especially in Philadelphia, for the erection of the so-called brown
stone fronts. On the Pocono plateau is a large deposit of a
fine-grained dark-blue stone of the Devonian formation which is known
as the Wyoming Valley stone, and, like the New York “bluestone,”
which it closely resembles, is much used for window and door
trimmings, steps and flagging. Several of the western counties contain
Carboniferous or sub-Carboniferous sandstones that are used locally
for building and for various other purposes. In 1908 the value of
Pennsylvania sandstone and bluestone was $1,368,784.
Northampton, Lehigh and York counties contain the most productive
slate quarries in the country, and in 1908 the value of their output
was $3,902,958; the Northampton and Lehigh slate is the only
kind in the United States used for school blackboards. There is
an extensive area in the south-east part of the state containing
shale clay of a superior quality for making common brick. Kaolin
abounds in Chester and Delaware counties, and fire-clay in several
of the western counties. In 1908 the state ranked first in the
value of its output of brick and tile ($18,981,743), which was 14·74%
of the entire product of the United States, and was second only to
Ohio in the total value of its clay products ($14,842,982), which
was 11·14% of that for the entire country. Glass sand abounds
both in the eastern and in the western sections and for many years
Pennsylvania has used this more extensively in the manufacture
of glass than any other state. Deposits of crystalline graphite
are found in Chester and Berks counties. In Chester county, also,
is one of the most productive deposits of feldspar, second in importance
only to those of Maine. Soapstone is quarried in Montgomery
and Northampton counties, phosphate rock, in Juniata county;
rocks from which mineral paints are made, in several counties, and
there is some garnet in Delaware county.
Manufactures.—The state ranks second to New York in the value of its manufactures, which increased from $155,044,910 in 1850 to $1,955,551,332 (factory products alone) in 1905, a growth which has been promoted by an abundance of fuel, by a good port on the Atlantic seaboard, by a network of canals which in the early years was of much importance in connecting the port with the Mississippi river system, by its frontage on Lake Erie which makes the ores of the Lake Superior region easily accessible, and by a great railway system which has been built to meet the demands arising from the natural resources. By far the most important industry is the production of iron and steel. The manufacture of iron was established on a commercial basis in 1716–1718, when a furnace was built on Manatawney Creek above Pottstown, and before the close of the colonial era Pennsylvania had risen to first rank among the iron-producing colonies, a position which it has always held among the states of the Union. So long as charcoal only was used in the furnaces (until about 1840) and during the brief period in which this was replaced largely by anthracite, the industry was of chief importance in the eastern section, but with the gradual increase in the use of bituminous coal, or of coke made from it, the industry moved westward, where, especially in the Pittsburg district, it received a new impetus by the introduction of iron ore from the Lake Superior region. The value of the output of iron and steel increased from $264,571,624 in 1890 to $471,228,844 in 1905, and the state furnished 46·5% of the pig-iron and 54% of the steel and malleable iron produced in the entire country. The manufacture of great quantities of coke has resulted from the demand for this product in the iron and steel industry and from the abundance of coking coal; the manufacture of glass has been promoted by the supply of glass sand and natural gas in the west of the state; the manufacture of leather by the abundance of hemlock bark; the manufacture of pottery, terra-cotta and fire-clay products by the abundance of raw material; the manufacture of silk and silk goods by the large number of women and girls who came into the state in families of which the men and boys were employed in mining and picking anthracite coal; and in each of these industries as well as in a few others the state has for many years produced a large portion of the country’s product.
In 1905 the twelve leading manufactures, with the value of each, were: steel and malleable iron, $363,773,577; foundry and machine-shop products, consisting most largely of steam locomotives, metal-working machinery and pumping machinery, $119,650,913; pig-iron, $107,455,267; leather, $69,427,852; railway cars and repairs by steam railway companies, $61,021,374; refined petroleum, $47,459,502; silk and silk goods, $39,333, 520; tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, $39,079,122; flour and grist-mill products, $38,518,702; refined sugar and molasses, $37,182,504; worsted goods, $35,683,015; and malt liquors, $34,863,823. The most marked advances from 1900 to 1905 were in worsted goods (61·4%) structural iron-work (60%), and tin and terne-plate (54·4%). Philadelphia is the great manufacturing centre. Within its limits, in 1905, all the sugar and molasses were manufactured and much of the petroleum was refined, nearly all of the iron and steel ships and steam locomotives were built, and 93% of the carpets and rugs were made, and the total value of the manufactures of this city in that year was nearly one-third of that for the entire state. Nearly 20% of the iron and steel was produced by Pittsburg together with Allegheny, with which it has since been consolidated, and the production of these is the leading industry of New Castle, Johnstown, Duquesne, McKeesport, Sharon, Braddock and Dubois, also in the west part of the state and of Reading, Harrisburg, Steelton, South Bethlehem, Pottstown, Lebanon, Phoenixville and Danville in the east part. The silk and cement industries are confined largely to the eastern cities and boroughs; the coke, tin and terne-plate, and pickling industries to the western; and the construction and repair of railway cars to Altoona, Meadville, Dunmore, and repair of railway cars to Altoona, Meadville, Dunmore, Chambersburg, Butler and Philadelphia.
Transport and Commerce.—The new road cut through the Juniata region in the march of the army of Brigadier-General John Forbes, against Fort Duquesne in 1758, was a result of the influence of Pennsylvania, for it was considered even then a matter of great importance to the future prosperity of the province that its seaport, Philadelphia, be connected with navigation on the Ohio by the easiest line of communication that could be had wholly within its limits. As early as 1762 David Rittenhouse and others made a survey for a canal to connect the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna rivers, and in 1791 a committee of the state legislature reported in favour of a project for establishing communication by canals and river improvement from Philadelphia to Lake Erie by way of the Susquehanna river. Before anything was done, the need of improved means of transportation between Philadelphia and the anthracite coal-fields became the more pressing. The Schuylkill Canal Company, chartered in 1815, began the construction of a canal along the Schuylkill river from Philadelphia to Mount Carbon, Schuylkill county, in 1816, and completed it in 1826. In 1818 the Lehigh Navigation Company was formed to improve the navigation of the Lehigh river from its confluence with the Delaware to Coalport, and two years later coal was successfully carried down the Lehigh and Delaware rivers to Philadelphia in “arks” or rectangular boxes, two or more of which were joined together and steered by a long oar. So prosperous was the business that in 1827–1829 the company built a number of locks which made the Lehigh navigable in either direction, and in 1827–1832 the state did the same for the Delaware between the mouth of the Lehigh and Bristol. The Union Canal Company, incorporated in 1811, completed a canal from Middletown on the Susquehanna to Reading on the Schuylkill in 1827. In 1824 the state legislature authorized the appointment of a commission to explore routes from the Schuylkill to Pittsburg, and from the West Branch of the Susquehanna to the Allegheny, and in the three or four succeeding years the state committed itself to a very extensive system of internal improvements. Work was begun on the system in 1826 and was continued without interruption until 1840, when the completed or nearly completed portions embraced a railway from Philadelphia to Columbia on the Susquehanna, a canal up the Susquehanna and the Juniata from Columbia to Hollidaysburg, a portage railway from Hollidaysburg through Blair’s Gap in the Alleghany Front to Johnstown on the Conemaugh river, a canal down the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas, and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburg, a canal up the Susquehanna and its west branch from the mouth of the Juniata to Farrandsville, in Clinton county, a canal up the Susquehanna and its north branch from Northumberland nearly to the New York border, and a canal up the Delaware river from Bristol to the mouth of the Lehigh; considerable work had also been done on two canals to connect the Ohio river with Lake Erie. Work was stopped, in 1840, before the system was completed because of the intense popular discontent arising from the burden of debt which had been assumed and because the success of competing railways was then fully assured. In 1845 the state began to sell its canals and railways to private corporations and the sale was completed in 1859. The western division of the system was abandoned by the new owners in 1865 and the worked portion of the east division gradually decreased until it, too, was wholly abandoned in 1904, with the exception of the Delaware Division Canal, which since 1866 has been worked by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company in connexion with the Lehigh Canal. In its natural condition there were bars in the Delaware river below Philadelphia which obstructed the navigation of vessels drawing more than 17–20 ft. of water, but in 1899 the Federal government adopted a project for obtaining a channel having a minimum depth of 30 ft. The Federal government has much improved the navigation of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers and is committed to a project for slack-water navigation on the Ohio which is expected to give Pittsburg communication with the sea by vessels drawing 9 ft. of water.
The first railway in the state was that built in 1827 by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company from Mauch Chunk to its mines, 9 m. distant; but this was only a gravity road down which cars loaded with coal descended by their own gravity and up which the empty cars were drawn by mules. In 1823 a company was incorporated to build a railway from Philadelphia to Columbia, but nothing further was done until 1828, when the state canal commissioners were directed to build this road and the Allegheny Portage railway from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown. The latter was built with ten inclined planes, five on each side of the summit at Blair’s Gap and cars were drawn up these by stationary engines. Both the Philadelphia & Columbia and the Allegheny Portage railways were completed in 1834. From these and other beginnings the state’s railway mileage gradually increased to 1240 m. in 1850, to 4656 m. in 1870, to 8639 m. in 1890 and to 11,373 m. at
