In reading my April edition of Civil Engineering for once, I found a most interesting article on the Bethlehem Steel Mill in Eastern Pennsylvania.
"Founded in 1857 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and shutter in 2003, Bethlehem Steel was once one of the largest steel producers and shipbuilders in the United States. It remains a symbol of American manufacturing. Steel from the Bethlehem furnaces helped to build such renowned structures as New York City's Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center, the Golden Gate Bridge, Chicago's Merchandise Mart, the George Washington Bridge, Hoover Dam, and the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay.
The Company's roots date to 1857 with the founding of the Saucona Iron Company. Development at the Bethlehem site commenced in 1860 with the construction of the first furnace and rolling mill. In 1873 the plant adopted the Bessemer steel process, and by the 1880s it had added a heavy forging plant, focusing its production on rails for the railroad industry and armor plates for the U.S. Navy. It took on the name Bethlehem Steel Company in 1904, continued to expand through the early part of the 20th century, branched out into shipbuilding, and started making such structural steel shapes as I beams. During the two world wars, Bethlehem Steel was a major supplier for the U.S. Navy. During World War II it had 15 shipyards in operation, built 1,121 ships, and carried out repairs on 38,000 vessels. After the wars, it supplied steel for the construction industry, reaching peak production in 1973, when it produced 22.3 million tons of raw steel and 16.3 million tons of finished steel........."
"The former Bethlehem Steel site now includes an arts center, a music pavilion, and a casino, and the new walkway connects and highlights these attractions."
Cheers,
Raimey
rse
Boy, I guess that will teach the rest of the world to mess with our steel industry!
DDA
True then, but now China is probably the largest steel maker, but not quality?, while Nucor, etc. transforms scrap into our steel.
Cheers,
Raimey
rse
"Bethlehem Steel was a major supplier for the U.S. Navy. During World War II it had 15 shipyards in operation, built 1,121 ships, and carried out repairs on 38,000 vessels."
Now, that is impressive, to build 1121 ships in a 6 year period.
"Boy, I guess that will teach the rest of the world to mess with our steel industry!"
Or, our labor unions, eh?
SRH
Where is this facility in "Eastern Pennsylvania"? I hunted for years on Bethlehem property in Hanover/McSherrystown. My Dad and I killed a small railroad car full of ringnecks, doves, and mallards off that property, sometimes hunting all three on the same day.
Part of the issue with foreign steel is that many of the companies are government owned, fully subsidized operations that can run at full capacity and dump their product around the world at less than cost.
Recently, the US has added tariffs to address the illegal dumping of steel.
The results have been a nice return on US steel producer's stocks over the last couple of months and the consistent dividends aren't bad either.
With so much of manufacturing moving overseas, it will be tough to return to the previous levels of production.
There are still steel companies doing the exact same things, just at a level that matches demand.
Not sure what this has to do with double guns though.
Bethlehem Steel was 1st the source of Steel for Winchester and then when WWI disrupted the sourcing lines to Belgium, Bethlehem, and others, filled the void and established inland sourcing lines.
Cheers,
Raimey
rse
City of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem,_Pennsylvania
East of Allentown.
Cheers,
Raimey
rse
Winchester Nickel Steel was sourced from Bethlehem Steel Co.
“Report of Heat Treatment of Barrel Steel Rolling”, 1902.
http://books.google.com/books?id=YzhUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA181&lpg and Midvale Steel Co.
George Madis,
The Winchester Book"Nickel steel barrels for the .32/40 and .38/55 calibers Winchester 1894 were available after 1895 as a special order option. The barrels were stamped “M.N.S.” (Midvale Nickel Steel)."
I do not know the source for Winchester Standard Ordnance Steel
Several observations....
Plenty, probably thousands of guns were still being made with imported barrels after the beginning of WWI.
Not sure how that would involve Winchester double guns.
Seems that some of this information leads to doubts of the testimony of Thomas Hunter....
but we all know how people never speak between the lines in front of congress...
Thomas Hunter's testimony was in 1912
Here's was happened
after WWI
Tariff Information Survey, 1921
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=...amp;pg=GBS.PP15“Practically all the raw materials are obtained from domestic sources, with the exception of a portion of the barrels for shotguns, which are imported by the smaller makers, as a rough bored forging. The production of this component of the gun requires an investment in equipment too large to allow of profitable manufacture on a small scale. All but one of the firms which imported barrels before the war reported (1920) that they intended to again import as soon as possible, although one of them took up their manufacture during the war, and statistics of importations in 1920 indicate that this practice has been largely resumed. The most of the larger companies make their own barrels. These rough forgings have been obtained chiefly from Belgium, a few of the highest grade coming from England.”
More here about 1/2 way down
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=17ixogftgITEblNUWtmFBv96ZvgjK6eFell8GsAWd-KI
Bethlehem Steel also made some pretty big gun barrels, 12-, 14- and 16-inch naval rifles for battleships serving in WW1 and WW2, including the 16" 50 caliber rifles for the Iowa class.
I went to college and later lived near Bethlehem for sixteen years. One summer I worked as an intern engineer in one of their plants and later knew many folks who worked at the Bethlehem mill, known locally as "The Steel." It's been sad to see basic steelmaking all but desert this country.
I'm sure the ledgers, etc. are still onsite or archived properly as in the article it is noted that 14k(14000) drawings & stuff were there including original 1906 drawings. So either an inquiry or visit might be in order to find one doc on the minute topic of bar stock for small arms.
"Site Ownership changed hands a few times, and in 2004 the site was purchased by Bethlehem Works LLC, a development partnership that brought in the casino operator Las Vegas Sands Crop. as a majority partner. Las Vegas Sands transformed part of the site into a bustling arts and entertainment district.(Read "High Rolling Steel," Civil Engineering, February 2010, pages 70-75, 82.) In 2005 Bethlehem Works announced the development of SteelStacks, a 10-acre arts and entertainment venue alongside the shuttered facilities. Among its venues are the ArtsQuest Center, which houses studio spaces, galleries and shops opened in May 2011; the Levitt Pavilion, an outdoor venue, which opened in July 2011; ......"
I guess a proper transformation but from a cursory perspective it would seem going from steel magnate to entertainment venue would see akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Now I like to be entertained and fancy the arts, but seems to be such an unnoticed great loss....
Cheers,
Raimey
rse
I have no idea in what town these facilities are located. However, I must admit that my time shooting game birds and waterfowl on and around the Bethlehem Steel property in Hanover was the highest point of my early bird hunting history. One high point was meeting my Dad on the Wistler Farm on a day when I told him I was in class at the University of Maryland. I had not wanted to squeeze his schedule and make him have to leave the "field" early. Apparently, it didn't worry him much. My pointer, Ranger, was a bit confused to see me. He had never hunted alone with my Dad, when I was available.
http://www.steelstacks.org/about/what-is-steelstacks/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=20030501&id=u0EyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6OUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5366,16453&hl=en
Seems like much of the article was garnered from the above. Headquarters were in Lehigh County & I would guess McSherrystown is in Adams County some 130 miles Southwest.
Cheers,
Raimey
rse
With today's EPA no steel plant will be able to compete with steel from plants without their laws. Could you imagine how hard it would be to open up a new plane? Permits, hearings, regulations, over site and total greens going nuts. God save the trees.
Not to worry! When the next big one comes, we'll just buy the steel we need from China and the the uniforms from Mexico. War materials; we don't need no stinkin' war materials!...Geo
We build, rebuild, refine, renovate, and demolish steel mills all the time.
There is a very large brand new one in Mobile, AL.
Their designs produce different products than before the big collapse.
An example might be super sophisticated sheet metal alloys for car bodies. Or, ductile structural forms for buildings in earthquake zones.
Steel is not dead in the US, it is very value centered anymore.
I prefer not to work in the old mills, because they are such wastelands, and it's a very depressing environment.
In keeping with firearms manufacture, those ultra pure alloys we desire have to come from a furnace somewhere, just not at mega ton scale. Someone is tasked with making them for us.
Jon, it's true, those government owned facilities have no problem getting the okay for expansions/new mills and many of them deal with no environmental regs at all.
But like CZ said, it's still happening in the US, and has been for the last few decades.
The 'not really' new one in Mobile, AL is a foreign owned facility, but provides decent jobs/revenue.
Sadly it takes a few years to get nearly anything approved, then a couple more to get it up and running.
Certainly less 'hoops' for acquisitions and upgrades.
Thankfully there are still a few politicians that realize the economic impact that one of these facilities can provide.
Believe it or not, Nucor has a mill in downtown Seattle, Washington.......
And is THE largest recycler in North America.
Oh..... and I know some steelworkers that buy, shoot, and collect double guns.