Abstract
AT the present time the conditions and prospects of American competition in the iron trade call for very serious consideration. The aggregate value of iron and steel exported from the United States to Great Britain and the continent is now considerable, the official figures for the first nine months of 1897 giving a value of 45,693,000 dollars, as compared with 34,549,000 dollars for the corresponding period of 1896. With this increase in the exports, there was a decrease in the imports from 16,361,000 dollars in the first nine months of 1896 to 10,032,000 dollars in the corresponding period of 1897. The rapidly increasing intensity of American competition is thus apparent. The exportation of iron and steel is not a result merely of depressed conditions in the United States, but of lower cost of production, brought about by enforced economy in labour, by the great discoveries of cheaply worked ore, and by the increased efficiency of the mining and metallurgical plant in use. Undoubtedly the greatest advantage possessed by the United States is that in the Lake Superior region they have the most extensive supplies of cheap and rich iron ores known to exist. It is to the sudden development and unparalleled richness of these deposits that the United States chiefly owe their cheap pig iron. It is, therefore, a matter of extreme satisfaction that an authoritative description of these deposits has been prepared by Mr. Horace V. Winchell for English readers in the form of an admirably illustrated monograph,1 covering seventy pages of the Transactions of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers, and dealing with the history, geography, geology, and mining industry of the iron-ore region. Only forty years have elapsed since the first regular mining of iron ore was begun in the district, and during that time up to January 1, 1897, the total output was as follows:—
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BROUGH, B. The Lake Superior Iron Ore Region. Nature 57, 473–475 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057473a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057473a0