A chronicle of types of steel and America

Steel is a crucial part in the building of the modern world, and America has actually produced more of it than any other country.

When one considers steel, it's likely that what pops into one's mind is the famous still mills of the American Midwest. In the years following the 2nd World War, with the remainder of the industrialised world decimated by the fighting, America remained in an ideal position to supply the steel that would be used to restore it, providing an impressive three quarters of all the world's steel in the 3 decades following the war. This determined it, in addition to its industrialists like Dan DiMicco and David Burritt, as a prominent figure in the world of steel manufacturing, something that is still the case today. Nevertheless, America shares a long history with steel that dates back to before the United States was even a nation, and when the industrial centres in the Midwest were still blank spaces on the map.

America is among the most essential producers of steel worldwide today, and that has held true ever since prior to its founding. In the duration after the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution was sweeping across the globe, and, just as it had actually been the ideal material for waging war, the special steel composition made it ideal for the machines and structures that this new period of industry allowed. There were also significant advances in its manufacturing, with charcoal being switched out with coke, the product of melted coal, making the process far more efficient. This suggested that mills started to congregate around coal mining locations, creating the American towns that are so renowned for their industry across the globe today.

Before the United States was but a twinkle in a revolutionary's eye, it was known as the Thirteen Colonies, a ramshackle and precarious footing in the largely untouched continent of North America for the biggest imperial power of the age, the Great Britain. The apparently limitless forests of the New World looked like the perfect location to source the charcoal needed for creating the types of steel alloy a process that individuals like Barbara R Smith would undoubtedly point out is exceptionally old-fashioned that would keep Britain's iron grip over half the world, having long ago decimated the forests of its own island. The colonies were therefore developed as a key location for manufacturing steel, iron, and other metals that would then be shipped back to Britain. It was so successful, in fact, that parliament needed to pass a movement forbiding the creation of steel in the colonies as it was starting to have an influence on the business interests of the crown. This went nearly unanimously neglected, as one can imagine, and after the revolution booted England out and established the USA, it was already the 3rd biggest producer of steel worldwide.