CHAPTER 11] 
SHEFFIELD STEEL 
Parr I 
Tur position of Sheffield in the metallurgical and 
engineering world is a peculiar one. It is the centre of 
an immense steel industry, but not of the iron trade. Within 
a distance of 30 to 50 miles a greater quantity of pig iron 
is produced than in any part of the kingdom outside the 
Cleveland district, and yet very little enters into the 
manufacture of the steel on which the reputation of the city 
depends, although the iron of the district was the original 
source of supply. Sheffield produces more engineering tools 
and parts of engines, perhaps, than the rest of England 
together, yet built-up engines do not count for so much in 
its trade outside the district as the productions of towns of 
far less importance. The story of the steel industry of 
Sheffield is the whole story of the scientific manufacture 
of steel of the last thousand years. 
To make steel like Sheffield steel is the dream of 
home and foreign competitors alike. To make tools or 
parts of engines like Sheffield, or a machine equal to 
the requirements of Sheffield, is an ideal to be aimed 
at, and also an advertisement worth almost any outlay. 
Situated at the junction of the rivers Sheaf and Don, the 
city has a double reputation. The world that buys 
its cutlery hears only of Sheffield on the Sheaf; but the 
store departments of the great railway companies and 
engineering firms, the British and Foreign Admiralties 
and War Departments, and the British shipbuilding centres 
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