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This chapter describes the development of the Bessemer steel process. In spring 1862, a rail of Bessemer steel was laid down between two abutting iron rails in the Camden yard of the London and Northwestern Railway. Three years later, in May 1865, the first rail manufactured from Bessemer steel in the United States was produced at the North Chicago Rolling Mill. The chapter first provides an overview of steelmaking and metallurgy before discussing the commercial and intellectual development of the Bessemer steel process, along with the use of Bessemer steel in making railroads. It also considers innovations in the production of the Bessemer steel process and the patent controversy sparked by the technology, tariff protection for the process, and the Bessemer Association's price-fixing scheme. The chapter concludes by highlighting the stages involved in the innovating process: the inventive stage, the stage in which the invention is applied by the first entrepreneurs, the stage in which other entrepreneurs and engineers refine and consolidate, and the stage in which still other entrepreneurs take over to expand.

This chapter draws on recent research into German patent activity during the Wilhelminian period. It shows the importance of the national Patent Law of 1877 as a basic institutional point of departure, which ushered in a succession of waves of innovation starting with mechanical engineering, then moving to chemicals (especially dyestuffs), then pharmaceuticals, and, finally, on to electrical engineering by the 1900s. Special attention is given to the development of steel, of chemicals, and also of the Otto engine as cases in point. Explicit comparison shows German industry to have “caught up” to its British counterpart at the period´s end. The chapter gives particular attention to the relationships between education, science, and industry, a topic illustrating the importance of human capital as a productive factor. Finally, it raises the question of the importance of firm size and related institutions (such as cartels) for economic performance.

Chapter 13 is the last chapter. It suggests how the 21st century may be described in terms of ‘ages’ analogous to the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Will the 21st century be described as the Silicon Age? Or perhaps be referred to as the Genomic Age? Or maybe the New Polymer Age? The role of climate change and international conflict on the pace of materials development are discussed.

As American entrepreneurs enlarged their undertakings and began to shift them from waterpowered shops in the countryside to factories in the cities, they created a demand for new sources of energy and larger quantities of raw materials. The coal and, later, oil that they used to power their factories were brought to manufacturing centers on canals and railways and by coastal or river shipping. They used the wood and water resources of North America more heavily than ever, but they also created new kinds of workplaces. Their workplaces in the coal and oil fields, on canals and railways, in mills that made iron with mineral coal, and in the nonferrous-metal mines and mills were outside any previous experience of American artisans. Often, these workplaces were not adequately described or recorded before they were replaced. Material evidence helps us fill this gap in the historical record. In mining anthracite, both miners and mine operators faced a complex underground environment where there were few reliable clues to guide their work (Chapter 4). Geologists could help little, and, as anthracite was not much used elsewhere in the world, mining expertise could not be easily borrowed; instead, mining methods were developed through experience and error on the part of individual miners. The technological and social practices that endured in anthracite mining were largely established in the years between 1827 and 1834 by inexperienced adventurers whose aim was to obtain coal quickly and with the least trouble. Many of these practices were later adopted in underground bituminous mines. We can reconstruct a picture of the work of anthracite miners from study of the remaining mines, artifacts, and accounts of mine operation. Each breast in a mine was worked by a miner, who was paid on piece rate. He directed and paid one or two helpers, for whom he provided the necessary tools and supplies. They reached the breast where they worked by walking through the haulage ways and gangways that were the common ground in the mine.