nail and wire mills<br />
on the site. The rationale for expanding Duquesne's product mix<br />
was rooted in the highly competitive nature of the steel industry<br />
in the late nineteenth century. As an exclusive producer of<br />
semi-finished steel, the mill's fortunes were dependent on its<br />
ability to market its output to firms producing finished<br />
products. Although the works had been quite profitable during<br />
the 189 0s, by the turn of the century some of its most important<br />
customers were considering constructing their own facilities to<br />
produce semi-finished products. Companies already engaged in<br />
such production included the American Steel and Wire Company, the<br />
American Steel Hoop Company, and the National Tube Company.<br />
Facing the loss of stable markets, the company's board of<br />
directors, led by Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab, pushed for<br />
the construction of nail and wire mills at Duquesne as well as<br />
the construction of a new tube works along the banks of Lake Erie<br />
in Conneaut, Ohio. 6 In a letter to Schwab, Carnegie justified<br />
his position in terms of the Social Darwinian principles<br />
popularized by Herbert Spencer:<br />
Jr., Blast Furnace Construction<br />
in America (New York: 1917), 15-6; Richard Peters Jr., Two<br />
Centuries of Iron Smelting in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: 1921),<br />
60-1; Harold E. McGannon, ed., The Making, Shaping, and Treating of<br />
Steel, Eighth Edition, (Pittsburgh: 1964), 9.<br />
5 E. A. Uehling, "Advantages of Sandless Pig iron," The Iron<br />
Trade Review 31(March 3, 1898): 14-16; Gary 8. Kulik, "Sloss-<br />
Sheffield steel and Iron Company Furnaces, 1976" HAER No. AL-3, p.<br />
5, Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service.<br />
6 Wall, Andrew Carnegie, 767-74; Robert Hessen, Steel Titan:<br />
The Life of Charles M. Schwab (New York: 1975), 111-13.