History of Metals in Colonial America

History of Metals in Colonial America
Author: James A. Mulholland
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 1981-07-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0817300538

In the struggle to create an indigenous industry, in the efforts to encourage and support the work of metals craftsmen, in the defiance of British attempts to regulate manufacturing of metals, the colonial society developed a metals technology that became the basis for future industrial growth.

The History of Metals in America

The History of Metals in America
Author: Charles R. Simcoe
Publisher: ASM International
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2018-05-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1627081461

The History of Metals in America chronicles the development of metals as both an industrial activity and a science. Progress involving structural metals made possible the air, land, sea, and space travel of today, skyscrapers reaching over 100 stories high, and many other engineering accomplishments that continue to shape modern society. This lively book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the evolution of metals and metallurgy from the beginning of iron production in colonial times with the first iron plant in 1645 to the prevailing metals of the 21st century. Each chapter describes the development of a metal or series of metal alloys, industry growth, and modern uses in manufacturing. It includes chapters on cast iron, wrought iron, alloy steels, tool steels, stainless steels, nickel-base superalloys, aluminum, and titanium. Other chapters cover the science of metals as it developed from 1890 to 1950 and the biographies of the pioneers of metals research. The final chapters cover the formation, growth, and decline of the integrated steel industry and the rise of a new industry in steel minimills. The History of Metals in America will appeal to readers in all sectors of the materials industry, students and faculty of engineering programs, middle and high school American history students, and anyone interested in the history of technology, travel, tools, and machinery in the U.S. The author, Charles R. Simcoe, wrote more than 40 articles for ASM International’s Advanced Materials & Processes magazine, including a monthly series entitled “Metallurgy Lane,” which became the basis for this book.

Mining North America

Mining North America
Author: John R. McNeill
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2017-07-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0520279174

"Over the past five hundred years, North Americans have increasingly turned to mining to produce many of their basic social and cultural objects. From cell phones to cars and roadways, metal pots to wall tile and even talcum powder, minerals products have become central to modern North American life. As this process has unfolded, mining has also indelibly shaped the natural world and North Americans' relationship with it. Mountains have been honeycombed, rivers poisoned, and forests leveled. The effects of these environmental transformations have fallen unevenly across North American societies. Mining North America examines these developments. Drawing on the work of scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Canada, this book explores how mining has shaped North America over the last half millennium. It covers an array of minerals and geographies while seeking to draw mining into the core debates that animate North American environmental history generally. Taken together, the authors' contributions make a powerful case for the centrality of mining in forging North American environments and societies"--Provided by publisher.

Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History

Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History
Author: James Ciment
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 3151
Release: 2016-09-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317474163

No era in American history has been more fascinating to Americans, or more critical to the ultimate destiny of the United States, than the colonial era. Between the time that the first European settlers established a colony at Jamestown in 1607 through the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the outlines of America's distinctive political culture, economic system, social life, and cultural patterns had begun to emerge. Designed to complement the high school American history curriculum as well as undergraduate survey courses, "Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History" captures it all: the people, institutions, ideas, and events of the first three hundred years of American history. While it focuses on the thirteen British colonies stretching along the Atlantic, Colonial America sets this history in its larger contexts. Entries also cover Canada, the American Southwest and Mexico, and the Caribbean and Atlantic world directly impacting the history of the thirteen colonies. This encyclopedia explores the complete early history of what would become the United States, including portraits of Native American life in the immediate pre-contact period, early Spanish exploration, and the first settlements by Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, and English colonists. This monumental five-volume set brings America's colonial heritage vibrantly to life for today's readers. It includes: thematic essays on major issues and topics; detailed A-Z entries on hundreds of people, institutions, events, and ideas; thematic and regional chronologies; hundreds of illustrations; primary documents; and a glossary and multiple indexes.

American Iron, 1607-1900

American Iron, 1607-1900
Author: Robert B. Gordon
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 1086
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421435020

Winner of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for General Engineering from the Association of American Publishers Originally published in 1996. By applying their abundant natural resources to ironmaking early in the eighteenth century, Americans soon made themselves felt in world markets. After the Revolution, ironmakers supplied the materials necessary to the building of American industry, pushing the fuel efficiency and productivity of their furnaces far ahead of their European rivals. In American Iron, 1607-1900, Robert B. Gordon draws on recent archaeological findings as well as archival research to present an ambitious, comprehensive survey of iron technology in America from the colonial period to the industry's demise at about the turn of the twentieth century. Closely examining the techniques—the "hows"—of ironmaking in its various forms, Gordon offers new interpretations of labor, innovation, and product quality in ironmaking, along with references to the industry's environmental consequences. He establishes the high level of skills required to ensure efficient and safe operation of furnaces and to improve the quality of iron product. By mastering founding, fining, puddling, or bloom smelting, ironworkers gained a degree of control over their lives not easily attained by others.

Copper for America

Copper for America
Author: Charles K. Hyde
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 1998-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0816546134

This comprehensive history of copper mining tells the full story of the industry that produces one of America's most important metals. The first inclusive account of U.S. copper in one volume, Copper for America relates the discovery and development of America's major copper-producing areas—the eastern United States, Tennessee, Michigan, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Alaska—from colonial times to the present. Starting with the predominance of New England and the Middle Atlantic states in the early nineteenth century, Copper for America traces the industry's migration to Michigan in mid-century and to Montana, Arizona, and other western states in the late nineteenth century. The book also examines the U.S. copper industry's decline in the twentieth century, studying the effects of strong competition from foreign copper industries and unforeseen changes in the national and global copper markets. An extensively documented chronicle of the rise and fall of individual mines, companies, and regions, Copper for America will prove an essential resource for economic and business historians, historians of technology and mining, and western historians.

The Texture of Industry

The Texture of Industry
Author: Robert B. Gordon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 1997-02-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0195354826

While historians have given ample attention to stories of entrepreneurship, invention, and labor conflict, they have told us little about actual work-places and how people worked. Workers seldom wrote about their daily employment. However, they did leave behind their tools, products, shops, and factories as well as the surrounding industrial landscapes and communities. In this book, Gordon and Malone look at the industrialization of North America from the perspective of the industrial archaeologist. Using material evidence from such varied sites as Indian steatite quarries, automobile plants, and coal mines, they examine manufacturing technology, transportation systems, and the effects of industrialization on the land. Their research greatly expands our understanding of industry and focuses attention on the contributions of anonymous artisans whose skills shaped our industrial heritage.

Technology in Early America

Technology in Early America
Author: Brooke Hindle
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2012-12-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0807838640

This interpretative essay and extensive bibliography surveying the chronology and major characteristics of American technology before 1850 is the first available guide in this period to the rapidly developing field of the history of technology. Originally published in 1966. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

The Transfer of Early Industrial Technologies to America

The Transfer of Early Industrial Technologies to America
Author: Darwin H. Stapleton
Publisher: American Philosophical Society Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1987
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The industrialization of the United States in the 19th century occurred within the context of basic European technologies brought by the colonists and spurred on by innovative technologies brought from Europe after the American Revolution. These technologies ultimately overtook the early industrial revolution in many areas. (Technology and Industrial Arts)

The Economy of Colonial America

The Economy of Colonial America
Author: Edwin J. Perkins
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1988
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780231063395

The colonial era is especially appealing in regard to economic history because it represents a study in contrasts. The economy was exceptionally dynamic in terms of population growth and geographical expansion. No major famines, epidemics, or extended wars intervened to reverse, or even slow down appreciably, the tide of vigorous economic growth. Despite this broad expansion, however, the fundamental patterns of economic behavior remained fairly constant. The members of the main occupational groups - farmers, planters, merchants, artisans, indentured servants, and slaves - performed similar functions throughout the period. In comparison with the vast number of institutional innovations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, structural change in the colonial economy evolved gradually. With the exception of the adoption of the pernicious system of black slavery, few new economic institutions and no revolutionary new technologies emerged to disrupt the stability of this remarkably affluent commercial-agricultural society. Living standards rose slowly but fairly steadily at a rate of 3 to 5 percent a decade after 1650. (Monetary sums are converted into 1980 dollars so that the figures will be relevant to modern readers.) For the most part, this book describes the economic life styles of free white society. The term "colonists" is virtually synonymous here with inhabitants of European origin. Thus, statements about very high living standards and the benefits of land ownership pertain only to whites. One chapter does focus exclusively, however, on indentured servants and slaves. This book represents the author's best judgment about the most important features of the colonial economy and their relationship to the general society and to the movement for independence. It should be a good starting point for all - undergraduate to scholar - interested in learning more about the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This popular study, lauded by professors and scholars alike, has been diligently revised to reflect the tremendous amount of new research conducted during the last decade, and now includes a totally new chapter on women in the economy. Presenting a great deal of up-to-date information in a concise and lively style, the book surveys the main aspects of the colonial economy: population and economic expansion; the six main occupational groups (family farmers, indentured servants, slaves, artisans, great planters, and merchants); women in the economy; domestic and imperial taxes; the colonial monetary system; living standards for the typical family