In 1870 the American steel maker was the parvenu of the trade.

American railroads purchased their first steel rails in England, and the early American steel makers went to Sheffield for their expert workmen.

Yet, in little more than ten years, American mills were selling agricultural machinery in that same English town, American rails were displacing the English product in all parts of the world, American locomotives were drawing English trains on English railways, and American steel bridges were spanning the Ganges and the Nile.

Indeed, the United States soon surpassed England.

In the year before the World War the United Kingdom produced 7,500,000 tons of steel a year, while the United States produced 32,000,000 tons.