Capacity April 1, 1901 7,440,000 9,425,000 7,719,000 Purchase of Union and Sharon Cos. 1,228,000 1,258,000 1,103,000 Tennessee purchase 1,000,000 500,000 400,000 Additions made by different Cos. after acquisition 5,322,000 5,887,000 3,678,000 Capacity January 1, 1909 14,990,000 17,070,000 12,900,000 This report also states that although the total steel capacity of the Corporation had been increased by 2,306,000 tons during 1908 its capacity for the making of Bessemer steel had decreased 746,000 tons, open-hearth capacity increasing 3,052,000 tons. These figures illustrate sufficiently the change then occurring in the steel trade from the old Bessemer to the new open-hearth process. An even more striking illustration of the manner in which open-hearth steel has been displacing the older Bessemer process in recent years is afforded by the figures of the American Iron & Steel Institute. In 1880 open-hearth production was only 100,851 tons against 1,064,262 tons of Bessemer. A decade after Bessemer production was 3,688,871 tons compared with 513,232 tons of open-hearth, and in 1900, 6,684,770 tons of Bessemer were turned out by the steel mills of this country for 3,398,135 tons of open-hearth. By 1907 the two processes of steel making were running a close race for popularity with consumers, open-hearth production being 11,549,736 tons in that year, and Bessemer 11,667,549 tons. In every subsequent year open-hearth production has been the larger, as shown by the following figures of the country’s production: YEAR BESSEMER OPEN-HEARTH 1908 6,166,755 7,836,729 1909 9,330,783 14,493,936 1910 9,412,772 16,504,509 1911 7,947,854 15,598,650 1912 10,327,901 20,780,723 1913 9,545,706 21,599,931 1914 6,220,846 17,174,684 1915 23,679,102 8,287,213 1916 31,415,427 11,059,039 1917 34,148,893 10,479,960 1918 34,459,391 9,376,236 1919 26,948,694 7,271,562 Business conditions gradually bettered throughout 1909, although the so-called open market that existed in the steel trade resulted in an average of prices during the year somewhat lower than in 1908. Nevertheless, increased production caused a marked and gradual gain in the earnings of the big Corporation, which from $22,921,268.75 in the first quarter grew to $29,340,491.62 in the second quarter, $38,246,907.43 in the third, and $40,982,746.14 in the closing three months.