Existing comment:
New Technology:
Although steel had been manufactured in the United States since the 1850s, the industry could not produce the quantity or quality of steel required by the Navy. Despite possessing the technology for the open-hearth process, America's iron industry lacked the incentive to expand into full-scale steel production. The Navy sought to develop the necessary industrial base by combining its steel requirements into large orders, thus enticing private industry to build modern steel-making facilities. The Bethlehem Iron Company of Pennsylvania became one of the first private companies to risk updating their facilities in order to handle the Navy's requirements. The company was awarded a Navy contract for gun forgings and steel armor plate in 1887. Although the navy yards at New York and Norfolk constructed some of the Navy's new steel ships, commercial businesses built the majority. The most notable private yards were William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Virginia, and Union Iron Works of San Francisco, which required the same high level of investment to meet the Navy's needs as the steel mills had spent. |