As in many other lines of commercial endeavor of to-day, speed and large tonnage have been the aim and it would seem that in ore handling and conveying devices the limit has about been reached. The big steam shovels, gravity docks, ore tanks or boats, and unloading and coaling devices, with the low cost of water transportation have made our modern iron and steel preëminence possible. To show the importance to us of this water transportation, we might mention that the rate for carrying ore from Lake Superior ore ports to the Lake Erie furnaces has been as low as $.0007 per ton per mile while the transportation cost by way of a well operated railway at that particular time was more than $.005 per ton per mile—more than seven times as much. [Illustration: THE REHANDLING BRIDGE WITH STOCK ORE PILE AND BLAST FURNACE AT REAR ] Though for some years past more than three-quarters of all of the iron ore used in the United States has come from seven or eight mines in the northern peninsula of Michigan and the adjacent part of Minnesota, it must not be understood that the Lake Superior mines are the only ore deposits in this country. Figures show that such an inference is far from the truth. It is true, however, that they have made the United States what it is, the leading iron producer of the world. There are still immense quantities to be mined on the Lake Superior ranges. Their heavy production of cheaply handled high grade ore has, of course, held back development of other districts, which also have great natural resources. The Birmingham, Ala., region for instance, is a great ore and iron producer, right now producing the third largest tonnage of any district in the country. Some time in the not far off future, Alabama with her great deposits of iron ore, coal, and other natural resources is going to announce herself in no small voice. New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia rank next after Minnesota, Michigan, and Alabama as ore producers, and several other states of the Union are not paupers in resources of iron ore. [Illustration: HULETT GRAB BUCKETS IN THE HOLD OF AN ORE BOAT ] We should not get so enthusiastic over our ore supply and iron production as to think that other countries are devoid of such material. Almost every civilized country has ore enough that it does pretty well. With many the trouble is that the ore has objectionable constituents or that supply of cheap fuel is not available. Germany has large deposits of iron ore, but until the invention of the basic Bessemer process about 1870 she was handicapped because of the high phosphorus content of her ore. The basic processes, both Bessemer and open-hearth, allow of the removal of this phosphorus during the conversion into steel, and they therefore brought Germany to the front as an iron producer.