ManufacturingIron and coal Steam-powered manufacturing Water-powered mills Manual manufacturing Population growth/shrinkage |
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Pittsburgh, Sweet Spot The two key industrial materials are iron and coal. Iron is important to make durable steam-powered equipment, such as locomotives. Coal is important to fuel all the steam engines, but equally important for producing iron. It takes roughly equal amounts of iron ore and coal to feed the great blast furnaces. Pittsburgh has easy access to both. Iron ore (RED) is brought in by rail from surrounding iron deposits, while coal (GRAY) is delivered on barges, pulled by river steamboats. It's all one happy party. | |||||||||
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Steam Power Now that the turmoil of the Civil War has subsided, industrial America is growing at a furious pace. Steam engines are used to power locomotives, but also to power every type of machinery imaginable. Industrial catalogs now feature a wide array of tools to cut, drill and form metal. This begins with rolling mills to produce long bars, rods and sheets, but also includes shears, drills, lathes and forging equipment. Steel blades and cutting bits are required, although steel is still rare and costly. | |||||||||
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Waterpower Waterpower is still used widely in non-industrial applications, such as local mills to cut logs lumber and grind grain into flour. Waterpower can't match steam for sheer horsepower, but has the advantage of not requiring any fuel. Water rains down from the sky, unlike coal, which must be dug up, loaded and transported. Waterpower is available in almost every county, including the largely non-industrial South. The Fall Line (dashed) divides the South into upland country and the broad, almost flat coastal plain. | |||||||||
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Muscle Power The Industrial era doesn't arrive everywhere all at once. Earlier forms of muscle-powered manufacture are still important, including almost every product produced by traditional tradesmen, like shoemakers, blacksmiths, masons, tailors and barrel makers. Every town in America has tradesmen, even where some residents have never even seen a steam engine. Horses and draft animals remain the mainstay of farms everywhere, hitched to plows, cultivators, harvesters and wagons. | |||||||||
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Abandoning the East By this time, it's obvious that the future of America lies to the west. The eastern regions have become more or less fully-developed, while the West is wide open. The far west is still showing only patchy growth (in BLUE), but the Midwest is fast becoming the industrial and farming center of the nation. It offers an ideal farming climate, with good soil and moisture, plus ready access to all the elements of industrialization, beginning with iron and coal. Railroads provide mobility. | |||||||||