History of the iron and steel industry in the United States

In the 1800s, the US switched from charcoal to coal in ore smelting, adopted the Bessemer process, and saw the rise of very large integrated steel mills.

In the 20th century, the US industry transitioned from the open hearth furnace to the basic oxygen steelmaking process.

However, Britain’s once-abundant forests could no longer meet the nation’s growing demand for iron.

Although the bog iron ores mined in colonial days were widespread, the deposits were also small, and quickly exhausted.

Inland locations also allowed the furnaces to be closer to sources of limestone, which was used as a flux in iron smelting.

[4] The movement away from charcoal in US iron smelting began in 1827, when a puddling furnace in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania started using anthracite coal.

[5] Coke has a higher crushing strength than charcoal, allowing larger smelting furnaces.

Although coke quickly became the dominant fuel for iron-smelting, in 1884 charcoal was still used to make ten percent of iron and steel in the US.

[9] The replacement of charcoal with coal in the steel-making process revolutionized the industry, and tied steelmaking to coal-mining areas.

In the 1800s, making a ton of steel required a greater weight of coal than iron ore.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, surrounded by large coal deposits and at the junction of three navigable rivers, was an ideal location for steelmaking.

Notable early 19th-century iron furnaces in the US In 1856, Englishman Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer process, which allowed for mass production of steel from molten pig iron, reducing the cost of making steel by more than 50%.

The tremendous iron ore deposits around Lake Superior were located far from coal deposits, and so were shipped to ports on the southern Great Lakes that were closer to the coal mines of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The company had made steel in Scranton, Pennsylvania since 1840, but moved to provide easier access to iron ore, and in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid labor troubles.

Birmingham, Alabama became a major steel producer in the late 1800s, using locally mined coal and iron ore.

By 1989, US combined iron and steel production recovered to 142 million tons, a much lower level than in the 1960s and 1970s.

Instead, the majority of the losses could be accounted for by rising productivity, principally through technological efficiencies and the shift from traditional steel plants to mini mills.