While no longer true, a century ago most cities played unique roles in producing for the nation’s marketplace. In the days of railroading, city economies when taken together really made up the American economy. This monument to industrial innovation now resides in a park in Pittsburgh.) (Syracuse’s innovations in American steelmaking include the first coking ovens and the first electric arc furnace. Along with Pittsburgh, by the 1890s Syracuse supplied much of the nation’s market for hard or “Sheffield” steel. In the company’s archives are mentions of the iron ore in the Adirondacks, the existing steel-using farm implement industry (Syracuse Chilled Plow, later bought by John Deere, was valued for its hardened steel point) and the presence of the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad to deliver their product to the rest of the nation. Syracuse caught the eye of the Sanderson Brothers, a leading Sheffield firm, for reasons largely lost to history. impractical English steel firms set up American subsidiaries to capture the enormous potential of America’s continent-wide market. We remember Sheffield for its knives precisely because British steel was so hard and durable.īecause mid-19th century tariffs made exporting steel into the U.S. England had pioneered the making of these alloyed steels. The making of such “tool steel” was critical for the second stage of the industrial revolution, where American industry came into its own. Brown and Lipe (whose transmission company was to become part of General Motors) began cutting gears, the city became home to one of the three original crucible steel companies in the U.S. But, how is it that gears came to be the center of a whole set of industries? The answer is steel.
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