Before our eyes the white-hot bloom enters the three-high mill, goes backward and forward through the rolls and very shortly assumes the general shape desired. Each pass thereafter brings it nearer to the finished shape. Rails, for instance, are rolled out from the blooms into one long rail perhaps 140 feet in length which glides along like a huge snake to the swiftly revolving “hot” saws which are so spaced that four 33–foot rails are sawed from it at the same time. As the rails pass from the saws to the cooling bed they are marked by a revolving stamp. When cool they go to the straightening yard, are straightened, drilled, inspected and later loaded into cars for shipment. The production of all kinds of finished rolled iron and steel products in the United States during the past twenty-eight years is given in the following table which shows how extensive are our rolling mill industries and the rapidity of their development. ────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────── Year│Iron and │ Plates │ Nail │Wire Rods│Structural│All Other │ Total │ Steel │ and │ Plate │ │ Shapes │ Finished │Gross Tons │ Rails │ Sheets │ │ │ │ Rolled │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Prod. │ ────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── 1887│2,139,640│ 603,355│308,432│ │ │ 2,184,279│ 5,235,706 1890│1,885,307│ 809,981│251,828│ 457,099│ │ 2,618,660│ 6,022,875 1895│1,306,135│ 991,459│ 95,085│ 791,130│ 517,920│ 2,487,845│ 6,189,574 1899│2,272,700│1,903,505│ 85,015│1,036,398│ 850,376│ 4,146,425│10,294,419 1901│2,874,639│2,254,425│ 68,850│1,365,934│ 1,013,150│ 4,772,329│12,349,327 1903│2,992,477│2,599,665│ 64,102│1,503,455│ 1,095,813│ 4,952,185│13,207,697 1905│3,375,929│3,532,230│ 64,542│1,808,688│ 1,660,519│ 6,398,107│16,840,015 1907│3,633,654│4,248,832│ 52,027│2,017,583│ 1,940,352│ 7,972,374│19,864,822 1909│3,023,845│4,234,346│ 63,746│2,335,685│ 2,275,562│ 7,711,506│19,644,690 1911│2,822,790│4,488,049│ 48,522│2,450,453│ 1,912,367│ 7,316,990│19,039,171 1913│3,502,780│5,751,037│ 37,503│2,464,807│ 3,004,972│10,030,144│24,791,243 1915│2,204,203│6,077,694│ 31,929│3,095,907│ 2,437,003│10,546,188│24,392,924 ────┴─────────┴─────────┴───────┴─────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────── Specifications and Inspection