Andrew Carnegie

Industrialism

But all this was only a preliminary to the success attending his development of the iron and steel industries at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry, controlling the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations ever owned by an individual in the United States. His great innovation was in the cheap and efficient mass production of steel rails for railroad lines.

Related Topics:
Iron - Steel - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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In 1868, at age 33, he wrote in a letter to himself that he was "overwhelmed by business cares" and that he would "resign business at thirty-five", but that "during the ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in receiving instruction and in reading systematically."

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Carnegie's empire would later embrace the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, (named for John Edgar Thomson, Carnegie's former boss and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & County), the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for (and owned shares in) the landmark Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri, an important proof-of-concept for steel technology and the opening of a new steel market.

Related Topics:
John Edgar Thomson - Eads Bridge - St. Louis, Missouri

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In the late 1880s Carnegie Steel was the largest manufacturer of pig-iron, steel-rails and coke in the world, with a capacity to produce approximately 2,000 tons of pig-metal a day. In 1888 he bought the rival Homestead Steel Works, which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a railway 425 miles long, and a line of lake steamships. An agglutination of the assets of him and his associates occurred in 1892 with the launching of the Carnegie Steel Company.

Related Topics:
Pig-iron - Steel-rails - Coke - Pig-metal - 1888 - Homestead Steel Works - 1892 - Carnegie Steel Company

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As years went by, the various Carnegie companies represented in this industry prospered to such an extent that in 1901, he sold his steel holdings to a group of New York-based financiers led by J. Pierpont Morgan for $250 million. The buyout, which was negotiated in secret by Charles M. Schwab (no relation to Charles R. Schwab, the brokerage house founder), was the largest such industrial takeover in the United States at the time. The holdings were incorporated in the United States Steel Corporation, a trust organized by J.P. Morgan, and Carnegie himself retired from business. He was bought out at a figure equivalent to a capital of approximately $480 billion, which is the largest personal commercial transaction to date.

Related Topics:
1901 - Financier - J. Pierpont Morgan - Charles M. Schwab - Charles R. Schwab - United States - United States Steel Corporation

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Besides steel, Carnegie's companies were involved in other areas of the railroad industry. His company Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works was noted for its building of large steam locomotives at the turn of the 20th century. His associates and partners included Henry Clay Frick and F. T. F. Lovejoy.

Related Topics:
Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works - Steam locomotive - 20th century - Henry Clay Frick - F. T. F. Lovejoy

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He also owned 18 English newspapers, which he controlled in the interests of radicalism.

Related Topics:
Newspapers - Radicalism

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At the height of his career, he was the second richest person in the world, behind only John D. Rockefeller.

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