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Henry Bessemer was born on January 19, Charlton, United Kingdom. He passed away on March 15, 1898 in London, United Kingdom. He was an American inventor whos process of making steel would be one of the most important techniques. It was a way of manufacturing steel inexpensively. His creation of the Bessemer converter was the reason of the revolutionized structural engineering.

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Henry Bessemer, (born January 19, 1813, Charlton, Hertfordshire, England-died March 15, 1898, London), inventor and engineer who developed the first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively (1856), leading to the development of the Bessemer converter. He was knighted in 1879.

Bessemer was the son of an engineer and typefounder. He early showed considerable mechanical skill and inventive powers. After the invention of movable stamps for dating deeds and other government documents and the improvement of a typesetting machine, he went to the manufacture of "gold" powder from brass for use in paints. The florid decoration of the time demanded great quantities of such material, and Bessemer's secret process soon brought him great wealth.

He developed other inventions, notably sugarcane-crushing machinery of advanced design, but he was soon devoted to metallurgy. In his time there were but two iron-based construction materials: cast iron made by the treatment of iron ore with coke in the blast furnace and wrought iron made from cast iron in primitive furnaces by the laborious manual process of "puddling" (stirring the melted iron to remove carbon and raking off the slag). Cast iron was excellent for load-bearing purposes, such as columns or bridge piers, and for engine parts, but for girders and other spans, and particularly for rails, only wrought iron was suitable. Puddling removed carbon, which makes cast iron brittle, and produced a material that could be rolled or forged, but only in "blooms," or large lumps of 100-200 pounds, and that was full of slag. The blooms had to be laboriously forged together by steam hammers before they could be rolled to any useful length or shape. The only material known as steel was made by adding carbon to pure forms of wrought iron, also by slow and discontinuous methods; the material was hard, would take an edge, and was used almost entirely for cutting tools.

During the Crimean War, Bessemer invented an elongated artillery shell that was rotated by the powder gases. The French authorities with whom he was negotiating, however, pointed out that their cast-iron cannon would not be strong enough for this kind of shell. He thereupon attempted to produce a stronger cast iron. In his experiments he discovered that the excess oxygen in the hot gases of his furnace appeared to have removed the carbon from the iron pigs that were being preheated-much as the carbon is removed in a puddling furnace-leaving a skin of pure iron. Bessemer then found that blowing air through melted cast iron not only purified the iron but also heated it further, allowing the purified iron to be easily poured. This heating effect is caused by the reaction of oxygen with the carbon and silicon in the iron. Using these new techniques, which later became known as the Bessemer process, he was soon able to produce large, slag-free ingots as workable as any wrought-iron bloom, and far larger; he invented the tilting converter into which molten pig iron could be poured before air was blown in from below. Eventually, with the aid of an iron-manganese alloy, which was developed at that time by Robert Forester Mushet, Bessemer also found how to remove excess oxygen from the decarburized iron.

His announcement of the process in 1856 before the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, brought many ironmasters to his door, and many licenses were granted. Very soon, however, it became clear that two elements harmful to iron, phosphorus and sulfur, were not removed by the process-or at least not by the fireclay lining of Bessemer's converter. It was not until about 1877 that the British metallurgist Sidney Gilchrist Thomas developed a lining that removed phosphorus and made possible the use of phosphoric ores of the Continent.

Bessemer had, unknown to himself, been using phosphorus-free iron, but the ironmasters were not so lucky. Their iron was perfectly satisfactory for the puddling process, in which phosphorus is removed because the temperatures are lower, but it could not be used in the Bessemer process. Bessemer was forced to call in his licenses and find a phosphorus-free source of iron in northwestern England; thus he was able to enter the steel market on his own. Once the phosphorus problem was recognized and solved, he became a licensor once again, and vast profits flowed in. It became clear that "mild steel"-as it was known to distinguish it from the hard tool steels-could more clearly and reliably be used in place of wrought iron for ship plate, girders, sheet, rods, wire, rivets, and other items. The invention of the open-hearth (Siemens-Martin) process in the late 1860s eventually outstripped that of the Bessemer process. This has now yielded place, in great measure, to oxygen steelmaking, which is a further development and refinement of the Bessemer process.

In his later years-the process had not become a clear success until he was nearing 70-Bessemer continued to invent and make discoveries. The solar furnace he built was more than a successful toy; he designed and built an astronomical telescope for his own amusement; and he developed a set of machines for polishing diamonds that helped to reestablish that trade in London. However, the passenger ship he designed with a main cabin mounted on gimbals to prevent seasickness was not a success.

Apart from his knighthood, he received many honours, such as the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Bessemer's An Autobiography (1905), with a concluding chapter by his son, Henry Bessemer, is the only comprehensive biography and the source of most material written about him since.

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Henry Bessemer | Biography, Inventions, & Facts

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Henry Bessemer, inventor and engineer who developed the first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively (1856), leading to the development of the Bessemer converter. He also developed other inventions, notably sugarcane-crushing machinery of advanced design.

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Robert Fulton was born on November 14, 1765 in Pennsylvania. He passed away on February 24, 1815 in New York, New York. He was an American engineer and inventor who successfully developed the first commercial steamboat. He called the first steamboat the North River Steamboat. The steam boat helped the industrial revolution because it was used to move goods and people across the united states.

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Kids learn about the biography of inventor Robert Fulton including his early life as an artist, inventions, designing a submarine, building the first commercially successful steamboat, and fun facts. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Sam Slater was born on June 9, 1768 in Belper, United Kingdom. He passed away on April 21, 1835 in Webster, Massachusetts. He was an English-American industrialist who created the first water powered cotton mill in the United States. His invention revolutionized the textile industry. He was able to create a full operational facility in Rhode Island.

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Samuel Slater | The National Inventors Hall of Fame

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In 1790, Slater built a mill on the Blackstone River in Rhode Island. The Slater mill was the first American factory to successfully produce cotton yarn with water-powered machines. Considered the father of the United States textile industry, Slater eventually built several successful cotton mills in New England and established the town of Slatersville, Rhode Island.

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Edwin Drake was born on March 29, 1819 in Greenville, New York. He passed away on November 9, 1880 in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. He was an American businessman and the first person to actually drill oil out successfully. He only drilled three oil wells in his lifetime yet he was still known as the "Father of the Petroleum Industry. The device he used to drill the oil revolutionized America.

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Though he drilled only three oil wells in his lifetime, Edwin Drake (1819-1880) is known as the "Father of the Petroleum Industry" because the technology he devised to drill the first commercial oil well in the United States revolutionized how crude oil was produced and launched the large-scale petroleum industry.
Edwin Laurentine Drake, born on March 11, 1819, in Greenville County, New York, grew up on family farms in New York and Vermont. He left home at age 19, having received a common school education, and wandered the Midwest and East, working at various jobs. In 1850 he settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and became a railway conductor for the New York and New Haven Railroad. Ill health forced his retirement in 1857, but it also opened a new opportunity for him.

The opportunity occurred while Drake was staying in the same hotel as George H. Bissell and Jonathan G. Eveleth, founders of the newly formed Seneca Oil Company. The company was the successor to the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, the first oil company in the United States, which had been created to exploit ground-level seepage of oil near Titusville (Pennsylvania). Chemist Benjamin Silliman, Jr. had analyzed oil from the site and determined that, after refining, it could be used as an illuminant, as well as for other purposes. The Seneca Oil Company founders needed someone to inspect the oil springs on their property and make a report. Drake got the job because he had a free pass on the railway. Drake had never been an officer, let alone in the military. Nevertheless, James M. Townsend, one of the investors, used the salutatory title "Colonel" in his correspondence with Drake. The title stuck and Drake became commonly know as Colonel Drake.

Smelly But Useful Seep Oil

Humans and the gods had used oil for thousands of years before Seneca Oil Company sought to make its production worthwhile. Fred Hapgood wrote in National Geographic: "In Greek mythology Medea set her rival on fire with naphtha. The Mesopotamians used asphalt as a building material 5,000 years ago. But as valuable a product as petroleum had already become, gods and mortals alike until the 19th century took oil as the earth gave it to them, from seeps and springs." The petroleum that surfaced in salt borings also was another source of oil.

An early name for petroleum, "Seneca Oil," alludes to the trade in oil by Seneca Indians of western New York in the 18th century. After the American Revolution, white settlers discovered Oil Creek in northwestern Pennsylvania and began skimming petroleum from little springs in the banks and in the bed. They built rings of timbers and baffles from which they collected the trapped oil. The largest seep on Oil Creek produced only about 20 barrels a year, yet the effort was worth it. There was a great demand for oil, which was bottled for medicinal uses, such as for a purge and as a balm. In 1853 Joel D. Angier purchased the first petroleum lease in the United States. This lease gave him the right to collect oil from an Oil Creek seep on the Brewer, Watson and Co. lumber property near Titusville. The lumber company had used the seep oil for lighting and to lubricate machinery.

In Early Days of Oil, Paul H. Giddens told how Samuel M. Kier sold his bottled "Petroleum, Rock Oil" "as a cure for all ailments, human or animal." Although he had sales agents throughout the country, Kier still had more oil from the seeps and salt wells on his father's Tarentum, Pennsylvania, property than he could sell. Oil had been used for illumination, but in its pure form was smelly and smoky. Kier thought if he could overcome these drawbacks, he would have a widely used product. After consulting with a chemist in 1850, he built a crude one-barrel still in Pittsburgh and began distilling crude oil into "carbon oil," or kerosene. Because it was a cheaper, safer, better illuminant than other fuels on the market, such as whale oil, carbon oil came into general use in western Pennsylvania and New York City. Its price more than doubled. Kier added a five-barrel still to his operation, which was the first commercial refinery in America. Now he needed a more plentiful, reliable source of oil. It was around then that "crude oil attracted attention and finally stimulated serious experimentation as to its use and theories as to its extraction," noted Samuel T. Pees in Oil History.

Drake's Folly

Not long after Kier began his refinery, Silliman reported that the seep oil sample taken from the former Brewer, Watson and Co. land on Oil Creek had properties that made it valuable. In 1858, Drake, now a stockholder in Seneca Oil Company, was sent back to Titusville as the salaried general agent in charge of operations (for a short time he was company president). His mission was to produce a profitable amount of oil. However, the main seep netted only three or four gallons of oil daily, and other oil springs he had opened up added only a few gallons to the output. So Drake attempted mining for oil. He hired workmen to dig a shaft, but water inundated it and he gave up that idea. Finally he decided to try an idea he had discussed with George H. Bissell, a lawyer who helped to organize and invest in early oil companies, including Seneca Oil. Salt drillers often had to contend with oil that polluted their wells. Bissell reasoned that oil could be extracted using salt well drilling methods.

Drake chose a drilling site on an artificial island between the creek and the lumber company's water race. He then enlisted the help of the lumber company's boss, Jonathon Watson, to build a house for the 6 hp "Long John" stationary, wood-fired engine and boiler that would power the drilling tools and to erect a derrick for hoisting the drilling tools. He hired William "Uncle Billy" A. Smith, a blacksmith and experienced salt well driller, to make the tools and do the drilling. Prepared to drill down 1000 feet, Drake had to reassess things when the hole, which was only 16 feet deep, kept caving in. "It was at this point that Drake conceived the idea of a drive pipe, also called a conductor," wrote Pees. "The drive pipe consisted of joints ten feet long and was made of cast iron. They battered or drove it down to bedrock at thirty-two feet depth (9.75 m). The tools could be safety lowered through the pipe which protected the upper hole."

The conductor proved to be just what Uncle Billy needed to do his job. Now that the steam-powered drilling tools were protected by iron pipe, he was able to drill an average of three feet a day through the bedrock that was mostly shale. Problems persisted, though. "[T]he shale caved in occasionally. The engine caught on fire but was saved and put back in service. [P]eople came to snicker. Drake [ran] out of company money, used his own money and quickly ran out of that," Pees explained. But friends came through with loans, and he kept drilling despite hearing the taunt "Drake's Folly." On August 27, 1859, the drill slipped into a crevice six inches below the 69-foot depth of the drilled hole. Uncle Billy pulled up the tools and headed home. The next day when he went back to the well, he discovered oil floating on the water just a few feet from the derrick floor. Fashioning a scoop from a section of tin eaves trough, he dipped out some of the prized liquid.

Interestingly, the first oil well fire also occurred at the Drake Well, less than two months later. On October 6, Smith was using an open lamp to see how much oil was stored in the vats when it ignited collected gases. The blaze destroyed the derrick and the driller's house, which were later rebuilt.

Petroleum Industry Boom

Drake had the good fortune of locating his well in a shallow oil belt, and one with Penn Grade crude that could be refined with the limited technology available at the time. A pitcher pump, like those found at kitchen sinks, brought up the oil in the Drake Well and splashed it into a washtub, before it was transferred to whiskey barrels. The initial production of 10 to 35 barrels a day nearly doubled the world's output of oil. Many new cooperage businesses sprang up around Titusville when the supply of barrels ran out. Within days of Drake's success, Kier was buying the oil and was paying 60 cents per gallon delivered. Another Pittsburgh refiner, W. Mackeown, also made a deal to buy Drake Well oil. By the end of 1859, the two refiners had purchased over $8800 of oil from the well. Seneca Oil Company had paid $5000 for the 100 acres of land where it was sited.

"Lighting, in itself, created the great demand for oil that led to the frantic drilling of the pioneer oil wells along Oil Creek and elsewhere. Other uses soon increased the overall demand," pointed out Pees. Lee R. Forker Jr. summed up the significance of "Drake's successful drilling venture" in the Oil Daily. The "plentiful and low cost fuel alternative [petroleum products, instead of whale and lard oil] gave a second-stage boost to the country's industrial revolution. This influx to the economy helped propel the United States into a world leadership role. Our ability to produce gasoline in great quantity at a low price played a major role in the launching of the automotive industry. In essence, oil's discovery at the Drake well, with gasoline as the byproduct, provided unprecedented mobility to Americans."

But Drake wasn't to profit from the great oil exploration rush as others used his drilling technique. He hadn't patented his invention, so anyone could use it. Drake himself drilled only two more wells, both on the same island in Oil Creek in 1860. One, at 480 feet, produced 24 barrels of oil daily, the other only 12 barrels daily. Unlike a lot of oil entrepreneurs of the time, he didn't buy leases himself. He did, however, invest in oil speculation. But it was the successful application of his drilling method that turned the speculation market sour. "News of the new technique spread rapidly, creating in its wake, to name only one effect, the abundant supply of cheap, high-quality lubricants that greased the way for the industrial age," explained Hapgood. According to the Drake Well Museum brochure, "By 1862 wells had come in that produced thousands of barrels a day and the price for oil at the well head dropped so low that Drake and his partners went out of business. The original well was shut down, but the boom continued."

Ill and impoverished, Drake returned to Pennsylvania in 1870; the people of Titusville helped him out with a stipend. In 1876 the Pennsylvania legislature voted Drake a pension. That same year the derrick and engine house were dismantled and reassembled at the United States Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Drake died on November 8, 1880 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1902 his body was reinterred in a tomb in Titusville's Woodlawn Cemetery. Inscriptions on the tomb's panels extol his contributions to the oil industry. The Driller, a bronze sculpture by Charles Henry Niehaus, sits in a small pavilion.

Books

Giddens, Paul H., Early Days of Oil, Princeton University Press, 1948.

Periodicals

Earth Science, Spring 1988.

National Geographic, August 1989.

Oil Daily, October 9, 1984.

Online

"Colonel Edwin Laurentine Drake," http: //www.energy.ca.gov/education/scientists/drake(December 8, 2000).

"Drake Well Museum Brochure," http: //www.drilshop.com/hallfame(December 8, 2000).

"Edwin L. Drake," http: //www.virtualvermont.com/history/edrake(December 8, 2000).

Pees, Samuel T., "Drake Chapters," Oil History, http: //www.oilhistory.com/drakechapters(December 8, 2000).

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Edwin Drake facts: Though he drilled only three oil wells in his lifetime, Edwin Drake (1819-1880) is known as the "Father of the Petroleum Industry" because the technology he devised to drill the first commercial oil well in the United States revolu...

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Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, United Kingdom. He passed away on August 11, 1919 in Lexon, Massachusetts. He was one of the most successful businessman and he was also one of the most recognized philanthropist. The industry he was involved in was steel. This made him a very wealthy man making him earn millions of dollars.

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Biographical Highlights

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was one of the most successful businessmen and most recognized philanthropists in history. His entrepreneurial ventures in America's steel industry earned him millions and he, in turn, made great contributions to social causes such as public libraries, education and international peace.

"Andrew Carnegie was the pioneering tycoon of the Age of Steel" (Let's Talk Business Network 2002). His steel empire produced the raw materials that built the physical infrastructure of the United States. He was a catalyst in America's participation in the Industrial Revolution, as he produced the steel to make machinery and transportation possible throughout the nation.

In his later life, he began to shift from a focus on industrialism to a more philanthropic view on life. Carnegie became the world's benefactor to education, as he is responsible for the construction and donation of approximately 2,509 public libraries in the United States, Europe and around the world (Ibid.).

Historic Roots

Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland. In this area of Scotland, most residents earned a livelihood through the craft of linen weaving. Carnegie was expected to follow in the footsteps of his family and become a weaver also. As a boy, however, Andrew was educated on the history of the land of Scotland, the plays of Shakespeare, the poetry of Robert Burns, the United States and its heroes, and a radical view of politics.

The Carnegie family had always lived a modest life, but they were hit particularly hard when factories began using automated weaving looms. In 1848, the family immigrated to the United States. Three months after leaving their home in Scotland, the family arrived penniless in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Andrew's father, Will Carnegie, had become greatly disheartened by his failure. Andrew's mother, Margaret, made it well known that she too was shamed by her husband's defeat and their family's poverty. This, in turn, led to a great determination to see her sons succeed. Andrew shared this sense of determination to recoup their family's losses (Swetnam and Smith 1993).

As a young boy, Andrew Carnegie learned the meaning of hard work. By age thirteen, Andrew worked as a bobbin boy in a loom factory for the sum of $1.20 per week, working in a dark, dim basement producing bobbins for looms. Next, Carnegie took a job as a telegraph boy delivering messages. He experienced much success in this job, as he became only the third person in the country to be able to decipher a message by ear instead of by examining printed dots and dashes. By 1853, at the age of eighteen, Andrew Carnegie had been recruited by Thomas Scott, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and learned many of the ins and outs of the railroad industry (Let's Talk Business Network 2002).

By the age of twenty, Andrew Carnegie lost his father to illness. Over the next several years, he continued to further his career and increase his salary significantly by remaining at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and beginning to invest his earnings. He first invested in Woodruff Sleeping Cars and then turned his attention to the oil industry. Both investments provided significant returns. While an employee of the railroad company, he also began working with the Union Army to repair damaged railroad and telegraph lines. In 1865, Carnegie retired from the railroad and founded the Keystone Bridge Company. The company envisioned building bridges with iron, rather than wood, to make them more durable.

Several years later, Carnegie wrote himself a letter pledging to retire from business at the age of thirty-five, live on an income of only $50,000 a year, and devote the rest of his income to philanthropic causes (Swetnam and Smith 1993, 33). Yet, his plans changed when, in 1872, Carnegie traveled to England to visit Henry Bessemer's steel plants. There he realized the expansion potential for the steel business and returned to America with a plan to expand his current ventures in the steel industry. In 1875, Carnegie opened Edgar Thomson Works, his first steel plant. Several years following, Carnegie's mother, with whom he shared a very close relationship, passed from pneumonia. Following her death, Carnegie married the woman he had been courting for some time, Louise Whitfield. Carnegie's mother had previously disapproved of the relationship.

While expanding his steel empire, Carnegie ran into a series of labor relation problems with Homestead Works, a rival steel mill with the most modern equipment and technology available that he had purchased. The problems began when the workers organized a strike. Carnegie instructed his associate, Howard Frick, to handle the situation however he deemed necessary. Because Carnegie was seen as a friend of the worker and usually handled similar situations by peacefully waiting it out, he left the country so as not to be involved. There is some discrepancy about Carnegie's meaning behind his instructions to Frick; but what ensued was one of the most unfavorable examples of an industrial elite's wielding of power over poor laborers. Frick took a much different approach than Carnegie had previously. He arranged for a stand-off between the workers and Pinkerton Agents he had hired. The situation became violent and there was a twelve-hour shoot out. Even after surrender by the Pinkertons, the crowd remained violent and there was a violent breakout of beatings. The militia was brought in to settle the problem and Carnegie's reputation as owner of the company was forever tarnished. People blamed him for the incident and labeled him as cowardly for leaving the country and not settling the strike himself. The incident marked the end of Carnegie's image as a friend of the worker (Swetnam and Smith 1993).

In 1897, Andrew's daughter, Margaret Carnegie, was born (PBS 2002). The Carnegie family then purchased an estate, Skibo Castle, in Scotland. What followed was Carnegie's famous manuscript, a call to action for the wealthy men of his time -- The Gospel of Wealth. This, Carnegie's third publication, came out in 1889. He had previously published Round the World, An American Four in Hand in Britain, and Triumphant Democracy. The Gospel of Wealth was the most influential of his writings, however, in that Carnegie stressed that the wealthy had a moral obligation to give to philanthropic causes and serve as stewards of society.

Four years later, in 1901, Carnegie was nearing the end of his business career and allowed J.P. Morgan to buy out his steel empire for an astonishing price of $480 million dollars (Ibid.). Morgan was able to create U.S. Steel, and Carnegie became the richest man in the world. Carnegie did not want to remain a shareholder in the steel company, however, so he put the $300 million in gold bonds that he received from the deal into a specially-built vault in New Jersey. He never wanted to see or touch any of the money (Swetnam and Smith 1993, 145).

After Carnegie's exit from the business world, he continued to work for and support philanthropic causes. In The Carnegie Nobody Knows, Swetnam and Smith state

At first Carnegie considered it a game to give his money away. Whereas most men enjoyed making money, he in contrast delighted in seeing his fortune diminish. There never lived a man who had as much fun in giving away his wealth as Carnegie. One of his teasing tricks in giving was to hold his beneficiary in suspense, using the element of surprise. (154)

During his later life, Carnegie made contributions for two distinct purposes. He attempted to gain independence for the Philippines. He also founded many institutions and trusts to assist with causes related to education and international peace. His main philanthropic interest, however, was the founding of free public libraries. Carnegie spent over $56 million to build 2,509 libraries throughout the world. The last philanthropic trust Carnegie created was the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911. At that point in time, he had given away ninety percent of his fortune.

By 1914, World War I had begun and Carnegie left his estate in Scotland for the last time. The family purchased an estate called Shadowbrook in Massachusetts. It was at Shadowbrook that Andrew Carnegie passed away in 1919 (PBS 2002).

Importance

Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic endeavors are extensive in their value. "There is no doubt that Carnegie was a hard businessman""his success is testament to this""but the acquisition of wealth was not due to personal greed" (SLOCOE 2002). He strongly believed that the wealthy had a moral obligation to serve as stewards to society. The two causes Carnegie had a great passion for were education and international peace.

Foremost, he believed that everyone was entitled to a proper education. For this reason, Carnegie was involved with the founding of many schools and universities. Another way he contributed to public education was through his interest in free public libraries. His love of reading stemmed from a positive childhood experience of reading from the personal collection of a merchant in his town. Carnegie wanted to make those same reading experiences available to the public at no charge. He is responsible for the establishment of approximately 2,500 libraries worldwide. One of the first of the Carnegie libraries was the Carnegie Free Library in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which became the model for the thousands of libraries to follow (Ibid.).

The second of Carnegie's philanthropic focuses was the idea of peace among all nations. He established many trusts that focused on researching the causes of war. One of his greatest contributions to this cause was the establishment of the Peace Palace in The Hague, which houses an extensive library of international law resources (Ibid.).

Ties to the Philanthropic Sector

Carnegie said, in The Gospel of Wealth, "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced" (Ibid.). He often stressed the importance of people distributing their own wealth, but on a scale of philanthropy as large as Carnegie's, that task quickly became impossible. Therefore, the creation of the modern foundation was established. Carnegie used a number of trustees to distribute his wealth throughout Britain and America, with the Carnegie Corporation among them. The trusts can be associated with numerous donations including libraries, theaters, music halls, park lands, and schools (Ibid.).

Key Related Ideas

The level of philanthropy displayed by Andrew Carnegie during his lifetime and beyond has been the foundation for traditions of philanthropy today. His endeavors began the first efforts toward the modern day foundation or trust. His reflections and call to responsibility or challenge to other affluent people to give away their wealth drew the attention of many others to do the same, including John D. Rockefeller and W.K. Kellogg.

Other ideas related to Carnegie's life and philanthropy:

Important People Related to the Topic

John Piermont (J.P.) Morgan, with whom Andrew Carnegie made his largest business transaction, became the sole manager of J.S. Morgan and Company following his father's death in 1890 (Family Education Network 2002). His career climb was one of financial battles, but he eventually developed a railroad empire by reorganizing and consolidating railroad companies throughout the U.S. In 1901, he formed the United States Steel Corporation after a major merger with Andrew Carnegie's steel corporations. U.S. Steel became the first billion-dollar corporation in the world.

In 1853, Andrew Carnegie became the personal assistant to Thomas A. Scott. Scott, at the time, was the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad's western division. He later moved on to be appointed assistant secretary of war, supervising all governmental railways and transportation lines. Then Scott became the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on June 3, 1874 (Dept. of Mathematics 2002).

Related Nonprofit Organizations

Andrew Carnegie founded many organizations and trusts in his later life. These organizations include, but are not limited to, the following:

Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs was founded to work for international peace. It is "a forum for research and education in ethics and international policy" ( http://www.cceia.org/homepage.php).

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, founded in 1910, strives for "advancing cooperation among nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States" ( https://carnegieendowment.org/).

Carnegie Hall was built with a large donation from Andrew Carnegie in 1891. Its purpose it "to continue to be one of the world's leading institutions in presenting great music, and in promoting music education, music creation, and music enjoyment in a landmark concert hall" ( https://www.carnegiehall.org/jsps/intro.jsp).

Carnegie Institution of Washington founded in 1902 with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie, was incorporated in 1904 by an Act of Congress. Its mission is to conduct "basic research and advanced education in biology, astronomy, and the earth sciences" ( https://carnegiescience.edu/). Carnegie saw the Institution's purpose "' to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research, and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind'" (Ibid.).

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's purpose is to be an institution "recognized as the region's best information resource... a preferred destination for knowledge, entertainment and social interaction" (http://www.clpgh.org/index.html).

Carnegie United Kingdom Trust is a Scottish charity that operates in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Information about its history, grantmaking guidelines, publications, and more is available on its Web site. The Trust has provided grants for "opening public libraries, providing church organs, developing village halls and supporting community needs in the arts, heritage and social welfare" ( https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/).

Related Web Sites

The Carnegie Corporation of New York Web site, at http://www.carnegie.org, contains information pertaining to the current activities of the foundation, as well as historical information about Andrew Carnegie himself. The Corporation's mission is to promote "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding."

"The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie" on the PBS Web site is found in a section of the site devoted to the American Experience television series. It provides a wealth of information about Andrew Carnegie's life and experiences, including links to the program transcript, a concise timeline of his life, and a teacher's guide for discussing Andrew Carnegie in the classroom. Find this at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/index.html.

Bibliography

Department of Mathematics. Thomas A. Scott Professorship in Mathematics. University of Pennsylvania. [cited 29 September 2002]. Available from http://www.math.upenn.edu/History/thomas_a._scott_chair.html.

Family Education Network. Morgan. [cited 18 October 2002]. Available from https://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0834017.html.

Let's Talk Business Network. Andrew Carnegie. [cited 22 September 2002]. No longer available.

Livesay, Harold C. Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975.

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service). Andrew Carnegie: Rags To Riches Timeline. [cited 22 September 2002]. Available from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/timeline/index.html.

San Luis Obispo County Office of Education Online (SLOCOE). Andrew Carnegie: Striving to Enrich our Society and the People Within. [cited 22 September 2002]. Available from https://www.slocoe.org/education/historyday/carnegie/otherbuild.htm.

Swetnam, George and Helene Smith. The Carnegie Nobody Knows. USA: McDonald/Sward Publishing, 1993. ISBN: 0945437072.

This paper was developed by a student taking a Philanthropic Studies course taught at Grand Valley State University. It is offered by Learning To Give and Grand Valley State University.

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Biographical Highlights Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was one of the most successful businessmen and most recognized philanthropists in history. His entrepreneurial ventures in America's steel industry earned him millions and he, in turn, made great contributions to social causes such as public libraries, education and international peace.