58

 In addition, more iron stoves were constructed in

the United States in 1880 than in all the rest of the

world combined, and along with first place positions in

bridge building, agricultural implements, and stoves,

the United States could add fencing (the barbed wire

fence had just come into use) and telegraph wire.

 The expansion in iron and steel production and

markets between 1860 and 1880 was considerable, and the

same trends continued between 1880 and 1900 as steel

production increased from 1.2 million long tons to 10.2

million long tons and pig iron production from 4.3

million short tons to 15.4 million short tons.8

 By 1894 over 250,000 long tons of steel were

used in the production of nails alone, a like quantity

finding its way into the production of fencing;9 a

combined amount of more than 40 times what total steel

production had been in 1860. By 1895 steel production

had increased so substantially that it was cheaper to

let a dropped nail lie than to devote the time of a

skilled carpenter to picking it up.10 By 1900 the

production of iron and steel had attained first rank


 Historical Statistics, pp. 365-66, Series M-207;
 p. 416, Series P-203.

 victor S. Clark, History of Manufactures in the
 United States, Vol. III (New York: McGraw-Hill Book
 Company, 1929), p. 122.

 10Ibid., p. 126.