ABSTRACT
One of the many thousands of speculators who failed to strike it rich in the oil rush to western Pennsylvania was a small and sprightly immigrant from Scotland named Andrew Carnegie who was to become King of the Vulcans, a title most pleasing to his supreme vanity. The honor of first taking notice of the future steelmaster of America belongs to the Pittsburgh Gazette. While employed by the railroad, the young man invested what cash he had saved, and more that he borrowed, in a firm that made iron bridges, a healthy business in an era when railroads were expanding rapidly. Carnegie also got to know the Kloman brothers of Pittsburgh, whose plant was turning out the finest railroad-car axles on the market. The partners in the Union Iron Mills each had certain talents of great importance. There was nothing small, however, about the orders Carnegie brought in.
