Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
"Probably the most rapid development of an industry that the world has
ever seen," says Mr. Carnegie, "is that of Bessemer steel in America."
In 1870 America made 40,000 tons of Bessemer; in 1885, fifteen years
later, she made 1,373,513 tons, which was 74,000 tons more than Great
Britain made. "This is advancing not by leaps and bounds, it is one
grand rush--a rush without pause, which has made America the greatest
manufacturer of Bessemer steel in the world.... One is startled to find
that more yards of carpet are manufactured in and around the city of
Philadelphia alone than in the whole of Great Britain. It is not twenty
years since the American imported his carpets, and now he makes more at
one point than the greatest European manufacturing nation does in all
its territory."
Of the manufacture of boots and shoes by machinery, Mr. Carnegie says,
"A man can make three hundred pairs of boots in a day, and a single
factory in Massachusetts turns out as many pairs yearly as thirty-two
thousand bootmakers in Paris.... Twenty-five years ago the American
conceived the idea of making watches by machinery upon a gigantic scale.
The principal establishment made only five watches per day as late as
1854. Now thirteen hundred per day is the daily task, and six thousand
watches per month are sent to the London agency."
The progress in mining has been equally remarkable. "To the world's
stock of gold," says Mr. Carnegie, "America has contributed, according
to Mulhall, more than fifty per cent. In 1880 he estimated the amount of
gold in the world at 10,355 tons, worth $7,240,000,000. Of this the New
World contributed 5,302 tons, or more than half. One of the most
remarkable veins of metal known is the Comstock Lode in Nevada.... In
fourteen years this single vein yielded $180,000,000. In one year, 1876,
the product of the lode was $18,000,000 in gold, and $20,500,000 in
silver,--a total of $38,500,000. Here, again, is something which the
world never saw before.
"America also leads the world in copper, the United States and Chili
contributing nearly one-half the world's supply.... On the south shore
of Lake Superior this metal is found almost pure, in masses of all
sizes, up to many tons in weight. It was used by the native Indians, and
traces of their rude mining operations are still visible."
Mr. Carnegie says the anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania will
produce 30,000,000 tons per year for four hundred and thirty-nine years;
and he thinks by that time "men will probably be burning the hydrogen of
water, or be fully utilizing the solar rays or the tidal energy." The
coal area of the United States comprises 300,000 square miles; and Mr.
Carnegie "is almost ashamed to confess it, she has three-quarters of all
the coal area of the earth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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