1835-1919

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist

Carnegie was a social Darwinist who wrote The Gospel of Wealth, in which he stated his belief that the rich should use their wealth to help enrich society, rather than wasting it on those who do not have wealth.

Carnegie also believed that achievement of financial success could be reduced to a simple formula which could be duplicated by the average person.

In total Carnegie funded some 3,000 libraries.

Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industries at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Carnegie embraced a new steel refining process being used by Englishman Henry Bessemer to convert huge batches of iron into steel, which was much more flexible than brittle iron.

Quick Facts about: iron
A heavy ductile magnetic metallic element; is silver-white in pure form but readily rusts;

Quick Facts about: steel
An alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon;

His great innovation was in the cheap and efficient mass production of steel rails for railroad lines.

Carnegie was "ruthless" in keeping the costs down and managed by the motto "watch costs and the profits take care of themselves."

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