Hot Work

The Industrial Era is full of marvels, but it's all based upon some very dirty and dangerous work. There are more than 500 blast furnaces in America by 1890, and almost as many rolling mills, containing another 3,000 furnaces.

But this is just the first step in the industrial process. What emerges from the rolling mills are large steel plates, which must then be further rolled into curved shapes for steamship hulls, or steam engine boilers.

Rolling mills also produce long bars and rods, but the main product is railroad rails, in huge quantities. One-third of all steel produced is used to make rails, which last 10 times longer than those made of iron.
Industrialism, 1890

  Metal and Fire
Bessemer converters produce steel in large, rough blocks. To make it usable, it is delivered to rolling mills, where it is softened by reheating before being fed into rolling machines like the one shown above. Plates are made using wide machines, with wide rollers. Bars, rods, beams and rails require the use of rollers which match the cross-section of the desired shape.

Machine tools, 1890

  Metal-working Tools
Factories purchase long plates and bars from rolling mills, and then work them into whatever shapes are required. Huge powered shears are used to cut the bars, while lathes, milling machines and drills are needed to make individual parts. Some of the machines shown here are used for general machining, but many are set up for just one operation, like boring the center holes in wheels (top right). Similar machines are used for the next 100 years, until replaced by today's digitally-controlled milling centers.


Ellis Island immigrants, 1890

  Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor
All through the 1880s, immigrants are arriving from Europe in the greatest numbers ever seen. Many are now coming from southern and eastern countries, like Italy, Poland and even Russia. About half the new arrivals have no listed occupation, and an increasing proportion speak no English at all. About one in ten is listed as 'skilled,' while twice that number are simply called 'laborers.' To process all the new arrivals, an immigrant reception facility is built in New York harbor, on Ellis Island (top left).