Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology 9780271092454

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P R E C I O U S M E TA L

PETER H. CHRISTENSEN

PRECIOUS METAL German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology

The Pennsylvania State University Press University Park, Pennsylvania

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Christensen, Peter H., author. Title: Precious metal : German steel, modernity, and ecology / Peter H. Christensen. Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Explores the ecological interrelationship, mediated by steel, of artificial and natural habitats, with a focus on steel’s earlier history in architecture during the long nineteenth century”—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021061863 | ISBN 9780271092317 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Building, Iron and steel—History—19th century. | Architecture, Modern—19th century. | Steel industry and trade—History—19th century. | Steel industry and trade—Germany—History—19th century. | Steel industry and trade—Environmental aspects—History—19th century. Classification: LCC NA4135 .C49 2022 | DDC 721/.04471—dc23/eng/20220224 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061863 Copyright © 2022 Peter H. Christensen All rights reserved Printed in China Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802–1003 The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University Presses. It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ansi z39.48–1992.

Contents

List of Illustrations  (vii) Acknowledgments  (ix) Note on Translation and Format  (x)

Introduction (1) 1 Origin (13) 2 Industry (39) 3 Production (83) 4 Dissemination (101) 5 Building (125) 6 Return (155) Conclusion (179)

Notes  (185) Bibliography  (199) Index  (225)

Illustrations

1. King Tutankhamun’s iron dagger, ca. fourteenth century BC  (5) 2. Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale  (7) 3. Oil on the surface of the sea during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, August 2010  (8) 4. William Smith, “A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland,” 1815  (15) 5. Leopold von Buch, “Geognostische Karte von Deutschland,” 1826  (16) 6. View of the “Concordiasee” in Oberhausen, ca. 1875 (20) 7. Diagram illustrating the effects of mining subsidence (21) 8. Map of the Ruhr Valley (Ruhrgebiet), 1830 and 1930 (25) 9. T. L. Dawes, Mining on the Comstock, 1877  (26) 10. Model depicting a prototypical nineteenth-century mine (29) 11. Children working in a mine in a side tunnel with airlock, drawing from 1844  (31) 12. Meißen plate celebrating Saint Barbara, early twentieth century  (32) 13. Eduard Heuchler, plate from Die Bergknappen in ihren Berufs- und Familienleben, 1857  (34) 14. View of the Kirunavaara mine, Kiruna, Sweden, ca. 1905 (37) 15. View of the Krupp Stammhaus, constructed ca. 1818 (40) 16. John Bowen, “Stac Fawr,” smokestack at the Llanelli Copperworks, 1861  (41) 17. Aerial view of the original Tata steel plant, Sakchi, ca. 1907  (42) 18. Site plan of the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser, Duisburg, 1912  (44) 19. American Expeditionary Forces, “Panorama of Krupp’s Works, Essen,” ca. 1918  (45) 20. Krupp photomicrographic study in Untersuchungsberichte, June 1929  (48) 21. Female workers on break, Essen, ca. 1914–18  (50) 22. Crucible carriers at Krupp steelworks, from Krupp Eisen und Stahl, Essen: Schutzvorrichtungen, ca. 1903 (51) 23. Crucible carriers at Krupp steelworks, from Krupp Eisen und Stahl, Essen: Schutzvorrichtungen, ca. 1903 (51) 24. Postcard view depicting the Villa Hügel, Essen, ca. 1912 (54)

25. Rainer Metzendorf, “Gartenvorstadt Margarethenhöhe,” 1919  (59) 26. View of Homestead, Pennsylvania, ca. 1910  (60) 27. View of workers’ housing on Avenue Saint-Sauveur, Le Creusot, 1912  (62) 28. View of Creswell Model Village (project completed 1895) (63) 29. View of the Via Krupp, Capri, 2020  (64) 30. Diagram of the steam engine locomotive and its energy needs in coal over time, 1935  (66) 31. Postcard view of the Krupp foundries at Essen  (68) 32. Plate from the International Smoke Abatement Exhibition catalog, 1881  (71) 33. Maximilien Ringelmann, Ringelmann smoke charts, ca. 1888  (72) 34. Jules Tavernier and Paul Frénseny, The Manufacture of Iron—Carting Away the Scoriae, 1873  (73) 35. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe, depicting the microscopic formation of slag variants, 1919  (76) 36. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe, depicting the characteristics of slag-based mortars, 1919  (77) 37. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe, depicting worker housing layouts, 1919  (78) 38. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe, depicting the Berlin-Stettin canal overpass, 1919  (79) 39. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe, depicting the laying of slag tar in the Ruhr Valley, 1919  (79) 40. Henry Taunt, Workmen with a Steamroller in High Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, ca. 1891  (80) 41. Slag dump with glowing cinder, 1932  (81) 42. Diagram showing changes to the world’s surface vegetation (84) 43. Caspar David Friedrich, Der Chasseur im Walde, 1814 (87) 44. Henry Bessemer, portion of original patent drawing for the Bessemer converter, 1855  (90) 45. Plate from Arthur W. Brearley and Harry Brearley, Ingots and Ingot Moulds, depicting crystal formation in a Krupp ingot, 1918  (92) 46. Leonardo da Vinci, sketch of a rolling mill, ca. 1500–1510 (94)

47. Alfred Krupp, sketch depicting two workers with hammers, ca. 1835  (95) 48. Adolph Menzel, The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes), ca. 1872–75  (96) 49. View of test pieces for the Weichselbrücke, Dirschau, produced by the Gutehoffnungshütte of Oberhausen, ca. 1888  (100) 50. Page from the sales catalog of the International Steel & Iron Company, ca. 1919  (102) 51. Illustration from Josef Durum, Hermann Ende, Eduard Schmitt, and Heinrich Wagner, eds. Handbuch der Architektur unter Mitwirkung von Fachgenossen, 139.  (106) 52. View of the Krupp pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893  (111) 53. Krupp’s display at the 1902 Düsseldorf fair  (114) 54. Bruno Taut, Glass Pavilion, Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition, 1914  (115) 55. Map of the Rhine watershed and its major iron and steel factories around 1870  (118) 56. View of the Dombrücke, Cologne, ca. 1870  (119) 57. E. Martin and E. Chevaillier, isochronic map, 1882 (120) 58. Albrecht Penck, isochronic map, 1887  (121) 59. H. & C. Graham Ltd., The Prussian Octopus, ca. 1915 (123) 60. G. F. Sargent, Iron Bathing Kiosk for the Viceroy of Egypt, 1860  (128) 61. Illustration of a steel church by Forges d’Aiseau, 1889 (129) 62. Eugène Freyssinet, airship hangar at Orly Airport, ca. 1924  (132) 63. Interior view of the Festhalle Frankfurt, 1951  (134) 64. Postcard view of a destroyed building from the Brussels Exposition Universelle, 1910  (134) 65. View of Max Berg’s Centennial Hall, Wrocław, completed 1913  (136)

viii

Illustrations

66. Max Berg, sketches for the design of the Centennial Hall, Wrocław, ca. 1911  (136) 67. Interior view of Gottfried Semper’s Semperdepot, Vienna, completed 1877  (141) 68. Illustration of steel column capital designs from the Berlin transit network, 1882–1913  (142) 69. Construction of the Spreetunnel, 1913  (145) 70. Constantin P. Pappa, Arif Paşa Apartmanı, Istanbul, completed ca. 1903–6  (147) 71. Constantin P. Pappa, detail of structural system in the Arif Paşa Apartmanı  (149) 72. View of the first stainless steel conveyor belt, 1901 (158) 73. Oscar Graubner, Margaret Bourke-White atop the Chrysler Building, ca. 1930  (159) 74. Aerial view of Passchendaele before and after battle, 1917 (161) 75. Auguste Hippolyte Collard, Ossature du Pont St.Louis, 1861  (164) 76. Images from Jules Andrieu, Désastres de la guerre (165) 77. Ruins of the Palace of St. Cloud, Saint-Cloud, France, 1870 (166) 78. Steel frame of Ruef Building, destroyed Aronson Building, destroyed Mills Building, and intact “painted ladies” after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906   (168) 79. Detail of the Krupp cast-steel factory at Essen showing scrapyard, 1897  (172) 80. View of ruins from the fire of 1916, Bergen, Norway (174) 81. Albert Renger-Patzsch, Ein Knotenpunkt der Fachwerkbrücke Duisburg-Hochfeld, 1928  (180) 82. Bernd and Hilla Becher, Winding Towers, 1967–88 (182) 83. Poster celebrating the “Day of Free Europe” and the creation of the ECSC, 1952  (184)

Acknowledgments

I first began thinking seriously about materials

copyediting. It has been an honor to work with a

in architecture school. I loved making models

publisher so committed to art-historical scholar-

and pushing the limits of how that could be done

ship and such finely produced books.

and with what. I fondly remember stalking the



display cases of my campus store, caressing balsa

the form of time and money from a number of

and basswood, foamcore, plexi, concrete, resin,

institutions, including a Summer Stipend Award

styrene, chipboard, clay, piano wire, and much

and Fellowship from the National Endowment for

more to conjure inspiration for how I wanted to

the Humanities, a research leave with the Forum

make my next creation. This world of architecture

Transregionale Studien in Berlin, the Richard

in miniature was liberating because, for the most

Rogers Fellowship in London from the Harvard

part, I could afford the material parts and was in

Graduate School of Design, a research fellowship

control of how they came together. With time, and

from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, a publication

a shift to the scholarly side of architecture, I came

grant from the Graham Foundation, and a John

to realize that what I loved about materiality was its

Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

intrinsic truths. Unlike the issues of form or style,



materiality felt like a world of positivistic clarity:

superb and I owe them thanks for making my uni-

materials have limits and definable characteristics

versity life so enriching. My students are superb as

that are not open to interpretation. And they have

well, and a number of them, at both the University

an intrinsic relationship with our natural world

of Rochester and Cornell University, have taken

that discourse, despite all of its exciting dynamics,

seminars I have directed on the topic of materiality.

does not. With this book, I hope I have made good

Christian Sancto, Julia Tulke, and Mimi Cheng

on the intellectual meditations that so fascinated

deserve special mention here as stellar, probing

the young model-maker version of me more than

doctoral advisees. Kathleen James-Chakraborty,

two decades ago.

Barry Bergdoll, and Esra Akcan have been tireless



colleagues and mentors and I remain grateful for

To realize this goal, I have benefited from

I have been fortunate to receive support in

My colleagues at the University of Rochester are

the professionalism of the staff at the Penn State

their steadfast support, criticism, and collabo-

University Press, especially Ellie Goodman,

ration. Dasha Lynch, another brilliant student,

whose early and decisive interest in this project

did superb work proofing odds and ends in the

has made her an ideal collaborator. I wish also to

bibliography. Ripp Greatbatch served a vital role in

thank Maddie Caso for her administrative guid-

researching and clearing images for publication.

ance and Laura Reed-Morrisson, Jennifer Norton,



Brian Beer, and Regina Starace for their produc-

“chosen family”—who engage my work with such

tion expertise. Suzanne Wolk provided expert

interest and who also inspire me to engage things

I am lucky to have friends—an extended

besides my work. For this I thank Nick Adderley,

Llerena Searle, Jenny Sedlis, Laura Smoller, Flavio

Kliment Alexiev, Tanya Bakhmetyeva, Natasha

Trevisan, Graeme Vaughn, and Stewart Weaver.

Case, Sam Chermayeff, Theo Clinkard, Edward



Elles, Freya Estrellar, Jeremy Faro, Peter Hermann,

Hewitt and Dale Christensen, for everything they

Ben Homrighausen, Marguerite Humeau, Maureen

have done for me. Finally, I thank Ripp for his

Jeram, Christian Larsen, Casey Miller, Reinhard

quiet support and remarkable centeredness, which

Ostendorf, Miriam Peterson, Michael Pilato,

has kept me moored in tumultuous times; he is an

Alexander Pohnert, Nathan Rich, Eyal Rozmarin,

old soul who brings new life.

Note on Translation and Format Throughout this manuscript, places are referred to by their relevant historical place-names (e.g., Breslau, not Wrocław), with the exception of cities of publication in the bibliography, where I use the modern anglicized place-names (e.g., Munich, not München), when they exist. All translations from German, modern Turkish, and French are my own.

x

Acknowledgments

I remain in the debt of my parents, Patricia

besides my work. For this I thank Nick Adderley,

Llerena Searle, Jenny Sedlis, Laura Smoller, Flavio

Kliment Alexiev, Tanya Bakhmetyeva, Natasha

Trevisan, Graeme Vaughn, and Stewart Weaver.

Case, Sam Chermayeff, Theo Clinkard, Edward



Elles, Freya Estrellar, Jeremy Faro, Peter Hermann,

Hewitt and Dale Christensen, for everything they

Ben Homrighausen, Marguerite Humeau, Maureen

have done for me. Finally, I thank Ripp for his

Jeram, Christian Larsen, Casey Miller, Reinhard

quiet support and remarkable centeredness, which

Ostendorf, Miriam Peterson, Michael Pilato,

has kept me moored in tumultuous times; he is an

Alexander Pohnert, Nathan Rich, Eyal Rozmarin,

old soul who brings new life.

Note on Translation and Format Throughout this manuscript, places are referred to by their relevant historical place-names (e.g., Breslau, not Wrocław), with the exception of cities of publication in the bibliography, where I use the modern anglicized place-names (e.g., Munich, not München), when they exist. All translations from German, modern Turkish, and French are my own.

x

Acknowledgments

I remain in the debt of my parents, Patricia

Introduction

Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on

they need: food, clothing, shelter. We don’t need

account of our human conquest over nature. For

single-use plastics or a brand-new wardrobe every

each such conquest takes its revenge on us.

season or vacations halfway around the globe. We

—Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature, 291–92

must unlearn the wantonness of the consumer culture that is force-fed to us by the marketeers of

Enough is enough. This is a mantra of the “enough

late capitalism. Just as responsible people do not

movement,” a movement of largely Western citi-

spend more money than they earn, so too should

zens concerned about the rapid degradation of the

we resist the temptation to place a burden on the

earth caused by the wrath of unending growth and

global commons that is greater than what it can

industrialization, manifesting itself in the existen-

handle. Enough is enough.

tial crisis of our time: the “wicked universality”



of climate change. The enough movement argues

cal turn to questions of sufficiency and consumer

that unmitigated economic growth, assumed to be

culture originates is not humanism but science.

a basic and justified goal of every nation and every

As Dipesh Chakrabarty argues in his landmark

individual on earth since at least the advent of the

essay “The Climate of History: Four Theses,” the

1

The bedrock on which this urgent philosophi-

Industrial Revolution, is patently unsustainable.

Anthropocene, the period in which human agency

Perhaps to the detriment of a focus on the sys-

became powerful enough to disrupt geology, is

temic and strategic political issues of regulation,

an unequivocal reality that in turn disrupts the

the movement focuses on the tactical consumer

continuity of human experience.3 In other words,

choices of individuals. A majority of those indi-

a disruption of geology is a disruption in the

viduals in the West already have every basic thing

human experience, which in effect necessitates

2

a disruption in thinking. Even if the cynic wipes

gluttonous, more than enough. We do not need

away pop movements like the enough movement

indoor skiing centers in the desert. We do need

and buzzy lingo like “Anthropocene” and “dis-

to house the homeless. Beauty in architectural

ruption,” what remains is a cold, hard reality that

form is a worthy pursuit. Excess is not. What is the

can be ignored only by a very real and new cult of

difference?

post-truthism. The quest of the “enough” move-



ment, despite its fixation on the consumer instead

tackle this question wholeheartedly, and there are

of the regulator, holds important tenets that may

some logical reasons why this might be the case.

help us leverage Chakrabarty’s theses from the out-

The most obvious is that the climate crisis—and

side in. The philosophical pursuit of enough—of

our adaptation to it—is something that is unfold-

sufficiency—has in it the capacity to transcend the

ing today and into our future and that history can

-isms that might otherwise preoccupy the fore-

imperil its own autonomy and intrinsic value when

ground of a scholarly consideration of the modern

it subordinates itself to instrumental purposes, such

period: neoliberalism, progressivism, Marxism.

as explaining a path to current events. The contem-

Capitalism and its limits, in this context, are a

porary and prospective condition, after all, would

matter not of ideology but rather of the survival of

seem to be the domain of designers. We can simply

flora and animal species, including Homo sapiens.

analyze their decisions in twenty or more years’

Histories of imperialism, colonization, and global-

time and make sense of them with the safe dis-

ization and the methodological focus of feminism,

tance that time provides. This position, which until

poststructuralism, and decolonization all take on

recently seemed so admirable for its disinterested-

new valences when framed as a matter not only

ness, feels increasingly untenable and neglectful.

of the value of the human but also of her survival.

Do we even have twenty years to wait? What can

Whether framed as an intersection or a dialectic

we contribute now, rather than later? How can the

of science and humanism, we can reject this reality

discipline of history address our ecological crisis

only if we believe that the two pillars of human

and offer our colleagues in design and other fields

knowledge—science and humanism—are mutu-

synthetic ideas that are rooted in history and resist

ally exclusive. Chakrabarty poignantly reminds

the facile cliché of history repeating itself or the

us that the “mansion of modern freedoms stands

need to learn some sort of inevitable lesson?

on an ever-expanding base of fossil fuel use.” An



architectural historian will not—and should not—

forward. The first is to displace the human from

resist the temptation to see something specific in

the center of architectural history, a displacement

Chakrabarty’s allegorical mansion.

that may be an ethical imperative in light of the



trouble humans have wrought on the earth by

4

2

Which brings us to a question. Where does

The field of architectural history has yet to

In pursuit of this task, there are two clear ways

architecture figure in this picture of a brave new

placing themselves at the center to begin with. This

world of enoughness? That question, the specula-

is not to argue that humans are unimportant or

tive force behind this book, is not an easy one to

negligible in the creation of architecture—they are

answer. Architecture can just as easily be no-non-

clearly and inarguably the core of everything that

sense shelter—enough—as it can be superfluous,

architecture is about. Yet all too often our notion of

Precious Metal

the human is framed around tropes and concepts,

contexts of these figures. By this I do not mean

such as “masterpiece,” that patently resist holistic,

their appreciation for the natural environment,

ecological narratives and promote timeless ideals

something that seems essential for any decent work

in their stead. This framing goes back more than a

of architecture, but rather how the materials and

century to the formation of architectural history as

processes they employ interface with the materials

a discipline, and to its largely uncritical adoption

and processes of nature itself—in other words, the

of the conventions of art history and the words that

roles of these multiple authors as designers not

are used to describe the solitary pursuits of media

merely of form but of ecological relationships.

like painting and sculpture.





materiality. This seems to be a logical next step in

5

Take the concept of genius, for example, an

The second way forward is to emphasize

adjective and noun that has been used to describe

thinking about the built environment after displac-

countless architects of the past and the present.

ing the human from the center, as it surreptitiously

“Genius,” as a word, has a long history involving

brings us back to what Bruno Latour calls the

two etymological origins and several distinct

“terrestrial,” in which one occupies a territory that

meanings. Nevertheless, the word has carried

is bound to earth, the power of which derives from

with it an air of being utterly self-evident in the

what can be sustained there.7 The ecologist and

modern period, requiring close to no qualitative

indigenous theorist Robin Wall Kimmerer provides

or quantitative explanation. As Ann Jefferson

a useful new template with which to think like a

notes, the word “genius” acts as “an accolade that

scientist, as the climate crisis demands, while also

defines its object as an exception in a class of its

thinking about the spiritual value of deanthropo-

own . . . possessing rather more evaluative purpose

centrizing our knowledge systems, as humanism,

than precise semantic content. . . . If one pauses to

ironically, demands. She explains this through the

reflect, however, ‘genius’ is oddly hard to define,

act of weaving baskets with sweetgrass:

and what is odder still, this does not seem to count against its viability as a concept. Speakers continue

In weaving well-being for land and people, we need

to use the word as if they can count on listeners to

to pay attention to the lessons of the three rows [of

understand what they mean, and the attribution of

basketmaking]. Ecological well-being and the laws of

genius is often used as a clincher in discussions as

nature are always the first row. Without them, there is no

if to suggest that the word is entirely self-justify-

basket of plenty. Only if that first circle is in place can we

ing.”6 This is precisely the case in the monographic

weave the second. The second reveals material welfare,

strain of architectural history, which has reified

the subsistence of human needs. Economy built upon

Wright, Mies, and Le Corbusier, among others,

ecology. But with only two rows in place, the basket is

without sufficiently pausing to fully probe the

still in jeopardy of pulling apart. It’s only when the third

innumerable other people—architects, engineers,

row comes that the first two can hold together. By using

builders, and users—who are, unlike in the case

materials as if they were a gift, and returning that gift

of painting or sculpture, necessarily involved in a

through worthy use, we find balance. I think that third

work of architecture. Nor does this strain of archi-

row goes by many names: Respect. Reciprocity. All our

tectural history fully wrestle with the ecological

Relations.8

Introduction

3



4

What if steel (or glass, or any other material)

new, not in the spoils of or references to the past.

is rethought as a gift from the earth, not some

Indeed, architectural modernism has often touted

endless resource? How valuable is that gift when

its material innovations as ex nihilo.

we consider what sacrifices and labor have gone



into it? How do we accept that gift with humility?

earth is not incidental. “The very notion of soil

And how do we find “worthy use” of that gift and

is changing,” says Latour, directly addressing the

return our gratitude to the source from which

semantic shift of the word “soil” in the framework

it came? The architecture of the modern period,

of climate change. “The soil of globalization’s

like a brilliant new basket with brand-new tech-

dreams is beginning to slip away,” he notes. “Now

niques, was conceived afresh largely based on

if there is no planet, no earth, no soil, no territory

the invention of new materials and the enhanced

to house the Globe of globalization toward which

performance of old ones. But we have not treated

all these countries claim to be headed, then there

it like a gift; we have made it a workhorse. What’s

is no longer an assured ‘homeland,’ as it were, for

more, the importance of materiality in the making

anyone.”9 Such is the predicament of the twen-

of architecture in the modern period has been sub-

ty-first century, argues Latour, the first century in

sumed under the more fashionable rubrics of form,

which we will become fully aware of the long-term

function, and cultural meaning, divorcing it from

climatic effects of what is now called the Anthro-

ecology. What of the inherent value of materiality

pocene, not only exerting pressure on our planet

in the study of architecture, which can, in addition

but setting into motion mass migrations that have

to the ecological, also relate architecture to broader

already begun to overhaul the rules of politics on

social and political implications? This book follows

a global scale. The destabilization of soil, the con-

both of these paths—decentering the human and

temporary loss of the sacred concept of terra firma,

emphasizing materiality—as concurrent ways for-

is not tangential to the history of architecture. The

ward, interweaving and interrelating them at every

very heavy industrial processes that brought us

possible juncture.

plate glass, iron, steel, and plastic are among the



many anthropogenic achievements that have also

The questions of ethics that run through any

That this book both begins and ends in the

study of the built environment and its relation-

turned up temperatures and raised the level of the

ship to human ecology are enormous. This book

sea. Globalization, fueled as it is by carbon emis-

attempts to make them more manageable by

sions, has been transformed from a cosmopolitan

focusing on two materials, iron and steel, and it

idea into one that is frighteningly provincial and

goes yet further by circumscribing the investi-

small-minded.10 The result is a self-aggrandizing

gation within certain sensible contours of both

narrative of progress that also advocates a kind of

geography and chronology. Those contours center

apolitical, anti-ecological framework, one in which

on the time and place where modernism began its

modern architecture exists both apart from history

radical break with history, the industrial West in

and outside the natural world in which things,

the long nineteenth century. This was an era that

including buildings, are born, die, and return to

saw the gradual dissolution of dynasties and the

the earth. Needless to say, modernism does not

rise of the nation-state, whose greatness lay in the

exist outside history or ecology, and one of the

Precious Metal

main goals of this book is to introduce ways to read modernism from the bottom up, so to speak.

It is worth noting that the term “ecology,” the

spatial and temporal patterns of the distribution, abundance, and interrelationship of organisms with nature and one another, was indeed coined in Germany in the period this book focuses on, by Ernst Haeckel in his book Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, published in 1866. Although the roots of ecological thinking go back at least to the ancients, it was in the nineteenth century, through the collective work of Haeckel, Alexander von

Figure 1. King Tutankhamun’s meteoric iron dagger, ca.

Humboldt, Isaac Newton, Eugenius Warming, Carl

fourteenth century BC. Photo courtesy Sandro Vannini /

Linnaeus, and Charles Darwin, foremost among

laboratoriorosso.

others, that ecology emerged as a credible way of discussing life on earth. With that credibility began the tabulation of the human habitat’s growing

from iron ore, and they remain chemically similar,

imbalance in nature. If the era of the Anthropocene

with minor differences in their proportions of iron,

was hatched in the age of discovery, it was in the

carbon, silicon, sulfur, phosphorus, and manga-

nineteenth century that it gained self-awareness.

nese that make for significant differences in their

This self-awareness came at a time that could

structural carrying capacity. Following centuries

not have been more inconvenient: industry was

of sporadic and unsystematic smelting elsewhere,

booming and cities were growing horizontally and

iron gained a deep cultural currency in ancient

vertically with the outsized help of iron and steel.

Egypt. At some point during his short reign (ca.

The capacity for critical inquiry into the inability

1334–1325 BC), Tutankhamun, popularly known as

of human ecology to coexist with modernity and

King Tut, acquired a dagger whose blade was later

modernism was always stunted because capitalism

discovered to be made of iron hammered from a

accelerated the dissymmetry.

meteorite (fig. 1).12 The dagger is one of a handful of



precious objects made of meteorite iron that signal

Of all the heroic building materials of mod-

ernism, steel and iron are perhaps the ripest for

the material’s extremely rare—and valuable—

this effort. Steel and iron, the most ubiquitous of

status, as iron from outer space has a higher nickel

humankind’s advanced metals, are the culmina-

content than earthly iron. These objects therefore

tion of a succession of metals that are often used

indicate that humans’ initial contact with the metal

to measure humans’ civilizational sophistication

occurred when it was serendipitously found on the

over time and, in two cases—bronze and iron—

earth’s surface. King Tut’s dagger is a symbol of the

to periodize three millennia of human and, by

end of a chronological period when metals, found

extension, archaeological history. To understand

easily on or near the ground, served as décor for

steel, we must first understand iron. Both derive

the everyday modification of humans’ bodies and

11

Introduction

5

their environment.13 In the period that followed,

to T. J. Demos and numerous others, justifies

humankind would turn its focus to that which was

identifying this point as the beginning of the

not readily apparent on the earth’s surface but lay

Anthropocene.17

beneath it, and society would be fundamentally



changed by the structural use of these metals.

edge that coursed through the age of discovery and



ultimately the Enlightenment put an abrupt end to

The ferrous metallurgy of terrestrial iron

ore, requiring a sustained melting point of 2,800

several misconceptions about the planet, such as

degrees Fahrenheit, necessitated kilns and hearths,

the notion that it was flat, and all of this led to a far

which appeared in different places at different

more complex understanding of human ecology.

points in time and in different civilizations,

But, as the Copernican revolution demonstrated,

including the Achaemenids in the Near East, the

advances in human knowledge were not always

Greek, Roman, and Viking civilizations in Europe,

tantamount to a fuller or more ethical philosophy

and the Ashoka people of the Indian subcontinent.

of the environment. While Copernicus may have

The written records of these civilizations and their

refuted pseudosciences such as astrology and

successors indicate an increasingly common asso-

alchemy, his placement of the earth at the periph-

ciation between the material superiority associated

ery rather than the center of the universe would

with iron and moral achievement. The mining of

ultimately prepare modern subjects to resist deep

iron ore entered a feedback loop with the mining

ecology, or the idea that every living being has an

of coal, which allowed the iron ore to be heated at

inherent worth regardless of its utility to humans.18

higher temperatures and in greater amounts, and

Crazy as it may sound, for many, scientific dis-

this in turn provided for objects of greater size,

covery supplanted superstition and faith-based

utility, and strength. Steel emerged from this loop,

thinking, and justified the idea that the complex

with its superiority to cast and wrought iron, and

interrelationships between living and nonliving

its greatest first applications lay in the creation of

things on earth were not particularly unique or

weaponry. These advances, coupled with some

fragile and that anthropocentrism was in turn fully

misfortune in the immune systems of the people

justifiable.

of the “New World,” are what Jared Diamond has



famously argued tilted the rest of history’s fate in

perversion of Enlightenment science facilitated the

favor of Europe from the early modern period

imminent Industrial Revolution and the environ-

onward.15 The orientation toward the New World

mental degradation that would follow it, but at

also signaled an elementary orientation shift in

the very least it makes clear how the drive for the

global affairs away from the Mediterranean world

accumulation of capital associated with the period

to that of the Atlantic, a shift that we see reflected

could be justified in anthropocentric terms. As it

in the steel industry centuries later.16 The year 1492,

turns out, capitalism has no intrinsic implements

in which Columbus “discovered” the Americas,

for enforcing environmental accountability. Lest we

marks a massive change in the stratigraphic record,

forget, it was this drive toward wealth accumula-

demonstrably showing the impact of carbon on the

tion, so well documented by Weber, Marx, Engels,

environment for the first time—which, according

Malthus, and others, that led to the vertiginous

14

6

The rapid uptick in the production of knowl-

Precious Metal

It would be overly causal to suggest that this

detonation of inequality and the confusion today between living standards and quality of life.19 This is just one reason for the suggestion that we adopt the word “capitalocene” in place of “anthropocene” to honestly describe the situation from the nineteenth century onward.20

The earliest decades of the Industrial Revolu-

tion witnessed a rise in the availability of portable commercial goods like plows and pots made of ferrous metals, although structural wrought iron, cast iron, and steel were largely still too difficult to produce. Their potential, however, could no longer be in doubt after the completion of Thomas Far-

Figure 2. Unknown, Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale. Photo:

nolls Pritchard and John Wilkinson’s Iron Bridge at

akg-images / De Agostini / Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

Coalbrookdale in the north of England, the world’s first major bridge to be made of cast iron, in 1781 (fig. 2).21 The Iron Bridge served as a harbinger of

one American entrepreneur, Andrew Carnegie,

Britain’s dominance in structural metals for the

to declare, “Farewell, then, Age of Iron; all hail,

century that followed.

King Steel.”24 By the final quarter of the nineteenth



century, steelmakers and some iron manufactur-

Henry Cort’s puddling process led to further

advances in the use of structural wrought iron

ers on either side of the Atlantic were producing

in the hulls of ships and bridges.22 Engineers and

wide flanged beams and other structural steel

inventors all seemed to know, though, that the

units adaptable, in concert with one another, to

future of structural metals lay in the premium

any number of recombinations in architecture and

potential of steel. That is what led Henry Bessemer

civil engineering. Certain historical events—such

to unveil the metallurgical process bearing his

as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the expan-

name in 1856, a process in which air was blown

sion of railways across the American West—were

through molten pig iron to remove its impurities,

particularly fruitful for the development of

which in turn allowed for the production of very

structural steel in that they furnished tabula-rasa

high-quality steel that was easier, quicker, and

opportunities to conceive and create radically new

seven times less expensive to produce than was

building typologies, such as the skyscraper and the

possible with earlier methods. Bessemer’s method

open-span railway station. Structural steel became

is one of the punctuation points of the second

the measuring stick by which all other materials

Industrial Revolution and laid the groundwork for

were judged, and was in fact the wellspring of its

early steelworks such as Sir John Fowler and Benja-

own greatest competitor in the twentieth century:

min Baker’s Forth Bridge, completed in 1890.

reinforced concrete.





23

The open-hearth, puddling, and rolling pro-

cesses all advanced at breakneck speed, which led

But at what cost? The economic success of

many companies, including those in the steel and

Introduction

7

by the exploitation of fossil fuels (fig. 3). This book, as part of its attempt to force a reckoning in the field, offers some less obvious but equally important images of the slow impact that architecture has concomitantly played in altering our climate.

This book does not seek to condemn iron or

steel. To be clear, these metals have had a radical impact on architecture, forever changing how we perceive and inhabit buildings: they liberated the floor plan from columns, allowed the pursuit of the cantilever, and provided the ability to hang façades as if they were curtains. This we already know, and these are things we should all admire. What isn’t discussed, however, is that these metals Figure 3. Aerial view of oil on the surface of the sea during

also produced a radical new ecology that reflected

the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, coast of Louisiana, Gulf of

a changed (although not depristinated) relation-

Mexico, August 2010. Photo: Nature Picture Library / Alamy

ship between humans and the environment, not

Stock Photo.

to mention between disparate cultures. These two ecologies, natural and intercultural, constitute the

8

construction industries, was measured by their

two lenses of the proverbial glasses through which

ability to meet investor expectations over absurdly

this book was researched and written, and they

long periods of time, some as much as a century.

color every object and theoretical concern it raises.

This enshrined the necessity, barring the pro-

These lenses will necessarily show the damage

duction of any comparable energy alternative, of

wrought by steel production while also highlight-

burning fossil fuels to meet long-term financial

ing the occasional moments when it has acted with

expectations. The commonalities between today’s

particular efficiency and suggested untapped eco-

climate crisis and colonialism, which began in

logical potential. This book jettisons iron and steel’s

earnest in the period this book addresses, are

familiar guise as the heroic aid to the “genius”

increasingly clear: both meant dispossession, the

architects and “masterpieces” of modernism;

former of territory, the latter of sovereignty.

instead, the ordering logic of this book considers



The difficulties associated with making images

steel’s ecology as distinct in time, coming from the

of the slow, gradual process of climate change has

earth, passing through human hands, and eventu-

also stymied a more robust response over the past

ally returning, in some way, back to the earth.

few decades. It is only recently that we have finally



begun to see and highlight those images. The

logical circumscription of the book and what

Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, for example,

enables a “horizontal” approach also to proffer

put a painful, if necessary, image into circulation,

“vertical” depth, something that histories rooted

one that showed the unmitigated damage caused

in primary sources ought to do. The book’s

Precious Metal

This brings us to the geographical and chrono-

documentary center of gravity features Krupp, the

economy.26 This microcosm of German power has

global titan of the German steel industry during

attracted a fair share of scholarship, particularly

the second Industrial Revolution. For about a for-

Marxist interpretations, but the Marxist framework

ty-year period leading up to World War I, Krupp

has also limited the scholarly cone of vision to the

exemplified the stratospheric rise of German might

analogic dyad of corporation and nation. This book

that followed the consolidation of the German

moves beyond this dyad and the fields of economic

Empire in 1871. Prior to this, Germany was well

and political history by exploring the role of steel

behind England, and afterward it would be eclipsed

in a global context through the lenses of architec-

by the United States. The story of German steel can

tural and environmental history, two fields that are

thus serve as a primer on the nature of industrial

absent in the scholarship. Further, to limit the story

power as it transitioned from the world of empires

to Krupp, as important as the company may have

to the world of nations: Krupp is an entity that

been, would be to ignore too many other pivotal

emerged from a regional culture centered on crafts

companies and production sites that promote, in

and interregional trade to become an industrial

much the same way that the genre of biography

and military powerhouse with immense political

can, a kind of hagiographic narrative that works

capital on the global stage. However, broad-minded

against the ecological situatedness of this book.

historical studies of the nineteenth century have



tended to gloss over Germany, relying on the rather

Germany as the Gründerboom and globally as

simplistic aphorism that the eighteenth century

the “age of steel,” is strategic not only because it

belonged to France, the nineteenth to England, and

isolates the singular importance of Germany’s role

the twentieth to the United States (with specu-

in shaping the ecology of steel both nationally and

lation that the twenty-first will belong to China,

internationally, but also because it highlights a set

in no small part the result of its booming steel

of discrete historical conditions that can easily be

industry).

overshadowed by the sheer scale of twentieth-cen-



tury wars and markets.27 The most important of

25

Yet this book also has a decidedly global

This roughly forty-year period, known in

and international scope, as it not only examines

these historical conditions is the ambiguity of the

the macro implications of the steel industry in

environmental impact of mass industrialization.

Germany but also interweaves that analysis with

During this period, in which the Romantic move-

a considerable amount of substantive compara-

ment in art and literature that prized nature so

tive material from France, the Ottoman empire,

highly began to fade, there was an understanding

the Indian subcontinent, the Austro-Hungarian

that the soot and pollution of the steel and other

Empire, England, the United States, and elsewhere.

industries were at least fleetingly problematic for

As with Bethlehem Steel and later Ford in the

the quality of life on earth. However, a bona fide

United States, Peugeot in France, and Mitsubishi in

environmentalist movement, including the con-

Japan, the confluence of corporate, industrial, and

cept of a carbon footprint, was yet to materialize.

national history found at the Krupp headquarters

This made for a moment in which confidence in

in the Ruhr Valley is stunning in how it marks the

industry and technology prevailed over a stir-

corporation as a microcosm of the nation and its

ring insecurity about the mortgage that mankind

Introduction

9

10

Suraiya Faroqhi and Zülal Kılıç’s Osmanlı

was placing on the future. This moment may be



instructive as the second great wave of techno-op-

Zanaatkarları is an important work on Ottoman

timism recedes in the twenty-first century and we

craftsmen that examines how individual guilds

encounter a new wave of hope that technology can

developed largely around concepts of expertise as

reverse the very problems we let it create in the

they related to specific materials, in turn shaping,

first place—which raises the question: which leaps

among other things, the organization of labor

of faith merit our collective investment and which

in the sphere of construction. Suzanne Preston

do not?

Blier and James Morris’s work on adobe archi-



tecture in West Africa, Elisabetta Conti’s edited

As a revisionist interpretation of the history

of metals that combines the methods of environ-

volume on steel in Italy, Hamady Bocoum’s study

mental history with business and trade history

of Africa’s metallurgical history, and Mario Rinke

collected from various archives, this book nec-

and Joseph Schwartz’s edited volume on wood all

essarily engages a wide body of primary and

provide superb models of material-centered stud-

secondary literature. Stuff Matters: Exploring the

ies whose methodologies and gleanings offer the

Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made

most sophisticated and up-to-date approaches in

World, by Mark Miodownik, brings a material

this small and emergent methodological subfield

scientist’s lens to the study of steel and ten other

to date.

common materials. Although Precious Metal



adopts some similar strategies, it extends the depth

book, be they corporate or individual, none enjoys

of Miodownik’s approach by focusing on a specific

a more developed body of literature than Krupp,

material. Sigfried Giedion’s Bauen in Frankreich,

with particularly strong works in political and

Eisen, Eisenbeton is an important early example of

economic history. Harold James’s Krupp: A History

material-focused architectural history that exam-

of the Legendary German Firm is the most recent

ines a composite material also discussed in this

comprehensive biography of the firm over many

book: reinforced concrete. Precious Metal draws

generations, synthesizing a vast body of scholar-

on Giedion’s historiographic legacy but goes one

ship and augmenting it with some new archival

step further by inscribing it within the concerns of

research.

deep ecology. Adrian Forty’s Concrete and Cul-



ture: A Material History is another material study,

representing a distinct phase in the life cycle of

influential in focusing not on a material’s techni-

steel. The first chapter, “Origin,” explores the birth

cal properties but rather on its effects on culture

of steel in architecture by examining the mining of

across time and space. Tony Fry and Anne-Marie

coal and iron ore for steel production, the geolog-

Willis’s Steel: A Design, Cultural, and Ecological

ical and metallurgical research behind iron and

History addresses steel’s role in industrial design

steel, and the processes of environmental degra-

and mechanics. While both Concrete and Culture

dation and displacement this entailed. Mining is a

and Steel are comprehensive, neither addresses the

robust subfield of environmental history,28 and this

environmental aspects at the center of Precious

chapter brings the concerns of that field to bear

Metal.

on architecture by examining how prospecting

Precious Metal

Of all the actors that shape the narrative of this

This book is divided into six chapters, each

developed and how the earth came to be under-

parts that manufacturers imagined and engi-

stood as a site of immense financial opportunity,

neered to allow for enormously complex building

despite considerable engineering challenges. The

systems, while also taking into account the impli-

chapter looks at sites in the industrial West—

cations of these open-ended construction systems

Nevada, northern England, and, of course, the

and their popularity for both the origin site and

Ruhr Valley—along with sites that the steelmaking

the building site.

powers sought to exploit in Spain, Algeria, and



Anatolia.

on how the architectural iron and steel industry



took its show on the road and internationalized

The second chapter, “Industry,” turns to cor-

The fourth chapter, “Dissemination,” focuses

porate headquarters and examines the cultural

itself economically through cultural venues,

dynamics of local labor forces. For example, Krupp

representing steel to audiences at expositions and

was one of the first companies to attract migrant

trade fairs. Two very prominent examples include

workers from across Europe, and it housed them

the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London and

in carefully designed homes and planned commu-

the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chi-

nities. This chapter examines factories along with

cago. In these exhibitions and in smaller regional

the company’s architectural and urban visions in

ones, steelmakers went to great lengths to pro-

settlements like the one at the Margarethenhöhe, in

duce impressive exhibits showing that they were

which a stylistic emphasis was placed on a German

culturally transposable. These exhibitions thus offer

Heimat instead of on international industrial

vivid glimpses into how a corporation positioned

culture. These largely nostalgic environments, built

itself as a producer of goods with global cultural

from traditional materials and in traditional styles,

value. This chapter also examines a number of

also belied the progressive nature of steel as a prod-

important, internationally circulated publications

uct, and this chapter pays special attention to the

that supported the sale and design of iron and steel

array of actors who negotiated the tension between

building parts.

old and new and looks at how companies at the



forefront of the production of modern architecture

for and dispersal of architectural steel as these

sublimated much of its technologically progressive

markets gradually became international, aided

ethos in their own building projects.

by the expansion of transportation systems and



global shipping routes. This chapter examines

The third chapter, “Production,” examines

The fifth chapter, “Building,” traces the markets

the array of iron- and steelmaking processes that

the rise of systems design and its relationship to

evolved at Krupp and elsewhere, paying particular

structural metals and the training practices of

attention to the methods and systems used in the

prominent schools of architecture like the École

production of structural units such as the I-beam,

des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It also explores the role of

as well as base trims, girts, angles, channels, rigid

iron and steel in the success of bold new projects in

frame systems, secondary framing systems, sheet-

reinforced concrete, such as Max Berg’s Jahrhun-

ing, and panels, and the machinery, equipment,

derthalle, and in the development of infrastructure

and labor necessary to support them. The chapter

in ventures like Berlin’s U-Bahn. And it looks at

also explores the increasingly diverse inventory of

how structural metals found their way abroad

Introduction

11

into open-source design systems like the Arif Paşa



Apartments in Istanbul, the Ottoman empire’s first

our built environment matters more than ever. The

building with a structural metal frame.

focus of this book—Germany’s globally situated



role in the making of the “steel age”—is intended to

The final chapter, “Return,” examines the rise

of the scrapyard and the origins of structural steel

demonstrate the importance of “horizontal” history

recycling in the nineteenth century. Although steel

for creating a more ecologically aware history of

buildings seldom came down during this period,

architecture. The book’s subtitle, “German Steel,

a handful did, and, more commonly, nonessential

Modernity, and Ecology,” reminds us that the brave

steel parts were often scrapped when buildings

new built world that modern men and women have

were updated. This chapter brings the volume full

imagined would not have been possible without

circle, returning to metallurgical science to exam-

incurring a tremendous debt to the natural world.

ine how a new recycling system that mixed scrap

This book is the ledger of that debt.

steel with iron and oxygen and burned off carbon for purification, along with the advancement of alloy technology, facilitated an entire ecology for the steel industry.

12

In a time of imperatives to think ecologically,

Precious Metal

Chapter 1

Origin

Earth

not merely the occasional deposits sitting close to the earth’s surface that were utilized in premod-

The pursuit of an ever stronger metal has always

ern times. Advances in geological science and its

begun in the earth. Whether jutting just above the

instruments made it possible to know what lay

surface or embedded deeper in the lithosphere, the

ever deeper beneath one’s feet, be it useless silt or

materialization of metals began with a look down-

profitable iron ore. Mapping pioneers like Nicolas

ward when humans first began smelting copper

Desmarest, William Maclure, and William Smith

seven thousand years ago. As the metallurgical

brought this knowledge into even greater relief,

ambitions of humans became more sophisti-

visually illustrating horizontal seams, stratigraphic

cated, so did the means by which they located the

layers, and overall patterns that, by the turn of the

reserves of ore needed to fulfill these ambitions.

nineteenth century, made it clear where the world’s

The rapidly increasing sophistication of mining

most productive large-scale mining zones would

technology—and mining productivity—that

be, with maps that could in turn chart many of the

characterizes the modern period is intertwined

most important patterns of European and North

with the establishment of geology as a scientific

American urbanization and industrialization.3

discipline in the eighteenth century and the process



known as prospecting, the act of exploring and

tography in 1815 with a map titled “A Delineation of

charting an area’s mineral deposits.2 The human

the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scot-

appetite for strong metals that could form and

land,” which he produced after years of traveling

bear massive loads necessitated the identification

across the United Kingdom as a mineral surveyor

of large, continuous seams of coal and iron ore,

(fig. 4).4 In this hand-colored map, Smith delimits

1

Smith, in particular, pioneered geological car-

the twenty-three dominant geological substrates—

in turn providing the need and often the funding

oolytes, marbles, marls, and limestones—of most

for new and expanded departments of and research

of Great Britain. The map is as important to the

projects in geology across the continent.

history of geology as the fact that two of its zones,



“iron sand or carstone” and “coalmeasures—penant

Europe, so too did its presence in the education

pacing grindstones and millstones,” were altogether

of European architects. European institutions for

new categories with an unambiguous relationship

the training of architects, beginning with Second

to the prospects of industrialization. The composi-

Empire France and the École des Beaux-Arts in

tion also includes a sectional map titled “Sketch of

Paris, instituted comprehensive courses in geology.

the succession of strata and their relative altitudes,”

While the syllabi reveal only a passing interest

which is novel not in its own right but in its desire

in geology as it related to metallurgy, they do

to place the geological layer in conversation with

demonstrate the goal of cultivating a comprehen-

topographic relief. This graphic repertoire char-

sive knowledge of rocks and minerals, including

acterized many of Smith’s subsequent maps, many

ores, and their physical characteristics and usages.8

of which also proved influential throughout both

By the 1890s, Georges Maneuvrier, an influential

England and continental Europe.

instructor in building technology at the École des



Beaux-Arts, had instituted an ambitious two-year

German geology lagged ever so slightly behind

As the discipline of geology flourished in

English and French geology around this time, but

course comprising forty lessons in physics, chemis-

it was not without its own novel contributions.

try, and geology, in that order. Maneuvrier’s lessons

Mining academies (Hochschülen für Bergbau) had

covered descriptions of geology and fossilization

trained specialists in the mechanics of mining. At

and their relationship to sedimentary, eruptive,

the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Gottlob Werner

and metamorphic rocks, particularly those found

proved particularly influential, combining field

in France. Relying heavily on the work of Smith,

findings with his (ultimately erroneous) theory

Werner, and Maclure, Maneuvrier also trained

of neptunism—which promoted the idea that

students in the making and use of geological maps

rocks such as granite were formed by the crystal-

and sections, which in turn trained them in the

lization of the waters of a primeval ocean—into

field identification of stones, minerals, and ores.

a streamlined doctrine. Also important were



the contributions of polymath Alexander von

ing, geology, and cartography in the nineteenth

Humboldt (a student of Werner’s in Freiberg) and

century were, however, most intrinsically inter-

stratigraphist Leopold von Buch. Buch’s geologi-

twined in Germany. In this milieu, no one loomed

cal map of Germany, published in 1826, is clearly

larger than the surveyor Heinrich Karl Wilhelm

indebted to Smith and proved equally influential

Berghaus, director of the geographical institute

5

6

7

The relationships among architectural train-

a decade later (fig. 5). In both the German and the English cases, geology and mining—particularly of coal and iron ore—demonstrated a perfect science-industry symbiosis, with geologists helping to promote European mining activities, and industry

14

Precious Metal

Figure 4. William Smith, geological map titled “A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland,” 1815. Reproduction by permission of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York.

Figure 5. Leopold von Buch, “Geognostische Karte von Deutschland” (Geognostic Map of Germany), 1826. Piotr Krzywiec, private collection.

advanced geological research and produced the most sophisticated and up-to-date geological maps of its day. The publication generated new geological research essential to mining in its own right by

16

at Potsdam and professor of applied mathemat-

funding explorations of iron, magnesium, silica,

ics at Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Bauakademie.9 In

and coal and publishing the results for the scientific

Potsdam, Berghaus trained, among others, August

community. Berghaus was also the Bauakademie’s

Heinrich Petermann, Germany’s most celebrated

strongest link to Humboldt, as the two regularly

cartographer in the last third of the nineteenth

corresponded and shared findings, celebrating the

century.10 Petermann, who was essential to the con-

overlap of their respective interests in the built

tinuation of the legacy of the Gotha cartographer

and natural worlds.11 In addition, Berghaus’s own

Justus Perthes, is perhaps best known as the editor

treatises on geology from his masterwork, the

and publisher of a prolific series of geographic

Physikalischer Atlas, published by Justus Perthes

periodicals ultimately known as Petermann’s geog-

between 1838 and 1848, provided the illustrations

raphische Mitteilungen, which published the most

for Humboldt’s acclaimed study Kosmos, a series of

Precious Metal

physical descriptions of the universe first formu-

implications. Gold, silver, and diamond deposits,

lated at the nearby University of Berlin that were

like those in British South Africa, could be stripped

published between 1845 and 1862.

quickly and completely, and their intrinsic value



meant that their transport, unprocessed, back to

Just as there was a strong connection between

the academic spheres of architecture and geology

the metropole could pay for itself many times over.

in Berlin, so too were geology and industry linked

But this was by and large not the case with coal

throughout greater Prussia. Humboldt regularly

and ore because of their relative ubiquity. Even the

corresponded with Alfred Krupp, the steel magnate

colonial powers with the smallest homeland foot-

in Essen, about Humboldt’s geological findings,

print—Belgium and the Netherlands—had at least

both in Germany and abroad.12 For Krupp, the

some reserves of these materials at home.

most important aspects of Humboldt’s and Ber-



ghaus’s work were the metallurgical exponents of

There are several answers to this question. One

prospecting, namely, the geological patterns and

is the benefits that overseas prospecting could

cartographic innovations that could allow Krupp to

provide for a burgeoning multinational mining

corner the domestic and international markets in

corporation like Rio Tinto, a model in which

precious geological materials: iron ore and coal, but

economic power is achieved through multinodal

also magnesium, magnetite, and silica. Moreover, it

production rather than corporate consolidation

is clear from Humboldt and Berghaus’s correspon-

and remote resource extraction.14 Another answer

dence that both men understood that they were

is political: overseas states sought the geologi-

serving industry, probably with an eye toward the

cal expertise of European and North American

ways in which private figures like Krupp and private

scientists and mining engineers, asking them to

funds could accelerate their own research agendas.

identify their potential capacity for developing



industrial capabilities such as steel mills. The

The importance of prospecting to industry

So why was overseas prospecting worthwhile?

played a role in nineteenth-century geopolitics

consequences of such “soft-power” partnerships

as well. As the geological surveys of western and

premised on consultative geological expertise—as

central Europe and North America grew ever more

with the British in Persia or the Germans in the

sophisticated throughout the nineteenth century,

Ottoman empire—were nearly always followed by

so did the desire for—and the perceived necessity

long-term industrial relationships that benefited

of—executing a thorough global inventory of coal,

both parties.15 In both cases, the geologists from

ore, and other useful industrial deposits across the

Europe and North America marshaled an expertise

planet. If only in terms of science, this compre-

that was nevertheless contingent on local labor

hensive geographic ambition was clearly indebted

and real cooperation and promoted an economic

to Humboldt. But it was also a handmaiden of

interconnectedness that is essential to understand-

colonial power, whether relatively hard, as in the

ing globalization and its deep origins in the world’s

case of Britain and France, or soft, as in the case of

thirst for iron and, later, steel.

Germany and the United States. The prospecting



of coal and ore, unlike that of gold, silver, and dia-

extraction is a well-worn trope of colonial his-

monds, portended distinctly local and long-term

toriography. The semicolonial condition and the

13

Bald-faced exploitation through resource

Origin

17

dynamics of consultative prospecting are, however,

“scraping” and open-pit mining. Even the task of

far less well understood. An instructive example of

determining what kind of geology a given location

such a relationship is crystallized in a 1915 report

had could be a bureaucratic one. Owners of large

on the geology of Upper Mesopotamia commis-

tracts of private land were not legally required to

sioned by the Ottoman empire and executed by

allow the expedition team to enter their property

German geologists and engineers. Ottoman offi-

and test their soil through boring, scraping, and

cials commissioned the report in concert with the

other methods, though they usually permitted

long-standing partnership they had formed with

this relatively simple and also potentially lucrative

German banks and engineers in the construction

practice. Like many other governments across the

of the vast majority of their railway network, a pro-

globe, the Ottoman government exercised the right

cess that had been under way for about forty-five

to test the geology of private property through

years. Connecting Baghdad with Constantinople,

a bureaucratic application process that needed

the so-called Baghdad Railway remained incom-

to pass a certain threshold of “scientific” (read

plete at the onset of World War I in 1914. The

economic) relevance. Prospectors, including those

largest incomplete section lay in Upper Mesopo-

in the Klein expedition, were astute at dangling the

tamia, where a complete survey for the remaining

prospect of mining riches before landowners. If

railway bed was still necessary. Throughout the

geological riches were in fact found, either on the

railway’s gestation, Ottoman officials and German

ground or beneath it, the landowner had the right

engineers alike had used the process of surveying

to apply for a mining permit that was renew-

the path of the tracks as a means of discovering

able every year from the Ottoman Department

unrelated things about the terrain through which

of Mines, a state office established in 1887.17 The

the railway passed, and this sparsely populated yet

landowner was allowed to offer the tender to the

naturally promising stretch was no exception. A

highest bidder, who would then move in and begin

special team of geologists, led by Fritz Klein (who

operations.18

doubled as a gem merchant), was brought in to do



the prospecting of the region.

coloring in the geological map with information.



Geologists needed to weigh the value of exploring

The geological report, produced through an

expedition conducted in the spring of 1915 and

a given site against its proximity to railway lines

titled “Report on Some Deposits in Asian Turkey,”

and capable labor. After all, what was the point of

begins with the simple move of dividing geological

digging iron ore out of the ground if it could not

findings into two distinct classes. The first class

reasonably be transported to a place where it could

included productive deposits that were identified

be refined? And how could this be done without a

or inferred to be underground, offering evidence

significant number of trainable men between the

to both the government and industry regarding

ages of twenty and fifty looking for work and at the

the potential value of undertaking a new mine. The

ready? Even when both of these criteria were met

second class included deposits that could prove

and there were entrepreneurs who wanted to pro-

productive for industrial use and that touched

duce iron—or better yet, steel—they also needed to

the earth’s surface, which could in turn facilitate

get their hands on coal, the only form of fuel truly

16

18

Prospecting was also about far more than

Precious Metal

capable of powering this kind of heavy industry.

effects of mine subsidence, or the sinking and

If the coal was too far away, it would prove too

cracking effect of land above a mine, which could

expensive to transport. In the case of Upper Mes-

be made exponentially worse if the mine were to

opotamia, everything was in place but the railway,

collapse. At best, mine subsidence generated small

which everyone hoped was coming soon. Klein’s

sinkholes in open fields. At worst, and this was

expedition, tellingly, focused not on producing a

increasingly common in densely developed areas,

thorough geological map of all of Upper Meso-

mine subsidence ruined buildings by slowly tearing

potamia but rather on spot prospecting the areas

at them or, on rare occasions, swallowing them

around small cities and large towns through or

entirely into the ground.

near which the forthcoming Baghdad Railway



would pass. Locations like Baqubah, Duhok, and

area in the German city of Oberhausen. Part of

Zakho, argued Klein, comprised stable populations

the Zeche Concordia, a coal mine that reached

of able-bodied men who would be ready to under-

deep into the ground beneath a developing part of

take the work of mining and, with some training,

Oberhausen’s city center, suddenly collapsed, cre-

the industrial production that could allow the

ating a massive thirteen-hectare crater in an area

region to flourish as the new manufacturing hub of

that already had its streets laid out and contained a

the ancient world.

handful of buildings (fig. 6).21 The crater filled with



19

No two pieces of coal are created equal, and in a

In 1870, one such calamity befell a massive

groundwater and became known as the “Concor-

location with such a dearth of wood (a less efficient

diasee,” or Concordia Lake, a body of water that

and more labor-intensive energy alternative), it was

remained in the city until it was dredged ten years

also important to measure the calorific value of the

later. Both the instantaneous movement and the

coal that the expedition identified. In many cases,

devaluation of property shocked the city’s resi-

for various reasons related to the region’s geological

dents, who had until then been confident that the

history, the calorific capacity of the available coal

rapid development they were witnessing in their

was heavily compromised by water runoff and silt

city and region was an unequivocal good. One res-

from the course of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

ident proclaimed, “The building sites are devalued

and their tributaries. With algorithmic logic, the

and not for sale. Mortgages cannot be obtained and

report weighs the calorific output of silted coal

there is no telling when this calamity will end.”22

against the other factors: proximity to the coming



railway, the quality of the local labor pool, and the

it marked the beginning of a period of increased

nearness of ore. The report also presciently details

rigor in the engineering of mines in Germany and

the widespread presence of the century’s next great

beyond. In the 1870s and ’80s, geologists, engineers,

energy source: petroleum.

and architects worked more closely together to



examine the structural challenges faced by larger

20

The issues of land tenure that shaped the

The Concordia disaster is auspicious in that

practice of prospecting in the metals industry were

and larger mines, and these structural challenges

also important once mining had actually begun. As

were understood as relating to both the mine’s

the size and depth of mines—particularly those for

interior and the earth’s surface above it. Geologists

coal and ore—increased, so too did the pernicious

identified three different kinds of land distortion

Origin

19

Figure 6. View of the “Concordiasee” in Oberhausen, ca. 1875.

subsidence.24 Legal questions that emerged from the

Stadtarchiv Oberhausen.

geological shifts associated with mine subsidence, including who was culpable for the massive damage they could cause to buildings and other built things,

20

that occurred as a result of mining: a distortion area

again centered on land tenure. As a general rule,

(at an obtuse angle from the point of subsidence),

the state’s laws favored a definition of land owner-

a pressing area (at an acute angle from the point of

ship that extended infinitely underground, which

subsidence), and a balanced area (directly above the

stands in sharp contrast to the finite limitation of a

point of subsidence), with the pressing area being

property’s air rights. Nevertheless, the responsibility

the most injurious to existing buildings (fig. 7).23 It

for accidents that occurred underground fell on the

is telling that the etymology of the verb “to under-

licensed mine operator and not on the landowner

mine” comes from this very process of subsidence.

when those two parties were different, as long as



landowners could demonstrate that they had met

An extended legal memo on mine subsidence

from the area of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North

a high threshold of precautionary measures that

Rhine–Westphalia), Germany’s industrial heart and

reasonably created a buffer between them and the

the site of the Concordia disaster, lays out some of

milder effects of mine subsidence.

the changes that had been legally instituted by 1913,



the year it was issued. First and foremost, the state

nal, the state also instituted a police force—the

established a tribunal dedicated to the issue of mine

Baupolizei—specifically to enforce safety and

Precious Metal

In addition to establishing a special tribu-

oRIGINAL SURFACE PROFILE Figure 7. Diagram illustrating the effects of mining subsidence. Illus-

FISSU RE

RE

U FISS

Stress Area

tration: Trey Kirk.

Mining Area best practices, both below- and aboveground.

communities of the Ruhrgebiet, the state noted that

The tribunal was also in charge of managing the

tightly built rows of houses tended to be safer than

ever-growing number of complaints from local

freestanding ones, and that some Krupp estates

politicians, such as a complaint in 1913 from the

were at particular risk.26

mayor of the town of Dilldorf, just southeast of Essen across the Ruhr, who feared that the Catholic school, the city hall, and a major colliery were

Seam

all about to sink into the ground and desperately sought the state’s protection.25

Smith’s map of the geology of England was indeed



a watershed moment in the history of prospecting,

However, landowners needed to fully grasp and

deal with the risks associated with offering their

and it serves as a harbinger for the vast advances that

land to miners. If a landowner did not properly

would characterize the geology and cartography that

brace her house, the memo notes, and “a piece

served the industrial sector over the course of the

of ceiling falls, which is not exactly a rarity, and

nineteenth century. However, while the miniature

damages a piece of furniture, the mining contrac-

section appended to the map acknowledged that

tor is not obliged to replace the piece of furniture

the stratigraphic record needed to be understood

in question.” Assessing the dense residential

not merely in planometric form but also in three

Origin

21

dimensions, geologists and prospectors nevertheless



struggled for decades to master this concept. The

kind of art form in the field of mine engineering.

challenge lay in the fact that neither a plan nor a

When done well, a mine could access the maxi-

section (most commonly generated through vertical

mum number of seams possible through a single

borings) could accurately depict the true course of

vertical shaft and headframe, working laterally as

coal or ore seams, striations that move sinuously

much as equipment and labor standards would

through the earth’s upper crust.

allow. It is at this point in the process of mining



that the map switches from a descriptive and scien-

Distinct strategies that were largely dictated

by the stated interests and methods of new

tific tool into a tool for the generation of capital.

trade societies emerged throughout Europe. The



Preußische Geologische Landesanstalt, Prus-

by the Thyssen company provides an illuminating

sia’s trade society, was founded in 1873 as an

case study of the intersection of geological pros-

outgrowth of the Ministry of Trade, Crafts, and

pecting, foreign policy, and the special challenges

Public Works, which, among other activities,

associated with the mapping of seams.30 That year,

sponsored the creation of Germany’s first geolog-

Thyssen deployed a team to the Algerian commune

ical museum. In Great Britain, methods were, in

of Miliana on the suspicion that it was rich in iron

27

A 1902 study of iron ore deposits in Algeria

seemingly reverse order of production, advo-

ore. Miliana was also connected with a railway

cated by the Iron and Steel Institute, which was

and rich in timber, making it a promising new site

founded in 1869. In addition to creating a journal,

for industrial development. The team outlined a

the institute’s second president, Henry Bessemer,

six-step process for analyzing the region’s mining

created the Bessemer Gold Medal, an award for

capacities, beginning with gathering all of the

notable innovation in the field of metallurgy,

(limited) cartographic material already available in

which included mining processes.

Germany, which would inevitably have included



22

Recognizing stratigraphic patterns became a

28

In Germany, cartographers used an interpola-

some material published by Justus Perthes. The

tive strategy wherein the coal or ore seams were

second step involved traveling to Algeria and

traced on top of an existing plan, often in thick,

touring prospective sites, assessing the accuracy of

bright lines of red, blue, or black, a method known

existing geological documents through the seams

as the Flözkarte (seam map). The distinct lines

that were visible at ground level. This was followed

were often given women’s names (e.g., Wilhelmina,

by the detection of “dislocations” at the site, a

Adolphine, Helene, Amalie, Juliane). Cartogra-

reference to specific points that might be on land

phers would then overlay a topographic contour

that was available for a headframe and shaft, which

map, printed on a transparent material, and from

could in turn access multiple seams. The fourth

there infer general stratigraphic patterns based on

step involved the identification and mapping of

the path of each surface seam, its distance from

so-called guide seams (Leitflöze) with detailed

its nearest neighbor, and the way in which both

maps of specific iron ore seams that would provide

elements related to the overall topography of a site.

interpolative axes for making more detailed maps

The French also preferred layering drawings made

and engineering documents later. The final two

on transparent surfaces.29

steps also added new information to existing maps

Precious Metal

by identifying continuous conglomerates, particu-

yearly, with ostensible profits, partly on imported

larly of sandstone, and freshwater pathways, both

ores coming chiefly from Sweden—will no doubt be

of which could potentially disrupt the successful

followed, sooner or later, by Great Britain; and we

construction of a mine.

may confidently look forward to the development



of a large and steady demand for phosphoric ores

This strictly geological analysis of Miliana,

rather innovative in its approach to seams, was

in the United Kingdom in future years.”33 Indeed,

later accompanied by a decidedly less scientific

Spain’s phosphoric ores were of great interest to both

appraisal of labor conditions that is common to

Germany and Britain. As Manby indicates, Germany

prospecting studies. As the report put it:

had already forged a close relationship with Sweden, a country rich in phosphoric ores but with a low

The whole area around Miliana has a low popula-

domestic need of its own. Manby’s main point was

tion: 4 inhabitants per square kilometer, so the people

that in order to remain competitive with Germany

needed for a larger business will have to be drawn from

as a top steel producer, Britain needed to deepen its

a distance, especially since the Arab worker is very

overseas connections with nations both within and

dependent on and only profitable under the supervision

outside the Commonwealth that had the profitable

of European collaborators (Spaniards, Italians). . . . [One

combination of rail, energy, labor, and iron ore

must] create appropriate quarters first; however, there is

seams, like Spain. In other words, Britain needed an

no significant money to be spent here since the Arabian

equivalent to Germany’s Sweden.34 Thus the mining

worker . . . feels most comfortable in a mud hut and his

company Rio Tinto was founded in 1873 in Huelva,

European colleague, usually of Spanish or Italian nation-

Spain, serving a set of interests that were predomi-

ality, is accustomed to being satisfied with a living room

nantly British.35

consisting of four walls and a pent roof, which is usually



unsealed and receives light through the door.

Basin, was not without its own flurry of activity

31

The center of gravity of this book, the Ruhr

related to the exploitation of coal and ore seams,

In the end, Thyssen would not go on to develop

and it merits an analysis of its own. The Ruhr Basin

mines and steelworks in Miliana for a host of

occupies an area approximately forty miles long

reasons, the primary one being that the politi-

and twenty miles wide. The river that gives it its

cal shadow of the French was too long to ignore,

name lies in the southern part of the region. The

particularly in a period marked by an arms race

Rhine River defines the western boundary, while

between France and Germany.32 To be sure, the arms

the Emscher runs roughly parallel to the Ruhr,

race was not limited to these two countries. Britain

separated by distances ranging from about ten to

also had a keen rivalry with Germany over iron

thirty-two miles (fig. 8). The soil is not very fertile,

acquisition that is palpable in a concurrent report

compared to other parts of Germany, and the cli-

dispatched by the British-run Wagner Iron Mines

mate is wet and moderate. Until the late nineteenth

in León, Spain. In the report, Edward Manby, the

century, the population was relatively small and

director of the fledgling mine operation, makes his

largely agricultural, and urbanization was limited.

point plainly: “The example set by Germany—where

The largest towns in 1850 were Essen and Dort-

over 5,000,000 tons of basic steel are manufactured

mund, each with about ten thousand people.

Origin

23



Any industrial development before 1850 lay in

workers’ estates, buildings, factories, and mines.37

seams of coal reached the earth’s surface, and coal



mining and several small ironworks had existed

followed a typical format found in the industrial

since the eighteenth century. The scale of mining

West, comprising a central shaft with lateral cross-

was modest, with twelve thousand miners produc-

cuts. Skips—level and narrow trackways—allowed

ing 1.5 million tons of coal in 1850. In the latter part

the material to be removed via the headframe and

of the century, the situation changed dramatically.

placed in storage. Winzes connected crosscuts

By 1910, the number of miners exceeded four hun-

sectionally, and stopes prevented any structural

dred thousand, and coal production had reached

collapse as the ore or coal was extracted. That was

more than 110 million tons. A single modern mine

all before the innovations introduced by a young

in the early twentieth century produced more

engineer, Philip Deidesheimer, from the neighbor-

coal than the entire area had produced sixty years

ing state of Hessen.38

earlier. In addition, by 1900, huge integrated iron-



and steelworks dominated the riverbanks, and the

Deidesheimer was not long for Germany. He had

seam maps of the Ruhr Basin were far and away

participated prominently in the March Revolution

the best of their era. The Krupp Works in Essen,

of 1848 after studying mining at Freiberg under

the largest of the steelworks, employed more than

Gottlob Werner. The March Revolution promoted

thirty thousand workers. By 1910, the population of

pan-Germanism and decried the autocratic politi-

Essen had risen to more than three hundred thou-

cal structure of the thirty-nine independent states

sand, turning the sleepy countryside into an urban

of the Confederation that came into receivership of

conglomerate almost overnight; Essen remains at

the German-speaking territories that had been part

the heart of the most densely populated part of

of the Holy Roman Empire. When the revolution

Germany to this day. By the eve of World War

was successfully quashed, Deidesheimer saw little

I, the population of the Ruhr region approached

future in civil engineering in Germany, where

three million.

contracts were handed out by the very people the



young Deidesheimer had sought to unseat. So, in

36

24

a chaotic mixture of railway lines, canals, streets,

the hilly southern areas of the basin. Here, many

This process of expansion was uncoordinated.

The coal and ore mines of the Ruhrgebiet

Although born in Darmstadt in 1832,

Construction was often hurried and underregu-

1851, he emigrated to the United States, where he

lated, in contrast to the great care with which the

cut his teeth mining gold and silver in California.

geological surveys underlying the development



were made. Towns and villages mushroomed as

new home arose late in 1860: mines of silver

coal, iron, and steelworks proliferated. This rapid

deposits under Mount Davidson in nearby Nevada,

expansion in a discontiguous area remote from

newly located by Henry Comstock, were on the

Berlin, Prussia’s center of power, allowed the

verge of structural collapse, which would cause

fledgling mining and steel companies to operate

massive financial losses for all involved. As one

quasi-autonomously, developing self-contained

historian explains, “Although the footwall of the

communities unconcerned with Prussian plan-

lode was a strong diorite locally called grey granite,

ning norms. Growth without planning resulted in

the ore body itself was a silver quartz so poorly

Precious Metal

An important opportunity in Deidesheimer’s

Figure 8. Map of the Ruhr Valley (Ruhrgebiet), 1830 (top) and 1930 (bottom). Blair Tinker / University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

bonded that it was compared to sugar, and was being mined simply with pick and shovel.”39 Sloppy stoping had formed cavities. Standard practice dictated that large stopes be supported by heavy wooden cribbing, pillars of rough masonry, or a system known as the “room and pillar,” where pillars retained from the extraction of the mineral were left in place to provide support. Another method was to buttress the back of the stope with two wooden posts wedged and braced into place with a cap fitted against its back. The posts that were required were longer than any available tree, and when round logs were spliced together to afford the requisite thirty-foot length, the pressure quickly caused them to buckle.

As legend has it, Deidesheimer was inspired by

the structures built by honeybees and, under the gun, developed a new structural system based on a “heavy timber cube of standardized or ‘modular’ dimensions, so provided with appropriate corner mortices that a similar cube could be locked into it in any possible direction.” As stoping proceeded, every new cavity of a certain size would be filled with one such cube. When the stoping was completed, “the void would be completely filled with continuous rows and columns of these square sets or laid over cubes, the back being firmly supported by these at all stages of the process.”40 Although considerably more expensive than previous systems, Deidesheimer’s square sets made it possible for the first time in history to mine safely within weighty ground and against very large stopes (fig. 9).

Although estranged from his homeland,

Deidesheimer, now rich from single-handedly

Figure 9. T. L. Dawes, Mining on the Comstock, 1877. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

Origin

27

saving a massive silver mine, took it upon himself

enough together that all of them, along with the

not only to patent his system but also to publish

intervening rock, can be mined as a single unit.43

it in German, leading to its widespread adoption

The model didactically cuts a section through all

in the mines of the Ruhrgebiet from around 1865

the key elements that explain a lode mine. At the

onward, which in turn expanded the productivity

top there is the gently sloping topography of the

of the region’s mines, and consequently its steel-

imaginary site that plateaus toward the right side of

and ironworks, considerably. It also meant a

the model. Two vertical shafts of different thick-

massive influx of even more workers, which meant

nesses breach the surface, where their headframes

more housing and a metastasizing population.

and all the ancillary pulley systems are housed in

41

pitched timber-frame structures, most of which are equipped with contingency ladders in case an eleva-

Mine

tor fails. The two shafts are connected horizontally by a main tramming level, and each has additional

28

Just as the mid-nineteenth century was a period

adits that terminate at them but do not connect

in which the science and proliferation of mines

the two shafts. All of the levels open up into two

surged, it was also a period in which artists and

larger stopes, each reinforced with a wooden frame.

engineers sought to clarify their importance and

Additional structures, also with pulleys, mark the

their impressionistic form for a general public. In

termini of the main levels and adits where their per-

a way, this process began in the 1850s, when public

pendicularity intersects with the topography. Along

pronouncements of mine openings in newspapers,

with the scale figures, the model is adorned with

public leaflets, and posters became de rigueur, first

carts and even small lanterns.

in France and then in most of the industrial West.42





the heavy poché of the earth, clearly articulating

This was also very much a question of represen-

Drawings, like models, necessarily emphasize

tation. At the time, it was believed that laypeople

the subtractive nature of the mine shaft and tunnel.

were most capable of understanding planometric

Almost without fail, the genre juxtaposes the world

representations. However, as mines have no inher-

aboveground—houses and cities—with the syn-

ent relationship to planar organization, the section

chronic world below, as if to drive home the point

proved to be more informative. Sectional drawings

that while they exist in very different spheres, one

and even sectional models of mines practically

relies on the other in a kind of sectional symbiosis.

became a genre unto themselves in the nineteenth

One could also be forgiven for venturing that such

century, commonly shown with human figures for

representations, which virtually always sugarcoat

a sense of scale. A sectional model depicting lode

the condition and nature of the labor that occurs

mining that was created for unknown reasons in

underground, had a certain propagandistic value,

Bavaria in the second quarter of the nineteenth cen-

emphasizing the symbiosis between the two worlds

tury does just this (fig. 10). Lode mining is a specific

in order to valorize the work and more readily

method that is used when a valuable ore body that

recruit the labor that was needed for it.

is found between other distinct mineral or rock



units consists of several veins that are spaced closely

advances made in geology, prospecting, and the

Precious Metal

The reality was quite different. Despite the

Figure 10. Model depicting a prototypical nineteenth-century

turn of the twentieth century, mass disasters in the

mine. Deutsches Museum, Munich.

Albion Colliery in Wales in 1894 (290 deaths) and the Courrières mine in France in 1906 (with 1,099 deaths, the worst in European history) made the

cartography of mines in the nineteenth century,

perils of industrial-scale mining crystal clear.46 The

the toll that mines took on the humans inside them

reverend and scriptural geologist Thomas Gisborne

did not improve at the same pace. It is important

concluded that the need to send people to work in

to remember that technological and scientific

these versions of hell on earth was itself evidence

advances are far from coterminous with advances

that God was punishing humanity for the original

in the human condition, despite prevailing assump-

sin.47 The expression “canary in the coal mine,”

tions that they are intrinsically intertwined. In

which is still widely used to refer to an early indi-

1550, the esteemed German metallurgist Georgius

cator of failure or danger, is a fitting allusion to the

Agricola outlined how the practice of ore washing

untold number of canaries whose deaths in mines

“poisons the brooks and streams and either destroys

saved countless miners from inhaling the gases that

the fish or drives them away.” Reports from the

kill smaller creatures first.48

following century detail miners coming down



with mercury and arsenic poisoning. Around the

health that characterized a career in mining was

44

45

The specter of environmentally caused poor

Origin

29

the greatest work hazard associated with the trade.

that the work was not injurious or exploitive. As

Paternalism was another problem. By the begin-

one report put it,

ning of the twentieth century, most major mining states had laws forbidding the employment of

The miner can rarely adopt a natural position in his

women as miners. A statement issued by the Dele-

work; he is doing most of it in a crouched or lying

gation of Christian Miners of Germany to the City

position. This makes it difficult to breathe, prevents the

of Bochum in 1897 framed this restriction in decid-

free circulation of the blood. . . . In this posture, excessive

edly paternalistic terms, detailing how, up to that

tensing of the muscles when hauling and removing the

point, 40 percent of the female mine workers in

coals is the necessary consequence. Added to this is the

the region were not yet twenty-one years old. “The

bad air: gas, carbonic acid . . . and their admixtures to the

dusty and dirty environment” was “not suitable” for

atmosphere, all of which in turn damage the health of

women, said the statement, “ruined their health,”

the coal workers more than other laborers. It cannot be

could be injurious to their offspring, and impinged

denied that the lack of sunlight [and] the frequently high

on their ability to fulfill their domestic duties. The

heat exert an adverse effect on the health of the miner.

Christian Miners’ most provocative suggestion

Rheumatic diseases, eye diseases, chronic lung and tra-

was that the employment of women was exploit-

cheal issues are all diseases specific to miners. So it is not

ing male labor by driving down the wages of male

surprising that miners perish unusually early.52

workers. To remove women, particularly young women, from the mines was the “more human and

“On average,” the report went on to say, “miners

Christian” thing to do.

became unable to continue working by about



49

The notion of welfare that prevailed among

the age of 47 and if one died earlier than that the

mine administrators in the nineteenth century was,

state had no obligation to pay out his pension to

as the Christian Miners of Germany demonstrate,

survivors.”53

deeply flawed and often hypocritical. Standards



for labor conditions and environmental health

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the

varied widely from one mine operator to the next,

reform of mining conditions owed a great debt

and there was nothing remotely close to nation-

to the medium of photography. In the United

ally instituted standards for the profession in any

States, the Danish reformer and journalist Jacob

country until the early twentieth century. Within

Riis demonstrated the power of the medium in

the Ruhrgebiet alone, managers could not agree

his landmark study How the Other Half Lives, a

on whether the time spent entering and exiting a

treatise on the squalid conditions of New York

mine, processes that could each take up to an hour,

City’s tenements that relied heavily on photographs

even constituted time spent working, and laborers

to do its expository work.54 Although the mining

working under the more conservative interpreta-

reform movement on the other side of the Atlantic

tion suffered the reality that up to two hours a day,

lacked a singular voice like that of Riis, a disparate

six days a week, were spent on underground work

collection of editorials and exposés make it clear

that went uncompensated. Moreover, making it

that there too was a groundswell of criticism and

out of a mine alive and compensated did not mean

complaint.55 The Mines and Collieries Act of 1842

50

51

30

As with many reform movements of the late

Precious Metal

in Britain, banning women and children under the age of ten from coal mines, was the first major legislative attempt to regulate labor practices.56 In 1898, British iron ore miners petitioned Parliament that the iron ore they produced be weighed fairly and that compensation be based on weight and not on time, a measure that met with some success after several compromises were reached.57 Both achievements benefited greatly from the visual aids that accompanied exposés in the newspapers, visuals that depicted brutal scenes of women and children conducting torturous labor in claustro-

Figure 11. Children working in a mine in a side tunnel with airlock, drawing from 1844. Photo: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo.

phobia-inducing tunnels (fig. 11).

Perhaps even more important were the

be portrayed as more or less humane and dignified

photographs of mines and miners that began to

by virtue of the certainty of a safe and bright light

emerge in the 1890s. The very act of bringing a

source. And yet certain details, like the inevitable

camera into a mine, with all its bulky equipment

film of soot on everything, prevent this from being

and the potentially dangerous lamps required

a fully convincing picture.

to provide the necessary light, was itself a risk.



In Germany, many of the earliest photographs

traditions and a highly codified visual culture

taken of mine interiors come to us from the Ruhr

centuries in the making. At the center of these

Valley. Photographs produced by Krupp and

traditions was Saint Barbara, the patron saint of

other concerns in their mines in the Ruhrgebiet,

mathematicians, armorers, artillerymen, military

In Germany, mining was a profession rich in

which seem not to have been made explicitly for

engineers, tunnelers, miners, and other profes-

the purpose of reform, nevertheless highlight the

sions that dealt with explosives.58 Saint Barbara

singular ambivalence of the photographic lens.

was also venerated as one of the fourteen holy

Many photographs depicted staged work scenes in

helpers, whose intercession with other saints (she

stopes. Skip hoists, chain links, wooden platforms,

was a protector against fever) was believed to have

ladders, and lateral beams furnish the scenes of

been effective against diseases since the bubonic

men, dressed in slicked jackets, high boots, and

plague struck the Rhineland in the fourteenth

hats, dutifully completing their subterranean tasks,

century.59 Saint Barbara is commonly depicted

whether loading chunks of ore into the skip hoist,

holding a miniature tower with three windows,

ascending a ladder, or chipping away at the stope’s

representative of both the Holy Trinity and the

perimeter with hammers and sickles. A common

tower in which her pagan father, Dioscorus, is

feature of the genre is that the photographs are

said to have confined her to protect her from the

extremely well lit for a setting without a source

outside world. In both tunneling and mining,

of natural light. The photographer clearly staged

shrines to Saint Barbara were often placed at the

these scenes, in which the men and their work can

entry portal to the tunnel or shaft. The shrine

Origin

31

Figure 12. Meißen plate celebrating Saint Barbara in front of the industrial landscape of Wismut AG in Thuringia, early twentieth century. Montanhistorisches Dokumentationszentrum (montan.dok) beim Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum 030005653232.

served as the centerpiece at the mine’s dedication

migrants from East Prussia, constituted the single

ceremony and as an invocation of Saint Barbara

largest sect.

to protect all who were to work at the site during



construction. To this day, university geology

famed porcelain manufacturer Meißen to serially

departments in Tübingen, Freiberg, Bonn, and

produce ceramic ware with exactly such imagery,

Darmstadt, among other cities, hold “Barbara-

presenting Saint Barbara in front of an industrial

fests” celebrating the saint. Saint Barbara is

setting with pollution billowing in the background

remarkable insofar as she is apparently the sole

(fig. 12). One such plate, which Meißen produced

patron saint who managed to integrate herself

for the Wismut AG mine in Thuringia, relates an

into the imagery of modern industrial culture.

important message about mining and industrial

Depictions of Saint Barbara in the foreground

culture. Mining itself, like forestry, firefighting, and

of industrial architecture, including headframes,

shipbuilding, was not new but was a profession

factories, and smokestacks, were common in the

with a history reaching deep into the past. What

Catholic churches and households of the Ruhr

was new were the materials being extracted from

Valley, where Catholics, many of them Slavic

the earth and the products being forged from

60

32

Precious Metal

The genre was popular enough to warrant the

them. Saint Barbara acted as an important link



to the past and as a guarantor of a certain idea of

book Bergknappen in ihren Berufs- und Familien-

progress through material labor, despite all the

leben, a documentation of the lives of Knappschaft

risks associated with it. In this sense, Saint Barbara

miners at both work and play in 1857, offers an

emerged as perhaps the patron saint of technol-

idealized ethos of the fraternity of miners that

ogy—specifically, industrial technology—pointing

stands in contrast to the photography that would

to a kind of blind faith in technology as the means

come later (fig. 13). Seven miners are shown in an

to human progress. The pollution and sooty archi-

impeccably clean tunnel, alternately supported by

tecture in the background are in turn an expression

shallow brick archways and lateral timber beams

of a necessary evil.

that convey a strong sense of structural security. A



cart track extends into the distance, hauling away

The ease with which Saint Barbara was able

A lithograph that appears in Eduard Heuchler’s

to transition from medieval to modern imagery

ore bodies, while a case rigged to a chain appears

seems in large part due to the continuity of other

to be simultaneously hauled upward. The men are

traditions, including festivals, that surrounded

dressed neatly, some even wearing glasses as they

these images in the Ruhrgebiet and beyond. The

read and take notes. Each man has an encased

festive culture around mining was seen as a coun-

candle lamp hung around his neck that illuminates

terpoint to the solemn and dangerous nature of

the tunnel, and the men seem to be exchanging

the work and pointed to all of the potential causes

words as they do their work. In sum, it is the ideal

for celebration that surrounded it—for example,

image of the Knappschaft: difficult albeit dignified

the opportunity for great profit or the discovery

work in which each man performs his own spe-

of a new seam. Since the twelfth century, the

cialized task while simultaneously supporting the

tradition of Erbbereiten, a festival celebrating

group and promoting its solidarity.

the discovery of valuable new deposits, involved



music, a procession, and a banquet. The Catholic

and modern-day unions, institutions that arguably

Church and Catholic tradition’s hold on popular

demonstrate the evolution of the medieval guild

society in Germany in the nineteenth century was

system into the modern period, are worth noting.

generally waning. This was not the case, how-

While religious imagery, such as that of Saint

ever, with the festivals honoring Saint Barbara,

Barbara, played a symbolic role in the ephemera

which seemed, for a time, to keep pace with the

and pageantry of these brotherhoods, the under-

growing scale of industrial mining. This is proba-

lying ethos is more about fostering a sense of

bly due largely to the Knappschaften (fraternities)

solidarity among the mining workers, who literally

that miners often belonged to, institutions that

place their lives in one another’s hands on a daily

Klaus Tenfelde has described as “religiously

basis, than it is about religious faith or devotion.

inspired brotherhoods formed for joint protec-

Anecdotal evidence suggests that miners in the

tion against the dangers of their profession and

Ruhrgebiet (in sharp contrast to those in Bavaria

for mutual aid in emergencies,” which saw to it

or rural France) during the second half of the

that festivals and traditions were continued at all

nineteenth century did not attend church regu-

costs.62

larly.63 Evocations of Barbara and other saints in

61

The similarities between the Knappschaften

Origin

33

Figure 13. Eduard Heuchler, plate from Die Bergknappen in ihren Berufs- und Familienleben (Essen: Glückauf, 1857). Deutsches Museum, Munich, Bild 05964.

religious rhetoric that characterized medieval guilds in order to promote a culture of pan-Christian solidarity. To this end, Saint Barbara’s image was ultimately quasi-secular, which may be yet

34

songs, calendars, and prints and on decks of cards,

another reason for the ease with which she stood

mugs, and tablecloths were ultimately more about

among the headframes and smokestacks of indus-

creating tribal cohesion and camaraderie, a way

trial Germany.

for the miners to cheer themselves up and survive



another day underground, than they were about

talism nevertheless began to pose a threat to

deep religious piety.

the Knappschaften, and the mining culture and



traditions they embodied, beginning around the

It is also important to remember that this

Free market labor and encroaching capi-

imagery held sway only over Catholic miners,

1860s, and this trend accelerated after German

who—being only a slight majority—were far

unification in 1871. Religious imagery and patrician

from representative of the entire mining popu-

traditions were edged out of social and community

lation. Protestant miners were welcome in the

relations as miners became increasingly urban,

Knappschaften, and they toned down the overtly

itinerant, and contingent, and also as the religious

Precious Metal

affiliations of other workers—especially Protes-



tants—increased and changed the composition

ore, the most determinative factor in its fate. Iron

of the labor force.64 Indeed, as Fernand Braudel

ore includes magnetite, hematite, goethite, limo-

notes, “With mining, in Germany or rather Central

nite, and siderite. During the industrial period,

Then there is the chemical composition of the

Europe in the broad sense, including Poland, Hun-

magnetite and hematite were the most desirable

gary, and the Scandinavian countries, capitalism

because it was possible, when the grade of the ore

entered upon a new and decisive stage. For here the

body was above about 60 percent, to feed them

merchant system took control of the production

directly into a blast furnace without any further

and reorganized it.”

refinement. Most ore bodies had to be broken

65

down and shaped into pellets to make the process of refinement at the blast furnace both more man-

Ore

ageable and more measurable. In the mining of all forms of iron ore, a considerable amount of waste,

In the production of both iron and steel, the

commonly known as tailings, is produced when the

precious goal of mining was one thing: iron ore.

valuable portion of an ore body is separated from

Iron is the fourth-most common element to be

the uneconomic portion, known as gangue. Tail-

found in the earth’s crust, which would, one might

ings as such represent the first true waste product

think, make it eminently abundant. But the task of

of steel production, and the story of their disposal,

extracting it cannot be approached monolithically.

storage, or use is the first chapter in the story of

For starters, the vast majority of iron is thermody-

how the industry approached its place in ecology.

namically bound in silicate and carbonate minerals



and thus virtually inseparable from these, limiting

mutually beneficial relationship in the long nine-

its availability to unbound oxide minerals. Within

teenth century, so too did metallurgy and mining.

the oxide family, deposits of iron ore vary widely

The second half of the century witnessed a remark-

in both content and quality. The grade of an oxide

able flourishing of publications on the nature of

ore body is typically the first concern. The grade,

ore bodies, their chemistry, optimization, and

which measures the density of iron content in the

potential in ever-advancing processes of refine-

ore body, would have already been estimated in the

ment. These included The Metallurgy of Iron and

prospecting process in order to ascertain whether

Steel (1895) by Thomas Henry Turner and W. C.

the cost of mining was worth it. These estimates

Roberts-Austen in Britain, Recherches sur la struc-

were far from perfect, as the grade of an ore body

ture et le gisement du minerai de fer pisolithique de

could vary widely within a mine. Regardless,

diverses provenances françaises et de la Lorraine en

most iron ore that is mined, particularly through

particulier (1894) by Gustave Bleicher in France,

underground mining, has already met the general

and Die chemische Untersuchung des Eisens (1892)

threshold of being “high-grade” ore. Another vari-

by Andrew Alexander Blair in Germany. As each

ation is color. The appearance of iron ore can vary

of these publications demonstrated, developments

widely, from bright yellow to deep purple, to a dark

in the metallurgical science of ore bodies were

matte gray, to a shiny, rusty red.

predominantly circumscribed to scientific circles

Just as geology and prospecting enjoyed a

Origin

35

of the same language, and often merely within a

them, until about 1899. At that point, the sultan,

given nation. But some publications, typically those

encouraged by aides who favored protectionist

written by scholars who traveled and gave lectures,

policies against almost all foreigners except Ger-

could also be influential across borders. German

mans in the face of what was perceived to be the

metallurgical science (and even miners imported

empire’s flagging autonomy, abruptly withdrew

from Germany), for example, proved crucial for

the company’s mining rights, retaining them for

Russia’s establishment of its own iron ore mining

the empire. This flew in the face of the Turkish

activities in the Ural Mountains.

Mining Regulations Act of 1887, which stipulated



66

British, French, and German metallurgists were

ored. The company implored the British embassy

of other nations because they wanted to know

to pressure the sultan into obeying his own laws,

whether they were of better grade and form and,

to no avail. This was symbolic more generally of

if so, how they could be exploited for the bene-

France’s and Britain’s turn away from the Ottoman

fit of their mother countries. No political entity

empire as a source of mining power at the dawn

had more curious European metallurgists poking

of the twentieth century.

about for ore than the Ottoman empire, which



was blessed with vast reserves of natural mineral

ore. Another metal important to the steelmaking

resources.67 The Ottoman empire, which witnessed

process (although in much smaller quantities) was

a painful and embarrassing decline over the course

manganese, a metal of which Germany, France,

of the nineteenth century, including massive

and Britain all had very little. Germany relied

territorial losses, military defeats, bankruptcy, and

heavily on manganese from Russia, specifically the

ultimately debt, was unable to fully exploit these

Caucasus, and Britain on India, Spain, and Brazil.69

resources, even if they could theoretically serve as

Iron ore nevertheless stoked the major speculative

the empire’s lifeline back to economic and political

rivalries within Europe while simultaneously func-

Speculative rivalries were not limited to iron

stability. The railway network was vastly underde-

tioning as a glue of sorts that bound certain nations

veloped, and cutting-edge industrial equipment

together in unique ways. In Germany, the stron-

for mining and steel production was lacking. With

gest of these bilateral bonds was with Sweden, the

all of these factors combined, the Ottoman empire

single largest exporter of iron ore to Germany by

was the perfect place for a curious metallurgist

1906.70 The reason for this was clear: the opening of

from western Europe.

the Kirunavaara mine in Lapland, near the town of



Kiruna, eight years earlier. The Kirunavaara mine

A case in point was the chrome ore mining

firm John & James White of Glasgow, which, in

would become the world’s single largest under-

the latter half of the nineteenth century, had been

ground iron ore mine (fig. 14). The mine became

drawing most of its chrome ore from deposits

so large that by the twenty-first century the entire

in Anatolia, specifically the area around the city

town of Kiruna had to be relocated because of

of Bursa. The firm enjoyed low export taxes

mine subsidence.71 The iron ore deposits at Kiruna

and extensive freedom to speculate on new

were both massive in scale and relatively high in

mines, along with government support to build

grade. The Swedish market alone could absorb only

68

36

that firmans, or permits, for mines had to be hon-

ultimately even more interested in the ore bodies

Precious Metal

Figure 14. View of the Kirunavaara mine, Kiruna, Sweden, ca. 1905. Courtesy Digital Museum.

won out, which allowed Germany to import Swedish iron ore tax free.

With the discovery of the ore deposits at

a fraction of the output, making exports both nec-

Kiruna came development interests in infra-

essary and profitable. By 1915, Sweden was sending

structure among both politicians in Sweden and

nearly seven million tons of iron ore to Germany

industrialists in the Ruhrgebiet. In Sweden, this

per year, a whopping two-thirds of its iron ore

meant the construction of a railway from Lulea to

output.72 A spirited debate in Stockholm weighed

Narvik, a seaport in Norway, whence ore bodies

the pros and cons of taxing the exports. Those in

could be shipped by sea.74 In Dortmund, industrial-

favor of taxes argued that they would allow Sweden

ists were finally convinced that the construction of

to benefit from the much larger scale of German

a canal connecting the inland city and the seaport

growth, in particular steel manufacturing. Those

of Emden was worth the expense, as it would bring

opposed, including the noted geopolitical theorist

the valuable resource to its factories and allow

and geographer Rudolf Kjellén, believed that they

the city to compete with its more well-connected

would alienate Germany from Sweden, threatening

neighbors of Duisburg and Essen.75

a partnership that many saw as essential to Swe-



den’s economic health.73 Kjellén’s side ultimately

Krupp was also particularly keen on Spanish ores;

In addition to Swedish ores, Friedrich Alfred

Origin

37

he played a vital role in the management of the

was to Europe specifically. Iron ore deposits on

Orconera Gesellschaft near Bilbao and financed a

the European continent were predominantly rich

number of additional prospecting studies in north-

in phosphate, and thanks to the Gilchrist-Thomas

ern Spain and in Laujar de Andarax in Andalusia.

process, new attention was paid to domestic depos-

Meanwhile, the newly established Ore Science

its of iron ore that had previously been thought to

Society (Erzstudien-Gesellschaft) in Dortmund

have relatively little value. By 1913, nearly four-

negotiated a contract for the supply of manganese

fifths of the iron ore produced within Germany

ore from Oviedo at the rate of fifteen hundred tons

came from Alsace-Lorraine, proving just how vital

a month.

the region had become to Germany’s industrial



well-being.81

76

77

International rivalries for valuable ore deposits

abroad were not limited to far-flung neighbors.



Alsace-Lorraine, which was annexed by Germany

Ruhrgebiet witnessed a massive uptick in mining

following the Franco-Prussian War, served as a

activity and wealth as a result. This trend of a coun-

flashpoint in what one might call ore geopolitics.

try looking inward and exploring its own hitherto

At the time of annexation in 1871, the region was

written-off assets stood in sharp contrast to the

known to have some iron deposits but, as Martin

great acceleration of the colonial project in the last

Lynch has shown, their full extent was not yet

quarter of the nineteenth century, in which assets

understood.78 The deposits that Germany did know

other than iron ore were the priority. Alsace-Lor-

about were believed to be of even lesser quality

raine, now perhaps the single richest region of

than the iron ore found in the Ruhr Valley, heavy

productive iron ore bodies in Europe, suddenly

in phosphorous and thus largely problematic for

represented an entirely new loss to France and

the Bessemer process, as phosphoric content led

corresponding new trove of wealth for Germany,

to markedly lower-quality steel. But then Percy

one of the causes of French antipathy toward Ger-

Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, British

many and certainly a factor in the run-up to the

cousins who were both metallurgical chemists,

Great War. The onus would now be on the factories

invented the so-called Gilchrist-Thomas process

of these nations to convert these ore riches into

in 1875, which successfully removed phospho-

usable iron and steel, both before and especially

rus from iron ore in the steelmaking process.

during wartime. Just as prospectors and geologists

Notably, Krupp’s metallurgists had developed a

exploited the riches underground with fervor, so

similar refining process at virtually the same time,

too would industrialists pursue the success of the

albeit with less fanfare. This invention was as

factory and the communities that supported it.

79

80

important to metallurgical science generally as it

38

Precious Metal

The iron fields of northern England and the

Chapter 2

Industry

Factory

into useful synthetic things like guns and beams. It

The iron and steel factories of the nineteenth

taries, the factory was the centerpiece of the tour.

century had two distinct guises. One was that of a

Whether the visitor was a professor of hygiene,

technological object, a building in which all of the

a Thai prince, or the chief officer of the Brazilian

complex metallurgical science behind state-of-the-

navy, the factory encapsulated all that was crucial

art iron and steel production was made manifest

to the message of these well-oiled tours: we make

in the optimization and placement of hearths,

our own future.1

furnaces, slag dumps, mills, rolling devices,



smokestacks, and assembly lines. The second was

nological one—for which Krupp serves as an

as a representational object, a brawny box attesting

exemplar. Friedrich Krupp, heir to an influential

to man’s dominance over nature. Although no less

local dynasty that had made its name producing

architectural than the mine, the factory had special

small armaments in sundry facilities in the Ruhrge-

representative value by virtue of being a well-

biet since the seventeenth century, constructed

known and discrete form that sat aboveground, a

one of the company’s first purpose-built facilities

place where even more people worked long hours.

in Essen toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars,

As the site of transformation from raw to finished

drawing upon the fulling mills and coal mines

goods, it also had the inherent value of transform-

already acquired in the family name. The facility,

ing intrinsically useless natural things like iron ore

comprising a small fachwerk (half-timbered) house

is no coincidence that when Krupp hosted digni-

Let us begin with the first object—the tech-

Karl Uhlenhaut, father to the family dynasty that would found Mercedes-Benz.3 In the 1870s, the Krupp facilities’ managers and architects advised the Chinese politician Li Hongzhang on the layout of facilities in Tianjin and elsewhere in China, and their model in factory planning proved very influential in China during the following decades.4 Krupp, along with the neighboring Bochumer Verein, was also very influential in providing successful models for the incremental retrofitting of factories designed around the Bessemer method, which, once it was phased out, left many industrialists around the world with facilities for which they Figure 15. View of the Krupp Stammhaus, constructed ca. 1818. Photo: akg-images.

no longer had much use.5 By 1917, the factory facilities in Essen alone were large enough to employ nearly fifty thousand workers. This figure does not

for administration and an adjacent foundry for

include smaller production facilities elsewhere in

steel rolling, served as the symbolic navel of the

Germany or overseas. One such satellite campus

corporation. The stone foundry, sitting directly

was an arms and munition factory occupying sev-

on axis with the fachwerk house—which was later

enty thousand square meters on a tract of land just

known as the Stammhaus, the office from which

outside Munich. Krupp even negotiated with the

the factory was run—had three modest smoke-

Hungarian government for a concession to erect

stacks and featured windows and doors along

an arms factory there, partnering with Skoda on

roughly two-thirds of its perimeter. The foundry

commercial arrangements.6

was the very image of an early nineteenth-century



factory. The artistic depictions of the day show

smokestack, an appendage necessary for any

the Stammhaus and factory in a natural idyll, with

factory that generated emissions that could

most views seeming to look west, at land that

not or should not remain indoors, with little

had yet to be developed. Krupp’s factory foot-

architectural importance.7 By the middle of the

print would grow from this navel outward, each

nineteenth century, however, the smokestacks of

successive facility employing the most advanced

steel factories began to rise in both height and

architectural and industrial technology (fig. 15).

architectural significance. The rise in height had

2



40

The overall planning, design, and imple-

The first Krupp factory had a diminutive

clear functional advantages: as mills and found-

mentation of Krupp’s factories also proved itself

ries incorporated larger and more productive

as the training ground for a new generation of

furnaces, more and more emissions needed to

German industrialists. The roster of figures who

be diffused over wider areas. The height of the

planned and managed the company’s architec-

smokestack both enhanced the suction effect that

tural expansion even included the metallurgist

allowed emissions to be drawn out of the hearth

Precious Metal

Figure 16. John Bowen, “Stac Fawr,” smokestack at the Llanelli Copperworks, 1861. Carmarthenshire Libraries.

and allowed those emissions to be diffused over



a wider area, away from the direct vicinity of the

iron and steel factories as a whole had their most

factory, which was necessary to provide workers

formative period in the nineteenth century in

with a modicum of air quality. By 1861, the world’s

Germany, England, France, and the United States.

tallest smokestack, in Llanelli, Wales, reached an

But there were also innovations or permutations

impressive 320 feet (fig. 16). In the United States,

of the typology elsewhere, and these alterations

the American Iron Works Company sought to use

and adaptations lay bare the reality that indus-

its smokestack as a promotional tool, hiring the

trialization was not always the great stylistic (not

Englishman James Heakley to adorn the top of its

to mention cultural) equalizer that modernists

prominent fluted smokestack. He rendered the

would have had us believe. The colonial holdings

top of the smokestack with the image of a man’s

of those leading nations, along with Canada,

head, topped by a brick crown from which smoke

Argentina, Venezuela, Austria-Hungary, Japan,

could escape. When the company’s director saw it,

and Russia, also generated important typological

he proclaimed, “This is the American Iron Works

innovations of their own, reflecting any number of

and in America there are no crowns.” By the next

variables, from the main type of finished product

day, a mason had covered the crown and rendered

being made, to climate, to national style. Nowhere

the tip of the smokestack in the shape of a top hat

outside the industrial West was the development

instead.

of the steel factory typology more autonomous,

8

9

10

As with the morphology of the smokestack,

Industry

41



The Tatas laid out their plant in a strict orthog-

onal arrangement (fig. 17). At the center was the main foundry, with a smaller one lying perpendicular about thirty meters away. The vast majority of the smokestacks, and thus the furnaces, were pushed to the perimeter of the site, separated from the main foundry by a large open yard, which created a long line of smoking columns and a clear division between “clean” and “dirty” spaces. At the opposite end was a series of small wooden buildings that were, like the Stammhaus, used for administration. Figure 17. Aerial view of the original Tata plant, Sakchi, ca.



1907. Photo: Tata Steel.

the planning of his nonfactory facilities, command-

Tata also adopted Krupp’s rhetoric of welfare in

ing his son to lay out “wide streets planted with however, than in India, home to the Tata Iron and

shady trees, every other of a quick growing variety,”

Steel Company (TISCO).

along with “plenty of space for lawns and gardens”



42

11

Founded in the remote Indian village of Sakchi

and “areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan

in the state of Jharkhand in 1907, TISCO was the

mosques, and Christian churches.” He established

long-standing kernel of a vision for an industrial-

a hospital for both the workers and the residents of

ized, independent India imagined by the upstart

the region and mandated an eight-hour work day.13

industrialist Jamsetji Tata. Tata became utterly

Indeed, Sakchi, which would be incorporated into

fascinated with the power and potential of steel

the city of Jamshedpur, has a morphology similar to

after attending a lecture by the British polymath

Essen’s, both cities having been built on the capital

Thomas Carlyle in Manchester. With financial sup-

and vision of a single steel manufacturer.14 Unlike

port from the steel engineer and inventor Julian

Essen, however, Jamshedpur’s industrial reach oper-

Kennedy and the expertise of the metallurgist

ated radially, as it had no significant competition in

Charles Perin, Tata founded India’s first steel-

either mining or factory construction such as the

works, despite many hurdles, which included the

competition that Krupp faced in Essen.

relatively poor quality of India’s roads, a variety



of problems associated with the intense heat, and,

was its closest neighbor, Thyssen & Company, later

most critically, a lack of local skilled labor. Despite

known as Thyssen AG, a firm with which Krupp

all that, Tata could not ignore the presence of

would ultimately merge at the close of the twen-

roughly three billion tons of iron ore located just

tieth century.15 August Thyssen, heir to a major

forty-five miles from the nearest railway line.12 Tata

banking family and a native of the Ruhrgebiet, was

died in Germany before his plant in Sakchi was

one of the first individuals to foresee the industrial

completed, but his son Dorabji Tata and cousin

capacity of the region, with its coal seams, iron

R. D. Tata faithfully executed his vision.

ore reserves, river shipping routes, and growing

Precious Metal

Krupp’s main competitor in the Ruhrgebiet

railway network. In 1867, Thyssen, along with sev-

of his new iron and steel plants. One of these was

eral family members, founded the Thyssen-Foussol

a band-iron mill in nearby Dinslaken, completed

& Co. ironworks in Duisburg. The company was

in 1896 and intended to supplement and expand

dissolved three years later, and the capital gain was

the scale of iron and steel products produced at the

16

used to found Walzwerk Thyssen & Co., the pro-

older factories in Duisburg and Hamborn. This was

genitor of a massive iron and steel operation that

followed in 1902 by a smelting plant in Meiderich,

would take shape in the city of Mülheim, just west

which worked in tandem with the company’s steel-

of Essen.

works in Hamborn and Duisburg to cover its pig



iron requirements, a new steelworks in Hagendin-

Unlike Krupp, Thyssen initially preferred to

run a decentralized operation, with many small

gen (Hagondange in French) in Lorraine in 1910,

companies that often had their own function or

and steelworks near the iron ore mines of Caen and

specialty in mining, ingots, gauges, and so forth.

Normandy, also in 1910. Thyssen had established

The largest of these subsidiary companies, before

branch offices for operations in Algiers, Port Said,

they were consolidated as a holding company,

Suez, Oran, Naples, Bona, Bizerta, Tangier, and

was the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser in Ham-

Genoa, all by 1913. This was followed by an even

born, a coal-mining company acquired in 1891.

farther reach into Latin America when Thyssen

Both before and after the consolidation, Thyssen

established a trading company in Buenos Aires.

ran his companies as a vertically integrated iron-

By 1913, Thyssen employed twenty-seven thousand

and steelmaking operation, which meant that

men and women in the Ruhrgebiet alone. The

the companies owned not only their own mines

construction of housing for these workers began

and factories but also their own shipping fleets,

in 1895, and by the time World War I began, more

docks, dockyards (including some in a foreign city,

than half of the company’s workers lived in com-

Rotterdam), and railway lines. Thyssen’s facilities

pany apartments constructed in the vicinity of the

included the first five-hundred-ton blast furnace

various facilities.18 Thyssen also played a major role

in Germany, the first hundred-ton Martin furnace,

in advocating the early electrification of the greater

and large iron-pipe works that produced pipes for

Ruhr Valley, making it one of the best-electrified

improved sewage systems. Much like his counter-

places on earth by the dawn of the Great War.19

part at Krupp, Thyssen took an active interest in



the arts and was an avid collector and a good friend

of the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser’s facilities on

of the sculptor Auguste Rodin. Unlike Krupp,

the Rhine offers a great deal of information about

however, he led a life of modesty in close proximity

how vertical integration manifested itself spa-

to his employees, driving an old car, working out of

tially (fig. 18).20 The plant is largely decentralized

a modest office, eating with his workers, and sport-

but is well connected through a snarl of railway

ing ready-to-wear suits from the local department

lines linking all the various vertical functions.

store. He is famous for his steel-themed statement

The railway lines on the campus and the rolling

“If I rest, I rust.”

stock allowed to enter it were all privately owned



and constructed, but they were connected to the

17

Thyssen was indeed restless, but he was also

dogmatic in his system of vertical integration in all

A plan following the modernization of several

dense commercial and passenger railway lines just

Industry

43

Figure 18. Site plan of the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser,

depositories and scrap workshops, which many of

Duisburg, 1912. Courtesy thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives,

the rail lines traverse.

Duisburg, Germany (F/Alb/26).



Krupp’s facilities in nearby Essen, neither on a

river nor vertically integrated, exhibit a distinctly nearby: Duisburg, Meiderich, and Ruhrort (the

different morphology at the level of the site plan,

new mouth of the rerouted Emscher River) to

a morphology that was more typical than the

the south, Hamborn and Oberhausen to the east,

Thyssens’. When trying to comprehend the sheer

and Dinslaken to the north. At the western edge,

vastness of Krupp’s facilities in Essen, one has two

along the Rhine, are two ports: Alsum (the original

options. One would be a colorfully rendered bird’s-

mouth of the Emscher River) and Schwelgern. A

eye view, with belching smokestacks holding the

“delivery workshop” (Verlieferungs-Werkstätten)

foreground against the hinterland of the city and

acts as an architectural pivot point between the

the countryside beyond. Such views were regularly

sprawl of port facilities on the western flank of the

produced by the company and placed on postcards

site and the heavy industrial facilities to the south-

and other corporate ephemera, suggesting that

east. This area is anchored by the largest facility,

Krupp, perhaps more than any other company of

a rolling mill, which is in turn flanked by a vast

its size, thought of its landscape of sprawling fac-

array of smaller buildings, including coal and ore

tories, even its pollution, as its visual calling card.

21

44

Precious Metal

Figure 19. American Expeditionary Forces, “Panorama of

the Thyssen facilities weave through buildings like

Krupp’s Works, Essen,” ca. 1918. The US National Archives

tentacles, emerging from the nodes at which they

and Records Administration.

enter the site, the lines here generally snake past the facilities and through the site, allowing numer-

The other type of view, which is ultimately less

ous passageways to intersect, while still generally

varnished and more instructive, would be an aerial

maintaining continuity between the movement

perspective, which came in handy during war-

of lines through the site in all of the cardinal

time as a definitive map from which to plan aerial

directions.

bombardments. One such map comes to us from



the Allied forces in around 1918; it clearly illustrates

tography in documenting, promoting, and

Krupp’s facilities and notates individual buildings

disseminating its power, Krupp made immense

for their strategic value and, consequently, the

efforts to visually document all types of activi-

desirability of their destruction (fig. 19). Rather

ties on its campuses in the Ruhrgebiet, from the

than being bifurcated between a “shipping”

bird’s-eye views of the facilities, to action shots

function and a “production” function, the facili-

of production, to formal portraits of the dynastic

ties emerge organically and centripetally from the

leadership and important visitors.22 A considerable

originary Stammhaus. About a dozen buildings are

portion of this archive consists of images of the

noticeably larger than the rest, including the steel

factory. These largely choreographed images, which

foundries (which are rather squat), a power station,

became increasingly formulaic as the company

an armor plate shop, a field gun carriage shop, a

honed its visual identity, were widely disseminated

crucible steel foundry, a hydraulic press shop, and

in promotional materials, corporate ephemera, the

administrative facilities. Whereas the rail lines at

press, and books.

Ever cognizant of the importance of pho-

Industry

45



Behind these images, however, was another

secrecy,” a kind of secrecy that is at once shared

public, documenting everything from metallurgical

between members of an organization and con-

experiments, to failed material trials, to the ups

cealed, an elemental aspect in the very existence

and downs of everyday work and social life in the

and practice that defined, and still defines, corpo-

factory. These photographs, which one might call

rate culture in the modern world and, in particular,

“furtive,” are, on the one hand, the underworld of

the factory setting.24

a terrain of formal, outward-oriented photography



and, on the other, the visual and documentary

fully selected images that Krupp believed would

basis on which a fuller reciprocity between physical

enhance its corporate identity or sell a product,

construction and the construction of a body of

or both. The photographs kept from the public

photography rests.

constituted a culture of omission and thus of con-



cealment, a form of “inside secrecy.” This follows

Central to the proposition of “furtive” pho-

Krupp’s photographic archives attest to care-

tography is a conception of photography as an

the basic logic of capitalism and is by no means

organizational medium, one that adapts the sub-

revelatory. But the prosperous modern corpora-

jecthood of Roland Barthes’s well-worn conception

tion, something that by the end of the nineteenth

of punctum, studium, and spectrum to a corpo-

century Krupp modeled perhaps more effectively

rate entity and also demonstrates the emergent

than any other company in the world, needed

psychological behavior of the corporation in the

a unified message, and that applied to a broad

time of its global ascendancy. That the corpo-

definition of visual culture, including architecture,

ration assumed ways of being akin to those of an

as much as anything else. The Krupp family and

individual, particularly secrecy and furtiveness, is

the company’s upper management understood this

at the center of recent scholarship on the history

imperative profoundly, as revealed in any number

of corporate culture. One central argument is that

of archival documents that chronicle the need for

the emergent culture of secrecy and furtiveness is

a “message” and an “identity,” as much a business

less the product of a desire to conceal information

idea as a visual one.25

than the result of the habitual practices and social



accomplishments that generate trade secrets in the

in about the 1870s, Krupp had its own dedicated

first place. This cumulative culture of secrecy is

photographic studios on the factory premises,

distinct from other forms of concealment, includ-

complete with staff and state-of-the-art equipment;

ing privacy, anonymity, taboos, and silence, in that

these were bona fide image factories as much as

it is not unambiguously “good” (as in protecting

they were factories of iron and steel. The culture of

intellectual property, rights, and confidentiality) or

inside secrecy might explain why certain images

“bad” (as in corruption and deception), but rather

go underground or become furtive photographs.

is a fluid manifestation of social relations unique to

Their innate message is unpleasant, unuseful,

a corporation that builds through the networked

undesirable, and unappetizing, and the images will

actions of many individuals and not on the shoul-

therefore not sell products for a host of reasons.

ders of a single executive, metallurgist, or engineer.

Capitalism has thus monetized the range of the

23

46

This kind of secrecy has been described as “inside

class of photos never meant to be seen by the

Precious Metal

It is worth bearing in mind that, beginning

punctum of corporate imagery, filtering what

specimens from different mines and specimens

reaches the consumer and what does not.

that had undergone different processes were



collected and placed under an evolving array of

Krupp’s metallurgical labs and its experiments

in the factory were early pioneers of what we would

microscopes with photographic armatures. These

today recognize as the corporate research and

labs were, in their own way, pioneers in photo-

development (“R&D”) environment.26 A central

micrography, employing innovative equipment

focus of the research was the maximization of

such as the microscope oil lamp and other appa-

efficiency and, in the case of structural metals,

ratuses designed by pioneers of microscopy.28 In

carrying capacity. Although not formally attached

1909, Krupp’s Chemistry and Physics Experiment

to a university, Krupp, Thyssen, and other manu-

Office (which already had cranes and skylights

facturers nevertheless transformed the Ruhrgebiet

for bringing in large pieces for photographic

into a global hub of metallurgical research (includ-

documentation) added dedicated stations for

ing myriad treatises and publications) by the

both microscopy and photomicrography to its

end of the nineteenth century, staking a strong

repertoire.29 The resulting photographs were often

competitive position with respect to the industrial

spectacular, revealing a world of novel forms,

north of England. Apart from a mining school, the

textures, and patterns (fig. 20). Once produced

Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola in nearby

as prints, the images were often hand-colored to

Bochum, there were no comprehensive universities

simulate (and perhaps exaggerate) the colors seen

or Hochschüle in the entire Ruhrgebiet, which only

under the microscope. They were then reproduced

amplified the importance of these private research

as chromolithographs and assembled into a dossier

armatures and their interdependence with the

of sheets of similar images that were kept almost

state’s military-industrial complex.27

entirely internally.





Studying the microscopic formation of iron,

In concert with chromolithography, photo-

both as iron ore and as a refined metal, was one

micrography generated the imperative for a new

of the most urgent aspects of research and devel-

type of visual literacy among its delimited, internal

opment at the steel factory. Photomicrography,

corporate audience. The metallurgists necessarily

photographs taken through a microscope or

knew how to read these images and understood

similar device to produce a magnified image, had

what particular patterns meant, but this was not

an important impact on both photography and

necessarily true of the nonscientific audience of

the understanding of metals in architecture, as

the corporation’s upper management, including

it undermined the idea that the naked eye alone

members of the Krupp family. Such images were

could reveal the truth about the relative value of

in many ways as much insider knowledge as they

one specimen of iron or steel over another. In the

were “inside secrecy,” and the ability to read and

1850s, microscopes began to reveal structures and

interpret this new visual language translated into

patterns in the organization of metals that could

key corporate decisions about which iron ores to

reliably predict their potential strength, longevity,

employ, which products to develop, and so forth.

and resistance against forces like deformation and



corrosion. In Krupp’s factory labs in Essen, sample

the Krupp archives involves the documentation

Another important genre of photographs in

Industry

47

of material experiments and production pro-

posed a quandary for photographers. As this

cesses, including testing the weight limits of a

work was intended to be temporary, deployed as a

given material, testing the extreme temperatures

stopgap solution, it would be impolitic to portray

a material could withstand, and numerous other

women in precisely the same light as men, risking

experiments. Successful tests were often touted in

the possibility of creating some sort of postwar

publicly circulated trade and scientific publications.

parity between male and female labor.

Documentation of failed experiments, by contrast,



of which there appear to have been many more,

not depicted and disseminated. The formally circu-

was often sent straight to an archival folder and

lated imagery of women at Krupp’s facilities during

kept under wraps, but these failures were also well

wartime, for example, was used to mobilize the

annotated and formatted for an internal audience

idea that the war effort was comprehensive, both

intent on using the lessons of failure as building

militarily and domestically, and that factory labor

blocks for success.

in time of war was thus not merely an expression



Although these furtive photographs had no

of personal valor but a form of national patrio-

value for public use, they are prominent within the

tism, which only enhanced the steel industry’s

corporate archive, clearly relevant to some internal

widespread integration into postwar architectural

corporate function, whether documentary, scien-

practice. Numerous visual cues indicate how this

tific, or both. One theme among these photographs

was done. Rather than being placed centrally, alone

is the role of women. It is well known that during

and in their entirety within the picture frame,

wartime women assumed many of the manufactur-

women were most commonly presented in groups,

ing roles that were typically the province of men. In

behind their machinery, with no discernible

formal photography circulated in corporate mate-

expression on their faces and with an overriding

rials, the roles and visual tropes for male workers

sense of the factory context.

were well established by 1914. Male workers were



typically placed in the center of the frame, their

produced imagery, we see views of women on their

entire bodies visible while they performed some

work breaks, laughing, socializing, and drinking

act of difficult manual labor. These portraits were

coffee (fig. 21). There is a particular intractable

heroic, invoking the taut poses of Greek statuary

tension in these images not in keeping with the

while also hearkening back to the glorification of

public corporate image. The activities of these

common labor that had become a central theme

women feature stereotypical signifiers of domes-

in the Romantic movement on both sides of the

ticity: social interaction, coffee pots and porcelain

Atlantic. The fact that women supplanted men

cups, laughter. These images, at once cheerful and

during wartime in these valorized visual roles

incongruous, failed to serve the corporate narrative

But this was not to say that female labor was

However, this was not the entire story. In unre-

of wartime gravitas and sober sacrifice, of both men and women committing themselves to work Figure 20. Krupp photomicrographic study, Rissiger Bohrkernabschnitt 40 m/m Ø von Rotor 156690 aus E F 664 L

not by choice but from a sense of patriotic duty.30

(Ch.1 E M 4940), in Untersuchungsberichte, vol. 2, June



1929. Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen.

and maimed in the process of iron and steel

It is no surprise that workers were often injured

Industry

49

addition to its documentary capacity, photography would in fact come to play a role in attempts to prevent such accidents.

For example, while it is not entirely clear how

a photo book titled Krupp Eisen und Stahl, Essen: Schutzvorrichtungen was presented to its ostensible audience, the workers, its purpose is clear: to visually demonstrate best practices for the dangerous work at hand. Two photographs from the book provide an important study in contrasts. The first photograph, which appears to be staged, shows two crucible carriers in the doorFigure 21. Unknown, female workers on break, Essen, ca.

way of a melting shop, protected with the gear

1914–18. Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen.

that was essential to their safety: goggles, aprons, spats, and bags protecting their hands (fig. 22). The second, which from its scratchiness and

production. Deaths in factories had been reported

informality appears to be candid, demonstrates

in public newspapers since at least 1863 and, until

how safety protocols were not always followed

the advent of photography, were visualized via

(fig. 23). Two workers, one of whom may even

detailed description. Here is just one example, from

be seen in the previous photograph, are holding

the Ruhrgebiet, of the many scattered throughout

the crucible, this time with its real white heat.

newspapers in the industrial West during the long

They are not, however, wearing their protective

nineteenth century:

goggles, a lack of precaution that could lead to very serious eye damage. What exactly this reveals

Yesterday afternoon, a worker on the blast furnaces of

about the ostensible precautions workers were

the Gutehoffnungshütte suddenly met his match there,

supposed to take and those that they actually did

inhaling carbon monoxide gas. . . . He stood with a

take is uncertain, but the internal dissemination

coworker at the blast furnace, on top of the cable for the

of the first photo shows how images were meant

elevation of the hood, and was hit by the gas flowing out

to reinforce a clear and settled idea of decorum

of it at the moment the furnace opened. He suddenly

and behavior. As a sort of visual set of rules,

fell down as a consequence of the inhalation, and after

they attest to how the corporation, as a cumula-

a few minutes was dead. His coworker, who remained

tive force, sought to deploy visual culture as the

unscathed, barely noticed his comrade’s sudden collapse.

domain of unequivocal meaning, both in public

This was the man’s first day on the job. He lived in Lan-

and in these furtive photographs.

genfeld and was unmarried.



31

Best practices in the setting of the steel factory

took a long time to emerge and become codified,

50

It was taboo to reproduce images of such events,

and although the Krupp archives expose some of

but that does not mean that images did not exist. In

the extremes, German factories were by and large

Precious Metal

safer places than their American counterparts. In fact, German industrialists observed the American factory scene more closely than any other, mainly because they saw the United States as their fiercest competition, if not in global trade sales (which had yet to fully blossom) then at least in terms of the methods and quality of steel products, particularly those used for construction. The kernel of this competitive strain in German industrialism might have originated in a commission of experts tasked by the Prussian minister of commerce, in the summer of 1876, with traveling to the United States, studying the practices there, and issuing a report on them. The result was “The Condition of the Working Classes in the United States of America,” an extensive report that drew upon newspapers, pamphlets, periodicals, books, legal contracts, handbooks, and other documents to analyze the working conditions of American factory laborers, the influence of legislation on the labor market, wage scales and work schedules, factory design and protocols, the private sphere of the workers, and a broad range of related matters.32 The tome was nothing short of encyclopedic and came to be widely understood as a reference point among German industrial administrators.

Various accounts of the mills and foundries of

the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh in the last third of the nineteenth century, for example, bore out the Germans’ dim view of American safety precautions. The accounts are rife with

Figure 22. Unknown, crucible carriers at Krupp steelworks, from the photo book Krupp Eisen und Stahl, Essen: Schutzvorrichtungen, ca. 1903. Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen. Figure 23. Unknown, crucible carriers at Krupp steelworks, from the photo book Krupp Eisen und Stahl, Essen: Schutzvorrichtungen, ca. 1903. Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen.

descriptions of the management’s callous neglect for safety in the factory. Scalding water from overhead pipes and molten metal falling from ladles



and swinging chains maimed, burned, and killed

regulatory oversight and labor standards proved

workers. In a single year, 195 accidents in the iron-

critical in steering the world’s major iron and steel

and steelmaking facilities of western Pennsylvania

producers toward various models for safer facto-

resulted in death.

ries around the turn of the twentieth century.34 In

33

As with reforms to the mining industry,

Industry

51

Britain, this led to the creation of the Industrial

As a rule, proof of this kind furnished by those respon-

Fatigue Research Board in 1918, an organization

sible for the design of the structures which have failed

centered on the new concept of industrial fatigue,

contains no reference as to how well they have designed

which in turn paved the way for the dissemination

the connections or how thoroughly they have tied the

of scientific labor management. In the United

construction together in a monolithic manner. . . . In

States, a similar quest for optimization, a concept

other words, their defense contains no reference, as a

by no means consonant with worker welfare per

rule, to the really vital points of construction.37

35

se, led to the rise of Taylorism, a theory of management based on Frederick Winslow Taylor’s

This observation hints at the reason why so many

concepts of economic efficiency and labor produc-

early projects in reinforced concrete suffered major

tivity, including attempts to mitigate the conditions

or complete structural collapse.38 More globally, it

of factory life and work that had hitherto led

also suggests the ways in which the mechanization

to the physical and psychological damage of

of the steelworker’s labor, as exemplified in the pro-

steelworkers.

duction of steel ties for reinforced concrete, along



36

Although Taylorism and scientific manage-

with I-, H-, and U-beams, girders, and other build-

ment accelerated and ostensibly improved the

ing units, only widened the gulf between building

production of certain steel products that had been

as a craft and architecture as a profession. In turn,

manufactured for some time, new products with

this created an ever greater distinction between

new processes often entailed a steep learning curve.

the factory and the design office and between the

An excellent example is the steel rebar produced

architect and the laborer who assembled the kit

for reinforced concrete. As the American engineer

of parts the architect envisioned. Seen through a

Claude Allen Porter Turner observes in his 1909

cynical lens, if not also a Marxist one, the rise of

book Concrete Steel Construction, the mechani-

the steel factory played a critical role not only in

zation of steel building parts only increased the

the development of modern architecture but also in

distance between the architect and the factory

glorifying the architect and his (and ultimately her)

laborer, dissociating the latter not only from the

tenuous claim to a more complete authorial role.

means of production but also from its very design,

There are many ways in which the rise of industrial

while at the same time saddling the laborer with

“welfare,” a concept that would be borne out most

the burden of getting things right in a factory set-

fully in the steel and iron mills of the industrial

ting that was changing at an ever more rapid clip.

West, can be explained as the natural reconcilia-

As Turner notes,

tion of industrial know-how and the humanistic values of the Enlightenment. But we may also

52

The poor laborer in the concrete gang, not having the ear

see, with the advantage of hindsight, how the

of the public, does not talk back and properly present, as

factory, symbolic far more for its image than for

a rule, his side of the case. The designer comes along with

the dynamics of its labor content, propped up an

figures showing beyond question that he has properly

ever more narcissistic sense of entitlement in the

provided for the bending moment in a [steel] beam and

architectural profession. The welfare of laborers,

considers that he has cleared himself beyond question.

in the form of domiciles and recreation and health

Precious Metal

care, also functioned as a way of placating workers,

akin to a larger Westphalian organism. In this way,

suppressing not only potential labor unrest but also

Schmidt acknowledges the cities’ interconnected-

any ambitions to claim authorship in the creation

ness as well as their increasingly indistinguishable,

of finished things.

permeable borders. He is careful to note that the biological expansion of the city and its symbiotic relationship with its neighbors does not trans-

Community

late into the wholesale eradication of the nature that the growing city penetrates. He describes

The inextricable relationship between Krupp and

the preserves of nature beyond the Emscher and

the city of Essen was celebrated in a 1912 publica-

south of the Ruhr as idyllic valleys “woven” into

tion commissioned by the firm on the occasion of

the organism, as if they were its lungs, making it

its centennial. The centennial was a massive cele-

possible to reconcile the juxtaposition of the indus-

bration that included a visit to the city by Kaiser

trial with the residential in a single city organism.

Wilhelm himself, which Klaus Tenfelde has aptly

As Schmidt puts it, Krupp’s Siedlungen in the

described as the pinnacle of the firm’s marketing

city’s south, southwest, and southeast pushed “the

tradition. The firm commissioned essays from

undulating landscape into the city, not to destroy it,

prominent academics and experts on a broad range

but to lure the landscape into the city by preserving

of topics, including the city’s economic growth,

and supplementing fresh greenery and increasing

the firm’s family leadership, the firm’s role in urban

the pleasant interplay between mountain and valley

planning, education, and music in the city, and

by placing monumental buildings on striking high

the architecture of the Krupp Siedlungen, among

points.”42

others, for publication. One essay in particular, by



Essen’s deputy mayor, Robert Schmidt, and titled

vividly than the Villa Hügel, the Krupp family’s

“A Modern Urban Structure: The Industrial and

main residence, where the Krupps entertained

39

40

No single building embodies that strategy more

Residential City,” not only illuminates the publica-

important guests and whose original design is

tion’s central theme of corporate welfare urbanism

attributed to Alfred Krupp himself. The villa,

but also highlights the boosterist tone in which the

completed in 1873, is located on a high point in a

corporation and the government propped up each

massive property in the leafy southern district of

other’s narratives. One of the themes of Schmidt’s

Bredeney (fig. 24).43 Krupp is said to have selected

essay is an analogy—the city as organism—that was

the location by having a team of Krupp employees

rooted in a pervasive strain of geopolitical theory

construct a large wooden tower with wheels at its

in Germany at the time. The second, related

base that Krupp could stand on.44 Equipped with

41

theme is progress, in which growth is touted, virtu-

a spyglass through which he searched for a view

ally without exception, as an unequivocal good.

of that venerable artery of industrial might, the



Ruhr, Krupp shouted down to his employees until

Schmidt redoubles the organism analogy, first

by describing Essen itself as an organism and then

he found the ideal spot, which is where the villa

by also depicting the greater vicinity—especially

sits today. Krupp proudly built his villa with his

the connections to Oberhausen and Mülheim—as

own structural metal and clad it in French marble,

Industry

53

of the duress and difficulty such unmitigated growth would place on any city—and it did. Even more than population growth, however, it was construction that marked the city’s heroic march forward. While Schmidt had some affection for the city’s handful of “friendly” two-story homes and pre-nineteenth-century buildings, the main achievers in this narrative were the strengthened old houses, the barns converted to dwellings, and the sturdy new “mastodontic” buildings built on wide, orderly roads using the “intelligence of the Berlin building code.”46 Indeed, Schmidt was very Figure 24. Postcard view depicting the Villa Hügel, Essen, ca. 1912. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. Collection of the author.

enthusiastic about the building codes implemented in the city in the 1880s, with strategic zoning that allowed land to reach unprecedented value and to finally acquire some of the order that unplanned growth had lacked.

54

which he somehow managed to continue to import



from France throughout the Franco-Prussian War.

most densely populated region and its political

Krupp designed his third-floor study so that it sat

center of gravity, was not always as predetermined

at the top of a large shaft above the stables, allowing

as it seemed to Schmidt and the industrialists of

the smell of horse manure to waft upward and keep

the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The

him “grounded” through sensorial proximity to

wealth of its coal and mineral deposits was only

nature. Krupp’s daughter Bertha and her husband,

barely understood in the medieval period, when

The conurbation of the Ruhr Valley, Germany’s

Gustav, would later hire the architect Ernst von

the cities of Duisburg, Mülheim, Essen, Watten-

Ihne to refine the villa’s eccentricities, including the

scheid, Bochum, and Dortmund were stops on

manure shaft.45

the Westphalian Hellweg, a modest trade route



that declined in importance with the development

Another key element in the health of the

so-called city as an organism was its circulation,

of the Hanseatic League. Industrial development

and Schmidt touted the city’s radial traffic routes,

sprouted at first where coal seams emerged clearly

green corridors for cycling and walking, and

from the ground, and then accelerated along with

extensive tram network. Regarding the theme of

the drilling technologies that made it possible to

progress, Schmidt cast the smoking chimneys and

tap deeper and deeper seams.47 Each town devel-

noisy steam hammers as heroic signifiers of the

oped around a historical core, with new industrial

city’s march forward. He also praised the parabolic

sites outside that core, sites that had already

curve of growth. The quadrupling of the city’s

begun to patch the neighboring villages together

population over the previous forty years was also

with roads and light railway lines. The exponen-

cast as a triumph, with little acknowledgment

tial growth of each of the towns, and Essen in

Precious Metal

particular, was fueled largely by an influx of the

codes, perhaps the safest and most rigorous

eastern Prussian and Polish families who were

among all German cities, but he was also quick

recruited to come to the region to do the most

to point out that Essen’s exponential growth and

difficult mining and factory jobs. This influx totally

massive building boom provided an opportunity

altered the ethnic, linguistic, and religious compo-

for innovation in outmoded housing typologies.

sition of the region and can be found in the names

He believed that the price of Essen’s single-story

and traditions of Ruhrgebiet residents to this day.

houses with flower-box gardens, for example,



could be half what they cost in Berlin thanks to

48

By 1850, Essen and Dortmund, each with

about ten thousand people, were the region’s

innovations in design, building technology, and the

largest towns. By 1910, the number of miners was

factory chain that supplied their building compo-

approaching half a million, and the annual pro-

nents. Even more, he believed that Essen’s “narrow”

duction of coal had reached more than 110 million

industrial zoning—meaning industrial zones that

tons. The rate of change was staggering: around

didn’t exceed a certain size—served as a long-term

1910, a single mine in the Ruhrgebiet could produce

strategy for supporting population growth that

more coal than the entire region had produced

Berlin had failed to foresee.50 Schmidt was more

sixty years earlier. In addition, by 1900, huge inte-

than happy to conclude his essay with an observa-

grated steelworks dominated the river banks. As

tion by the English writer Arthur Shadwell, who,

Franz-Josef Brüggemeier has shown, this process

like Schmidt, was interested in the comparative

of expansion was neither planned nor coordinated;

morphology of industrial cities:

industrialization proceeded so quickly that the area became known as Prussia’s Wild West.49 The growth

In comparison with the inferno that is Pittsburgh and

may have been impressive, but it took its toll on the

the small, blackened and impenetrable hellscape of the

quality of city and regional planning, leading to a

Monongahela Valley. . . . Sheffield is clean and Essen a

confusing mélange of canals, streets, railway lines,

true pleasure. Essen takes a different route than the other

housing estates, factories, and parks, often in jarring

industrial cities and creates a new type of city. As every

cheek-by-jowl proximity. Essen tried to become the

age created its type of city, it seems to happen here that

exception to that rule beginning in about the 1880s,

two as of yet diametrically opposed types of city are being

and Schmidt saw it as one of his official capacities to

reconciled: the industrial city and the residential town. . . .

promote Essen’s urbanistic strategies and put them

The work is begun. It must be continued with the backing

forth as models for the city’s peers, making Essen

of the administration, technology and the economy, with

the “model city” of the Ruhrgebiet.

the help of non-profit private individuals, supported by



the sympathy of understanding citizens, by weaving the

A recurring, if peculiar, theme in Schmidt’s

essay and throughout the centennial publication

city into the landscape, the landscape into the city and a

is the continuous comparative framework with

down-to-earth settlement full of health and beauty . . . the

Berlin, as if to suggest Essen’s imminent rise to a

perfect organism of the modern urban settlement.51

grandeur equal to or even greater than that of the Prussian and now imperial capital city. Schmidt



was proud to note the adoption of Berlin’s building

city with the process of evolution, was central

The narrative of progress, linking the organic

Industry

55

to Schmidt’s thoughts on Essen because it bol-

existence. At the level of the domicile, this meant

stered the cause of corporate welfare urbanism for

multiroom dwellings with private entrances,

steelworkers specifically and industrially laborers

dedicated spaces for cooking and living, gardens,

generally. This turn to “welfare” was rooted in two

and modern bathrooms. At the community level,

movements. The first was scientific management,

it meant churches, recreation and sports facili-

which measured in quantitative terms the value of

ties, clubhouses, schools for children, post offices,

providing a safe and not overly distressing labor

supermarkets, sundry shops, plazas, and parks, and

environment. The second was what one might

even restaurants and a hotel. The jobs created by

call a qualitative interest in improving the human

the building boom and then by the new facilities

condition holistically, in the vein of Jacob Riis—an

only compounded the already formidable role

interest that extended beyond the factory walls. It

Krupp played as the region’s primary employer.

is important, however, not to see these two forms

The Krupp archives tell the story not only of

of welfare as two distinct and opposing poles, as

the ambitious building program but also of the

they proved remarkably intertwined and interde-

activities programmed to fill the new buildings, all

pendent. From a purely Marxist perspective, both

documented in prolific newsletters produced spe-

movements privileged the bottom line, arguing

cifically for each Siedlung: festivals, feasts, wedding

that an industrial laborer who was happy, healthy,

and retirement celebrations, graduation parties,

and safe would produce more goods. Any financial

markets, parades, and musical and theater perfor-

investments in these workers, such as the provision

mances, among other events.

of quality housing and recreational opportunities,



was not only morally right; it was also economi-

centennial, was also the year that the Bavarian

cally smart in the long run.

revolutionary Kurt Eisner visited the Altenhof



Siedlung. Eisner, who was friendly with Hannes

No company in the world exemplified this

approach to urban welfare more thoroughly or

Meyer, Walter Gropius’s successor at the Bauhaus,

rigorously than Krupp did around the turn of the

harbored a profound mistrust of the Krupp family

twentieth century. And no single aspect of the

and the company’s outsized role in national affairs,

company’s embrace of this approach manifests it

despite its status as a private corporation.54 Eisner

more clearly than the extensive campaign to con-

had served as editor of Vorwärts, a newspaper that

struct quality worker housing in the direct vicinity

menaced Friedrich Alfred Krupp, as we shall see.

of its industrial plants.52 This included the Siedlung

Although Eisner attended the centennial celebra-

Alfredshof (begun in 1891), Altenhof I Siedlung

tion, he was skeptical of what he perceived as the

(begun in 1892), the Siedlung Friedrichshof (begun

company’s propagandistic tendencies and point-

in 1899), the Siedlung Brandenbusch (begun in

edly skipped the organized tour of the Altenhof that Krupp offered to a handful of political leaders.

1902), the Altenhof II Siedlung (begun in 1907), and the vast Margarethenhöhe (begun in 1909).

Instead, he toured the Altenhof on his own, and

Each facility was larger and more impressive

the title of an article that emerged from his visit,

than the previous one and included every essen-

“A Cemetery for the Living,” makes no attempt

tial amenity associated with a solid middle-class

to hide his distaste. Eisner was impressed by how

53

56

Nineteen twelve, the year of the all-important

Precious Metal

the colony had successfully allayed the city’s filth,



but his backhanded compliments were cloaked

ingly condescending tone regarding his subjects,

in a thin veil of sarcasm about what he saw as the

perhaps unable to disentangle them as individuals

company’s facile and self-serving notion of welfare:

from their employer. Condescension toward the

“And these homes also no longer have remnants of

Altenhof ’s residents was not, however, limited to

the horrific era of the workers’ houses, these black-

visitors from the outside. Shortly after moving in,

ened brick graves that are devoid of colour and

one resident wrote to the management requesting

form, ones which Krupp welfare has built en masse

a larger apartment because the furniture she had

and which remain as witnesses to the barbaric cap-

brought with her was too large for the tight quar-

italism of earlier times. Here [in the Altenhof] art

ters. A flurry of messages between administrative

and labor are united through the wise and heartfelt

staff members laughed her inquiry off, quipping

social deed of their benefactor.”

that her giant bed would still be a nice place to stay



with her husband.58

55

Cedric Bolz notes that Eisner’s visit was charac-

Eisner, a labor advocate, assumed a shock-

terized by repeated encounters with elderly people,



Of all of Krupp’s workers’ housing estates, none

many of them retired Krupp workers (Kruppianer),

was more ambitious or architecturally instructive

who appeared to Eisner to be already dead, coming

as the Margarethenhöhe, its first phase completed

and going among the “colorful coffins” of the

in 1910. The Margarethenhöhe sits on a 115-hectare

settlements.56 Their very physiognomy had been

estate in what was then the newly incorporated

altered by too much time spent in mines and mills,

district of Rüttenscheid in Essen, located to the

their skin exhibiting a near-transparent tone due

south of the company’s plants and the city’s central

to a severe shortage of vitamin D, owing to both

train station and to the northwest of the Villa

their work hours and the smoggy air around them.

Hügel (fig. 25). White-collar and factory workers

One couple, who still had “a glimmer of life in

were provided with transportation to the factories

their eyes,” invited Eisner into their modest home,

where they worked, along with a light rail station.

which he described as being rustically decorated

The colony, which includes 3,092 residential units

and simply furnished. He mocked the couple for

spread across 935 buildings, was named in honor

their poor taste in wallpaper and furnishings,

of Margarethe Krupp, Friedrich Alfred Krupp’s

noting that these lacked any of the charm of

wife, and established on the occasion of Bertha and

the exterior architecture. Openly chastising the

Gustav’s marriage. The colony was run adminis-

couple for adorning their house with images of

tratively through the Margarethe Krupp Stiftung,

the Krupp family as if they were religious icons, he

a philanthropic organization that was ostensibly

wrote, “Dozens of times the old and young master

independent of Krupp’s corporate apparatus but

[Krupp] is displayed, very tasteless and very cheap

nevertheless committed to the general welfare of

looking. But the house occupants point these out

the company’s workers. Images of Margarethe and

with considerable devotion, like the Russian farmer

her husband were often disseminated alongside

who worships his holy icons. The old man does

images of the buildings they had recently built,

not know any better. His entire soul is filled with

equating their iconography with their construc-

images of his master.”57

tion projects. Margarethe Krupp sought to pass

Industry

57

these values on to the workers living in the colony,

which was ironic for a company like Krupp.

inscribing the well in the central marketplace with

Indeed, the Heimatstil is a derivation of the

a humanistic aphorism: “Don’t dig for treasure

Heimatschutz and Naturschutz movements, two

with spades / Seek them in noble deeds!” The

of the foundational intellectual and conservation

structural arrangement separating the corporation

movements that shaped the trajectory of German

and its welfare program did two things: it techni-

environmentalism in the nineteenth century and

cally established worker “welfare” as a charitable

its outsized influence on environmental thinking

endeavor, and it characterized welfare objectives as

into the twenty-first.62 Heimatschutz, in particular,

the domain of women, making a clear and gen-

posited human landscapes as a coequal sphere

dered distinction between the “hard” labor of the

of Naturschutz, which advocated for the protec-

factory and the “soft” labor of community welfare.

tion of wilderness. This allowed architecture to



function as a congruous aspect of the pastoral

The Margarethenhöhe, in both its original

incarnation and its later expansion, was designed

ethic of Romanticism so long as that architecture

by the architect Georg Metzendorf, a member of

was—or with the help of an architect appeared to

59

the German Werkbund. The architectural unifor-

be—historical. The style made sense for a firm like

mity of the colony’s masonry, stucco, fenestration,

Krupp as it sought, at least symbolically, to reunite

roofing, and other exterior elements is somewhat

the worker with the idyll of nature (the colony

deceptive, as the units vary greatly on the inside,

is surrounded by woods), tradition, and town

where Metzendorf mixed and matched a kit of

life as salves to (or denial of) the brutishness of

plans and interior elements so as to render the

the factory setting in which many of the colony’s

interiors with as much variety as possible within

residents spent most of their waking hours. Nota-

the financial limitations of the project. Metzen-

bly, neither the Margarethenhöhe nor any of its

dorf ’s design for the estate vividly signaled Krupp’s

counterparts employed steel in any significant way

long-standing preference for traditional archi-

in its construction. Despite the obvious availability

tecture beyond the factory. The gables, dormers,

of steel, wood framed the colonies’ architecture,

proportions, and ornamental details all fell closely

further dissociating the materiality of the work

in line with the Heimatschutzstil or Heimatstil,

environment from that of the domestic. It is

a loose characterization of an architectural style

perhaps for some combination of these reasons

that emerged in the 1870s, privileging references

that the Margarethenhöhe would become a major

to traditional vernacular elements of German and

reference point for National Socialist plans for

Alpine architecture and deploying them as a kind

mass worker housing.63

of new historicist repertoire.60 The style’s well-



known proponents included Hermann Muthesius,

important during wartime, when the hardships

The rhetoric of welfare proved particularly

Heinrich Tessenow, Paul Schultze-Naumburg, and Theodor Fischer.61

The style was not explicitly or consistently

political but nevertheless represented a Romantic impulse in the face of rapid industrialization,

58

Precious Metal

Figure 25. Rainer Metzendorf, “Gartenvorstadt Margarethenhöhe,” 1919 (project completed 1910). Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Dr. Rainer Metzendorf (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Figure 26. View of Homestead, Pennsylvania, ca. 1910. Photo:

noticeable in the iron industry, especially in the largest

Shorpy.

munitions works.64

The other great industrial regions of the day—the of food rationing and the threat of bombs col-

US Great Lakes region, eastern France, and north-

lided head-on with the imperatives of accelerated

ern England—have their own, very different stories

production of munitions and other war materiél.

of “welfare” and how it was made manifest in the

The Essen correspondent for the Dutch newspaper

built environment.

Yser-en-Staal Kronick wrote early in 1917 that



For Andrew Carnegie, the imperative to tend to

the welfare of his workers had much to do with a

60

the food conditions are reacting unfavourably on the

disastrous situation at one of his mills, in Home-

iron industry. The rations are insufficient for those

stead, just southeast of Pittsburgh, in the summer

entirely dependent on them. All kinds of foodstuffs can

of 1892.65 In a region that the Atlantic Monthly

be bought, but at enormously high prices. Extra rations

called “hell with the lid taken off,” Carnegie—

are supplied to male and female labourers doing heavy

despite holding many progressive values—kept

work, but even these larger supplies are apparently

a tight grip on workers’ wages and shifts, which

insufficient, apart from the fact that they have not been

commonly included an eighty-four-hour work-

distributed of late. Hence the producing capacity of the

week. Indeed, the New York World had described

labour is decreasing and the position is such that the

Carnegie’s operations as a “man-killing system.”66

people cannot stand it any longer. Strikes have occurred

That summer, about three thousand workers went

for more food and higher wages. Unrest is recently

on strike. The strike ultimately became violent and

Precious Metal

Carnegie persuaded the governor to call out the

of speculators who deployed cheap, dense rows of

state militia, culminating in ten deaths.

wood-framed houses strewn without order across



the hills surrounding the factory, where they

Homestead was not only famous for its

momentous strike; it was also the subject of a

absorbed the pollution belching up from below

pioneering sociological study known as “the Pitts-

(fig. 26).

burgh Survey.” As Margaret Crawford has argued,



“The Pittsburgh Survey’s exhaustive investigation

try growth was aware of a key precedent in France

of urban and industrial conditions in the city” sup-

as well: Le Creusot. In 1836, brothers Adolphe and

planted “the flamboyant but unsystematic exposés

Eugène Schneider purchased a group of iron ore

of the muckrakers,” lending reform movements

mines and foundries in the area of Le Creusot in

like those initiated by Jacob Riis an extra boost

Burgundy.69 The thoroughness with which the

of scientific credibility.68 Margaret Byington, the

brothers invested in the town, building all types of

author of the survey’s fourth volume, Homestead:

civic facilities and housing, presciently previewed

The Households of a Mill Town, dispassionately

the holistic vision that would come to fruition

described how Carnegie had strategically located

under the likes of Krupp and Carnegie. The town

his plant outside the town limits, which in turn

grew radially around its factories, and the compa-

gave real estate developers the ability to speculate

ny’s own planners arranged the city’s development

on properties in the town without regulation.

so that the industrial structures, rather than a

Housing sprouted up at the same fast pace as the

proper town center, remained the gravitational

mill’s production, not under the watchful eye of

core (fig. 27). As the Schneiders and their succes-

the company but through the opportunistic hand

sors diversified their iron and steel production to

67

It is likely that each pioneer of town and indus-

Industry

61

stylistic postures within its octagonal plan, despite its having the same uniform material construction in brick (fig. 28).73 Like the Margarethenhöhe, Creswell Model Village’s housing units have small gardens and a tramway, although in Creswell the tramway was constructed to bring coal directly to the housing units for the purpose of interior heating.74 It seems fair to say that in all three cases, the overall preoccupation with the workers’ welfare, be it earnest or capitalistic, was not as indisputably dominant a spatial and architectural precept as it was in the Ruhrgebiet, which makes this a distinguishing characteristic of the German example. Figure 27. View of workers’ housing on Avenue Saint-Sauveur,



Krupp’s building legacy was not limited to

Le Creusot, 1912. © Ecomusée Creusot Montceau / reproduc-

its industrial facilities or the buildings for living

tion D. Busseuil.

and recreation that it provided for its workers. Friedrich Alfred Krupp, who led the company in

include not only structural elements but also loco-

a period of enormous growth between 1887 and

motives, armaments, and electrical equipment, the

1902 and who was Germany’s wealthiest man in

town grew, expanding from 1,850 workers in 1838

this period, was particularly fond of making his

to 19,600 in 1918. Although each successive layer

mark on the built environment. In 1898, Krupp,

of town planning is as evident as the layers of an

then forty-four years old, began to vacation on the

onion, the original factories were replaced to keep

Italian island of Capri in the Bay of Naples, where

pace with technological and architectural advances

he stayed for extended periods at the Grand Hotel

in the mid-nineteenth century.

Quisisana, sometimes with his wife, Margarethe,



but more often without her.75 Krupp was drawn

70

A smaller and more formal model can be

found in the Creswell Model Village in the English

to the island for two reasons. The first was his

county of Derbyshire. Creswell is an example of

amateur interest in oceanography. Using his own

71

62

what was known in England as the “pit village,”

shipbuilding facilities at the Krupp Germaniaw-

a settlement constructed by a colliery to house

erft in the city of Kiel, Krupp had two yachts with

its workers during the Industrial Revolution. Its

onboard research laboratories constructed and

design, by architect Percy B. Houfton, accom-

shipped to Capri and docked them at the island’s

modated the workers of the Bolsover Colliery

southerly and more private marina. The esteemed

Company; it was completed in 1895.72 Although

German zoologist Felix Anton Dohrn, founder

designed around uniform garden city principles

of the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, the world’s

that were well known in England by this time,

first zoological research station, became a friend

Creswell Model Village, unlike the Margarethen-

and interlocutor for Krupp’s academic hobby. The

höhe, included a self-consciously diverse range of

second reason is the subject of some historical

Precious Metal

Figure 28. View of Creswell Model Village (project completed 1895). Photo: Arcaid Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

the Marina Piccola and proposed to the island’s administrators that one be built. The administrators gladly accepted the proposal, which Krupp would fund, and offered him a steep, picturesque

speculation but is by and large agreed upon today:

site connecting the charterhouse of San Giacome

the island’s status as an enclave for prominent

and the Gardens of Augustus to the marina.78

international homosexuals, including Oscar Wilde,

Krupp worked with the engineer Emilio Mayer and

the photographer Wilhelm Plüschow, and the

local carpenters to create a stunning, immaculately

writer Norman Douglas.76 Krupp quickly bought

paved footpath replete with ceremonial portals and

up almost eight hectares of land on the island,

street furniture, covering an elevation difference of

known as the Fondo Certosa, where he constructed

about one hundred meters and quickly becoming

gardens and two tennis courts, mandating that the

one of the island’s major attractions by the time of

property’s excellent views be left unobstructed by

its completion in 1902 (fig. 29). The footpath, which

buildings in perpetuity.

Krupp saw as a way to beautify the island, has no



77

After two years of vacationing on the island,

specific function apart from its capacity to connect

Krupp was frustrated that there was no good path

him to his marina and provide stunning views of

from his hotel down the steep and rocky coast to

Capri’s dramatic coastline.79

Industry

63

probably arranged with the assistance of shadowy pimps seeking to extract considerable sums from the steel magnate.80 Krupp became particularly enamored of two young men: an eighteen-year-old barber and musician named Adolfo Schiano, and a seventeen-year-old construction worker named Giovanni Sangiorgio.81

Krupp’s fondness for Sangiorgio in particular

was a key reason why he maintained such a keen interest in the island, and why he was willing to invest such a massive sum in an infrastructure project like the Via Krupp.82 Krupp met Sangiorgio on his first visit to the island in March 1889, which was followed by Sangiorgio’s visit to Villa Hügel later that year and by visits with Krupp elsewhere, including Berlin in 1891 and London in 1892. Krupp secured a job for Sangiorgio at the Hotel Bristol in Berlin in 1893 and later at the Hotel Savoy in London, and he helped with Sangiorgio’s expenses.83 Sangiorgio returned to Capri in 1895 and, now twenty-four years old, continued his correspondence with Krupp, earning the affectionate nicknames protteto and Schützling, roughly Figure 29. View of the Via Krupp, Capri, in 2020, constructed 1902. Photo: Peter Christensen.

translated as “protected one.” Sangiorgio would go on to marry and have two children before moving to Rome.84



64

The Via Krupp, as it came to be known, was not



A local teacher, angered that Krupp had not

the unalloyed success that its beauty would have

chosen him to be his private Italian tutor, reported

one believe. This large construction project drew

Krupp’s activities to the Neapolitan paper Il Mat-

even more attention to the prominent industri-

tino, which, while not naming Krupp, demanded

alist’s presence on the island and to the activities

an investigation. Krupp was asked to cut short his

that transpired around it, including suspicious

vacation and leave Italy in the summer of 1902,

goings-on in the Grotta di Fra Felice, a commo-

just as the Via Krupp was being completed, and

dious grotto adjacent to the marina and the Via

he did so in the hope that the scandal would blow

Krupp. It was here that Krupp engaged groups

over. The Italian news reports eventually broke

of local men and boys that he referred to as the

into the German press, however, and when the

“Congrega di Fra Felice,” a kind of fraternity, in

Augsburger Postzeitung identified the culprit as

orgies and other sexual encounters, trysts that were

a wealthy German industrialist, there was little

Precious Metal

room for speculation. Two months later, Marga-

Smog

rethe received anonymous letters and possibly some incriminating photos of her husband in the

It is well known that the processes of urbanization

grotto. In a bold move, she reached out privately

and industrialization had far-reaching envi-

to Kaiser Wilhelm, both a long-standing per-

ronmental consequences in the nineteenth and

sonal acquaintance and Krupp’s largest client, and

twentieth centuries. Coal mining, coal processing,

implored him to take some sort of action against

and the iron and steel industries imposed some

her husband for the sake of the firm. Wilhelm,

of the greatest environmental burdens, and it is

who was apparently floored by Margarethe’s daring

important to single out their significance. These

but also concerned about the well-being of the

industries consumed and endangered large areas of

armament manufacturer, ordered that Margarethe

land through mining and the construction of fac-

be institutionalized immediately in an insane

tories, erasing natural and agricultural landscapes.

asylum.

They polluted air, land, and water extensively.



85

A month later, the German Social Democratic

In the Ruhr, these forces combined to produce a

newspaper Vorwärts explicitly implicated Krupp

specific result: the region emerged as an area, not

and identified him as a homosexual, noting that

unlike the industrial regions of the United States

“if Krupp continues to live in Germany, he will

and England, where industrialists required the

be subject to penalties of article 175 of the Code.

advocacy of zoning boards and politicians to reach

When certain illegal practices lead to a public

their goals.89

scandal, the police have a duty to promote legal



action.” Krupp initiated legal action against the

sequential problem associated with the steel

paper. Had he been found guilty, he would have

industry and its rampant use of coal. The prob-

had to serve several years of hard labor. But one

lem began with steam engines, which consumed

week after the article appeared, Krupp died by

great quantities of coal and emitted large amounts

what most suspect was suicide. In his address

of soot, ash, and smoke in the vicinity of an

at Krupp’s funeral, Kaiser Wilhelm attacked the

ever-growing railway network. As a consequence,

Social Democrats for spreading false rumors

the Prussian government decreed as early as 1831

that he said had led to Krupp’s death. For her

that steam engines had to have a chimney that

part, Margarethe was released from the insane

was approximately seven feet tall to ensure that

asylum, ultimately married the lawyer Tilo von

these emissions were widely distributed (fig. 30).90

Wilmowsky in 1907, and supported her daughter

This statute established a pattern of air pollu-

Bertha, who took over the firm with her hus-

tion regulation that prevailed until very recently,

band, Gustav. In the midst of the turmoil of the

namely, the use of tall stacks to distribute noxious

Capri scandal and its fallout, the Krupp firm was

substances over a wide area and, more important,

also enjoying immense growth, which sank the

to dilute them to safe levels. Before World War I,

Ruhrgebiet into an ever-thickening cloud of indus-

specific limits were imposed only for factories that

trial smog—perhaps one reason why the crisp,

produced sulfuric acid, about 10 percent of total

fresh air of Capri had been so enticing.

emissions.91

86

87

88

In Germany, smog became the most con-

Industry

65

stacks could not prevent the smoke and ash from settling on the immediate neighborhood. In many parts of the Ruhrgebiet, flat surfaces required cleaning at least twice a day, and smoke and soot often produced a situation “which could hardly be distinguished from the notorious London fog.”93

The degree of air pollution became particularly

obvious when the French occupied the Ruhr in 1923, halting industrial production. The occupation started in the spring and continued until autumn, by which time the vegetation cycle was proceeding normally. Suddenly, everything began to bloom. “The production of coal, coke and steel had hardly ceased,” one observer noted, “when suddenly the air improved to such a degree, that everybody could notice the difference. . . . The Figure 30. Diagram showing the development and demise of the steam engine locomotive and its energy needs in coal. Deutsche Reichsbahn Public Relations, 1935. Photo: interfoto / Alamy Stock Photo.

leaves, which normally started to wither in early summer, stayed fresh and green until autumn.”94 Potatoes grew bigger, and fruit and vegetables, which were normally covered by a layer of dust, soot, and tar, remained clean and delicious. The



The insufficiency of such regulations soon

became clear. With the growth of population

Even the tree rings grew wider than in the years

and industry, many buildings were erected that

before or after, something verified by contempo-

exceeded the height of existing chimneys, allow-

rary dendrochronologists.95

ing smog to penetrate neighboring buildings and



to deflect off them to ground level. In Dortmund

the perils of smog, but it publicized very few of

in 1867, one traveler noticed that soot from the

its findings; clearly, the company understood that

neighboring steel plants collected on the surfaces

smog was a very serious problem that, when fully

in his hotel room after leaving the window open

and scientifically understood, would unsettle work-

one night. This meant that the steel soot would also

ers, city officials, and the public. It is also curious

have been on his clothes, in his food, and, worst of

that there is a dearth of photographic studies of

all, in his lungs. It is even speculated that wain-

air pollution, given that so much of the language

scoting was invented to make the interior walls

around smog, or Industriedunst (literally, industrial

of homes in smoggy industrial centers easier to

haze), described it in physical terms. The most com-

Krupp’s research division was not unaware of

clean. In some cases, chimneys were built higher

monly used word was raumlich (spatial), indicating

than it was believed necessary for the purpose

that the scientists employed by Krupp believed that

of updraft, but in bad weather even these taller

smog occupied—and altered—physical space as

92

66

harvest increased by approximately 50 percent.

Precious Metal

if it were a diffuse solid rather than a gas. On the

like Gelsenkirchen. What the research did reveal,

other side of the Atlantic, the Chicago Board of

however, was a certain formulaic relationship

Commerce sought to define smoke, from industry

between any factory in the general vicinity and the

or elsewhere, as “the effluvium of sooty exhalation

area that it would most adversely affect through its

of anything burning.” Both definitions were a

emissions, generally an area centered 7.5 miles to its

significant departure from the esoteric definition of

northeast. Scientists wrote of a so-called receiver

pollution that preceded them. The British moralist

area for smog and its impact and even derived

Samuel Johnson had influentially defined pollu-

formulas based on what kind of emission it was,

tion as “the act of defiling” and as the “contrary of

what time of year it was released, and the height of

consecration.” Adam Markham has noted that “the

the smokestack from which it came.

verb, according to Johnson, meant ‘to make unclean



in the religious sense’ or to ‘taint with guilt.’”

its understanding of “receiver areas” or to share the



methods and formulas the scientists developed to

96

97

Between 1865 and 1919, several scientists

Not surprisingly, Krupp chose not to publicize

employed by Krupp were involved in the study of

calculate their general location. This had the effect

smog, among them geologists, biologists, chem-

of confirming the general perception that smog

ists, meteorologists, metallurgists, and physicists.

98

was gaseous and thus difficult to trace to any given

Initially, there was a general preoccupation with

source in an area as increasingly dense and indus-

the height of the smokestacks at facilities that pro-

trial as the Ruhrgebiet. But behind closed doors,

duced emissions. In the late 1870s, scientists began

the understanding of receiver areas prevailed, and

to pay more attention to winds, partly as the result

smog was widely understood not as a gas but as a

of a concern that nearby Gelsenkirchen, about

solid of varying thickness that had a distinct shape

six miles to the northeast, was being dispropor-

and speed and, most important, boundaries, as

tionately affected by Krupp’s airborne pollutants

if it were a work of ephemeral architecture in its

(fig. 31). The scientists determined that they were

own right, transforming an architecture of three

indeed correct about this, as the prevailing winds

dimensions into one of four. Soot—settled smog—

over Essen, already relatively strong for the area

buttressed the idea that smog was spatial, because

given the flatness of the valley, carried smog in a

it could be touched. However small it might appear

northeasterly direction. As they deduced, a given

to be, it was demonstrably a solid, and the com-

mass of emissions would, on a typical day, move

pany’s own pioneering of micrography proved

slowly to the northeast, first becoming more diffuse

it. This distinctly spatial concept of smog guided

and subsequently lower, creating a concentrated

numerous planning principles during the compa-

area of smog at ground level for a radius of about

ny’s massive expansion beginning in the 1890s and

three miles that was centered on a point located

cemented its implications for the social and domes-

about a quarter of a mile southwest of the center

tic lives of its workers and immediate neighbors.

of Gelsenkirchen. Short of reducing emissions,



once again changing the heights of smokestacks,

one liked smog, regardless of who was generating

or moving the plant entirely, little could be done

it or where it came from. It is no coincidence, then,

to alleviate the woes of Krupp’s neighbors in places

that the Margarethenhöhe and other Siedlungen

As the condition of Gelsenkirchen indicated, no

Industry

67

Figure 31. Postcard view of the Krupp foundries at Essen,

were certainly the envy of most workers in the

depicted by Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, where smokestacks

Ruhrgebiet. Tens of thousands of people moved

are seen belching smoke in a uniform northeasterly direction. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus

into the region every year, and—apart from a

Libraries. Collection of the author.

declining minority of the original inhabitants, mostly farmers—the steelworkers, miners, shop

68

that Krupp began to build in the late 1880s were all

owners, lawyers, and industrialists who came to the

located outside the predominant receiver area of

region to find work and make money dominated

the many steelworks, to their east, southeast, south,

the cultural politics of the area. Most were willing

and southwest. Krupp, hailed for its progressive

to put up with some measure of pollution if their

approach to assuring a certain quality of life for its

prosperity continued: they came for the money, not

own workers, indeed buffered its workers from the

for the air.

worst of the air pollution by deliberately placing



them on the southern edge of the greater indus-

enthusiastic about the advances of industry, the

trial conglomerate of the Ruhrgebiet. This, among

huge new factories, and technological progress.

other factors, helped to mitigate the social base for

Nature, so it seemed, simply had to give way. As

protesting against pollution. The leafy environs

one inhabitant of the region recalled in 1919, “It

and relatively fresh air of the Margarethenhöhe

never crossed our mind that it [nature] might

Precious Metal

The inhabitants of the Ruhrgebiet were often

eventually disappear altogether. We were com-

conceded that damages, dangers, or nuisances

pletely fascinated by the magnitude of industry

could result, they were rarely judged to be “consid-

and the ingenuity and gigantic force of human

erable,” and very rarely did the authorities refuse

efforts and we enjoyed the building of factories,

a license for this reason. The authorities were also

streets and houses as much as nature’s activities

empowered to refuse a license in the face of claims

in the countryside. With some justification we

about health risks, but again rarely did so. While

were proud of the American-style growth of our

physicians engaged in extensive discussions con-

native town and the surrounding area and we

cerning the effects of air pollution on health, most

felt we belonged to a purposeful, single-minded

could find no clear proof. As Franz-Josef Brügge-

community, hardworking and thirsty for action.”

meier has noted, “They agreed that the cumulative

If “poisonous smoke from a coke plant ruined a

effects of noxious substances and reduced amounts

nearby wood,” he continued, “we accepted this as

of sunshine could pose a risk to children or to the

inevitable; hardly anyone ever complained.”

elderly and infirm, but they understood very little

99



Smog, with its ostensible shape, and the regions

about the physiology involved.”103

it would most thoroughly penetrate were indeed



something choreographed by corporate manage-

processes for regulating air pollution (or not)

ment and informed by the company’s scientists.

became more deliberate and more concerted. A

But smog was also a political failure, and local

1916 German Supreme Court ruling articulated an

governments failed to properly understand the

expectation that pollution should be considered

cues and trends of industrialization from as far

inevitable in the Ruhrgebiet. The story of a fruit

back as the early nineteenth century.

100

In 1841, the

By the turn of the twentieth century, the

tree farmer is instructive in this regard. The farmer

regional government in Arnsberg granted permis-

sued a nearby coke plant for damages he believed

sion for building the Hermannshütte, an ironworks

the plant had caused to his orchard. The court

near Dortmund. At the time, the main concern was

conceded that the plant did indeed emit pollutive

exploding steam boilers. There was virtually no

substances into the air and that these substances

thought about possible pollution. The Hermann-

would settle in the vicinity. Yet the court also noted

shütte’s owners established numerous mines, coke

that other factories in the area did the same and

batteries, and smelting plants during the following

that it would open a Pandora’s box of legal argu-

decade. In 1852, the company applied for a license

ments about culpability if only one plant were to

to build new furnaces and coke ovens. Requests for

be isolated. In declining to assign blame to a single

licenses had become a matter of public consider-

factory, the court effectively pronounced polluted

ation because of an 1845 trade law that incidentally

air a fact of life in the Ruhrgebiet, implicitly sug-

contained guidelines concerning potentially

gesting that healthy fruit trees and other produce

damaging or dangerous establishments.102 Clause 16

were not to be expected in these conditions.104

stipulated that factories that might cause “consider-



able disadvantages or dangers” had to be licensed.

in the Ruhrgebiet as elsewhere, were as much per-

The ambiguous term “considerable” was of decisive

sonal as they were regional. Coal miners and others

importance. In practice, while it was frequently

who worked with coal in the factory were prone

101

The environmental issues of industrialization,

Industry

69

to what came to be known as CWP, coal workers’

to the poor”), were a particularly effective team,

pneumoconiosis or “black lung disease,” the result

joining forces to form the British Fog and Smoke

of prolonged exposure to coal dust. As the dust

Committee, later to be known as the British Smoke

builds up cumulatively in the lungs, it leads to their

Abatement Committee. In 1881, the committee

systematic degradation: inflammation, followed by

staged an ambitious exhibition that was truly the

fibrosis, followed by necrosis. Symptoms include

first of its kind: the International Smoke Abate-

chronic bronchitis and breathing problems. Milder

ment Exhibition in London (fig. 32). The exhibition

forms of the disease could even be found in city

included 230 exhibitors spread across two thematic

dwellers who simply inhaled the coal smoke that

sections: industrial smoke and domestic smoke.

powered London, Manchester, Glasgow, Chi-

Hart and Hill had the manufacturers participate in

cago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and, of course, the

the exhibition by demanding that they demonstrate

Ruhrgebiet. Concerned residents led movements

their claims through in situ “scientific” demonstra-

for smoke abatement, which were by and large

tions. By the end of its run, the exhibition had been

successful, to varying degrees, in reducing coal

visited by 116,000 people, and the city of Manches-

particles in urban environments by the mid-nine-

ter requested that the exhibition travel there, which

teenth century.

it did in the spring of 1882.108

105



106

It was perhaps because of the more paternalistic



The notion of corporate welfare personified by

planning behind German iron and steel factories

Krupp has a corollary in these public grassroots

and towns that Britons and Americans, rather than

efforts, in which members of the upper and upper

Germans, became the real leaders in the earliest

middle classes appointed themselves the protectors

efforts to force governments to consider, design,

of the lower classes who toiled in iron and steel

and enforce smoke-abatement policies.107 Move-

factories. Among the reform movements associated

ments in Britain and the United States were led by

with industrialization, none relied more directly on

a loose coalition of hygiene specialists, health-care

positivistic health concerns than smoke abatement,

workers, academics, and ordinary people from

which demonstrated the effects of air pollution on

the middle and upper classes who petitioned their

human physiognomy and mental development.

politicians for greater regulation. Although much

However, the smoke-abatement movement stum-

of the argument made by groups in both coun-

bled in its reluctance to directly target coal, the

tries centered on the idea that industrial pollution

source of most of the noxious air. This misdirection

was corrosive to the image of what industry was

of concern may have stemmed from the fact that

supposed to achieve in the first place—civilization

alternatives to the fuel were unthinkable, whereas a

through progress—there were also increasing mur-

solution to its polluting by-product was somehow

murs about the deleterious effects that industrial

thought possible. When World War I broke out,

pollution had on nature and its intrinsic beauty.

Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical Jour-

nal and chair of the National Health Society, and Octavia Hill, an advocate and associate of the Kyrle Society (whose mission was to bring “beauty home

70

Precious Metal

Figure 32. Plate from the catalog of the International Smoke Abatement Exhibition in London, 1881. Photo: Look and Learn.

Figure 33. Maximilien Ringelmann, Ringelmann smoke charts,

to which smog was choking the great industrial

ca. 1888. Courtesy of the Science History Institute.

centers of the West. These developments in the understanding of air pollution’s impact on human health may have been at odds with the surge of

72

concerns about welfare in steel-producing coun-

pollution in the industrial West, but they never-

tries were quickly eclipsed by the specter of war

theless represented a marked leap from the days

and a rapid rather than a slow existential threat,

of pseudosciences such as the theory of miasma.109

which in turn stymied much of the environmental

No single invention was more important in this

progress under way by about 1914.

advance than the creation of the Ringelmann scale



by a Parisian professor of agricultural engineering

Although full-throated solutions to smog were

stymied by war, there was a distinct linguistic

named Maximilien Ringelmann.110 Ringelmann’s

repertoire in place by the time of the Great War

scale, first developed in 1888, comprised five

that could at least describe and measure the degree

levels of smoke density that were measured by

Precious Metal

Figure 34. Jules Tavernier and Paul Frénseny, The Manufacture of Iron—Carting Away the Scoriae. Wood engraving, Harper’s Weekly, November 1, 1873. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

and the United States by 1900. Ringelmann’s charts, which look like minimalist works of art from the late twentieth century, attest to the effectiveness of visual abstraction in presenting both a critique of a societal problem and a tool for its remedy, setting a

successively thicker grids of black lines on white

precedent for illustrations for decades to come.

paper (fig. 33). Ringelmann printed each grid on a card, and from a certain distance each grid morphed into a distinct shade of gray, each connoting a

Slag

20 percent increment of opacity. The scale remains widely used today. Shade 1, 20 percent opacity,

An illustration from an 1873 issue of Harper’s

is the only shade that is generally considered

Weekly shows two men winding their way around

acceptable, while the other four shades are typically

the gentle curve of a narrow-gauge track, tending

designated as indicative of black smoke, which

to a train of five donkeys hauling a mysterious

could be found all across Germany, France, Britain,

object on a wagon (fig. 34). The darkness of the

Industry

73

wood engraving tells us that it is either dawn or

lining of the furnace itself from excessive wear

dusk. An elevated structure in the distance shows

and tear. Any slag that is treated with an oxide,

us the apparatus used to move two large carts

which in steelmaking commonly included quick-

that were employed in the process of open-pit

lime, calcium, aluminum, manganese, magnesite,

mining. The illustration’s title, The Manufacture of

and silica (all of which in turn required their own

Iron—Carting Away the Scoriae, reveals the identity

mining), is known as synthetic, as opposed to

of the luminous cargo, a massive and perfectly

natural, slag, and it was this synthetic slag that took

rectangular block whose heft animates the entire

on increasingly varied uses in the late nineteenth

image. Scoria, or slag, was another unwanted

and early twentieth centuries.113 When molten steel

by-product of the steelmaking process. Slag, smog’s

slag, known as basic slag, is cooled with water as

earthbound sibling, proved troublesome in very

it is funneled out of a furnace, a process is set in

different ways, until metallurgists and engineers

motion that leads to the slag’s granulation, lending

found dynamic uses for the material, which may

it a cementitious quality that metallurgists recog-

explain why the Harper’s Weekly illustration seems

nized as potentially useful for a variety of building

to appreciate the value of the material for perhaps

purposes. When the water is removed, what

the first time in visual representations of the indus-

remains of the slag are granules slightly larger than

trial process of iron- and steelmaking.

grains of beach sand. When ground, these granules



create a strong yet very fine powder, finer than

111

Slag is the stony waste matter, made up of

metal oxides and silicon dioxide, that is separated

Portland cement. Indeed, by the end of the nine-

from metals during the smelting or refining of ore;

teenth century, engineers and material scientists

in the case of iron and steel, it is the slag of iron

were discovering that when mixed with Portland

ore. Every three pounds of molten steel produced

cement, ground granulated slag strengthens the

generate roughly one pound of slag. This already

cement over a long period of time, helping it resist

staggering ratio was even more troublesome in the

water, chlorides, sulfides, and corrosion more

nineteenth century because slag was not nearly as

generally.

dense as iron or steel, with about five to six times



the volume at the same weight. It was not until the

cement is just one of the many uses outlined in

late eighteenth century that slag, which amounted

the authoritative survey of the applications of slag

to almost twice the volume of any finished iron or

in the building industry by the German chemist

steel produced in the same process, found large-

Arthur Guttmann, commissioned by the German

scale auxiliary and independent uses. One use is

Society of Ironworkers and published in 1919, titled

assisting in the temperature control of smelting and

Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugew-

minimizing the reoxidation of the molten metal

erbe (The Use of Blast Furnace Slag in Building

before it is removed from a furnace.

Construction).114 Guttmann synthesized decades of



The ability to manage and shape slag into its

both systematic and improvised uses of slag in the

own unique entity was greatly enhanced by the

building industry, setting forth its successful appli-

process of adding oxides to alter the slag’s chem-

cations while also furnishing a lucid explanation,

istry, remove further impurities, and protect the

rooted in both chemistry and physics, of how and

112

74

Precious Metal

Mixing iron and steel slag with Portland

why these practices work. Guttmann’s study of slag

up over time as both base and face mortars. To

is remarkable for several reasons. First, it makes a

determine this durability, Guttmann constructed

convincing case that slag had been sorely neglected

similar square bricks of the various types of steel

as a scholarly topic despite its ubiquity and tactical

slag mortar and exposed them to the same condi-

applications, largely owing to the obsession with

tions over an extended period of time, ultimately

the main materials with which it is associated—

demonstrating that each and every brick of slag

iron and steel—in the nineteenth century. Second,

mortar was more durable than the popular mortar

Guttmann promotes a greater awareness of the

of the day made from simple sand and known in

potential uses of “waste” products more generally,

the building industry as “Rheinsand.” It is no coin-

thereby providing an implicit ecological critique

cidence that the subsequent renaissance in mortar

of the iron and steel industries. Finally, the study

technology coincided with a resurgence in brick

achieves the widest possible reach by offering not

construction in the late nineteenth century and,

only specific applications of slag but also a detailed

in particular, with the artistic achievements of the

history of its uses in the city of Braunschweig in

so-called brick expressionism of Hanseatic cities

the sixteenth century, as well as discussion of its

like Hamburg, Bremen, and Amsterdam, where

impressive and wide-ranging chemical mutability.

bold new brick buildings employed slag-based

In all of this, Guttmann defied the increasingly

mortars.

specialized tone that characterized scientific



publications in German at the time, enabling him

mann featured the work of architect Karl Pohl in

to reach the commercial sector. Less glamorous

the town of Hörde, now part of Dortmund.115 Using

topics, like the use of slag mortar and tarmac, are

slag from the local steelworks, Pohl completed the

given equal weight with slag’s use in cement, con-

design for estates of small homes known as Am

crete, and domestic construction.

Sommerberg and Am Winterberg in 1916 (fig. 37).116



The slag was integrated with crushed stone to form

Almost certainly familiar with the photomi-

In the realm of domestic architecture, Gutt-

crography of companies like Krupp, Guttmann

four different sizes of modular units, which made

included a series of circular portraits of various

up the geometric basis for the vast majority of the

chemical compositions of slag that employed

construction.117 Despite the prefabricated modular

photomicrography, thereby offering tradespeople

constructions, Pohl managed to evoke a classic

a comparative understanding of the options slag

Heimatschutzstil architecture not unlike that of the

offered through images of their microscopic for-

nearby Margarethenhöhe by plastering over the

mation, which Guttmann believed were far more

innovative modular elements.

informative than samples viewed by the naked eye



(fig. 35). The rigor of Guttmann’s study is evidenced

highlighted the construction of several bridges

by graphic devices such as charts and tables, as in

that had recently been built, mostly of concrete,

his comparison of the durability of various types

and that employed slag in their concrete mixture

of slag-based mortars (fig. 36). This chart shows

to strengthen the concrete over time. The designs

In the sphere of civil engineering, Guttmann

how different types of steel slag, derived through

became increasingly refined and plastic, culminat-

Spiegeleisen, Bessemer, and other processes, stand

ing in an impressive and complicated intersection

Industry

75

Figure 35. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung

does show several men at work laying a slag tar

der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe (Düsseldorf: Verlag

street somewhere in the Ruhrgebiet (fig. 39). But

Stahleisen G. m. b. H., 1919), depicting a comparison of the microscopic formation of slag variants. Digitization Lab,

this photograph provides only a small hint of the

University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

massive project of covering thousands—ultimately

Figure 36. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung

millions—of miles of roads and highways with

der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe (Düsseldorf: Verlag

asphalt, quite literally paving the way for the mass

Stahleisen G. m. b. H., 1919), chart depicting the character-

production and dissemination of the automobile.118

istics of slag-based mortars. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.



Road conditions, particularly in the industrial

West, had greatly improved with the introduction of macadam road construction in the 1820s, of a railway line and the canal connecting Berlin

a system invented by the Scottish engineer John

with the city of Stettin (fig. 38). Guttmann was duly

Loudon McAdam.119 Macadamization, as it was

impressed by the strength of the canal bed bridge,

known, was a process in which crushed stones of

with its extreme dead load of water and live load

the same size were placed in a shallow bed, bound

of ships, effortlessly passing over a two-way freight

together with stone dust, and then rolled over

railway line. He argued that the intersection of

and sealed with a binding agent to keep the dust

critical infrastructures need not be feared and that

and stones adhered to each other. For decades,

extremely strong materials, in this case concrete

the binding agent proved to be the most finicky

assisted by slag, could do the job.

element in the system, often cracking and rutting



from wear and tear. The system improved with

The most ubiquitous and transformative use of

slag, however, would ultimately be its application in

the introduction of John Henry Cassell’s “lava

tarmac and other types of asphalt, something Gut-

stone” system in the 1830s, in which the standard

tmann did not fully anticipate in 1919. One image

macadam system was sandwiched between two

Industry

77

Figure 37 (opposite). Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe (Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen G. m. b. H., 1919), depicting worker housing layouts for Am Winterberg and Am Sommerberg in Hörde, now Dortmund, by Karl Pohl. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. Figure 38. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe (Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen G. m. b. H., 1919), depicting the Berlin-Stettin canal overpass. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. Figure 39. Plate from Arthur Guttmann, Die Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke im Baugewerbe (Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen G. m. b. H., 1919), depicting the laying of slag tar in the Ruhr Valley. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

Industry

79

(along with resin and Portland cement) and used a steamroller for the binding process (fig. 40). Nottingham’s Radcliffe Road was the first street in the world to incorporate steel slag.121 Bicycle clubs were early advocates of tarmac roads, praising the improvement in both quality and speed of the cycling experience on tarmac.122 The extent to which biking became and continues to be an alternative to automobile travel is indebted, ironically, to a by-product of the manufacture of iron and steel.

Revelations about steel slag’s potential even

extended beyond the building industry. In an 1892 petition from Britain’s Dephosphorisation and Figure 40. Henry Taunt, Workmen with a Steamroller in High

Basic Patents Company, industry leaders noted that

Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, ca. 1891. Photo: Heritage-Im-

“there has resulted . . . the invention of a secondary

ages / English Heritage / Historic England / akg-images.

industry which has now assumed considerable dimensions. It has been found that the phosphorous eliminated from the iron remains in the slag in a form suitable for use as a manure for agricul-

layers of tar, the top one including an admixture of

tural purposes.”123

sand. Although quite effective, tar was not widely



available until the early twentieth century, and thus

systems described by Guttmann are in many ways

most paved roads in the nineteenth century were

the bright spot in the story of iron and steel slag.

made from the simple macadam system.

Despite these innovative and transformative uses of



the material, most iron and steel slag wound up in

120

80

Legend has it that in 1901 the Welsh inventor

Hooley’s tarmac system and the building

Edgar Purnell Hooley was walking in the village

slag heaps, also known as spoil tips. Slag heaps take

of Denby when he noticed a pristinely smooth

many forms and, if camouflaged, can be indiscern-

stretch of road in the vicinity of the local iron-

ible from the natural topographical contours of a

works. Apparently, a mass of tar had fallen onto

place. The construction of slag heaps kept topogra-

the road and a worker had covered it up with slag

phers and cartographers of industrial regions busy,

from the blast furnace in an attempt to hide the

as they had to update their maps on a regular basis

mess. The patch had not only created an almost

to accurately depict the deposits, which were com-

perfectly even surface with no rutting or cracking,

monly shown with graphics that identified them

even better than Cassell’s system; it also eliminated

as artificial land masses, well before the concept of

the nuisance of dust associated with macadam. A

landfill was born.

year later, Hooley patented “tarmacadam,” which



updated Cassell’s system with the addition of slag

deposit slag in a landscape. The easier way was

Precious Metal

There were generally two different ways to

Figure 41. Unknown, slag dump with glowing cinder, 1932.

and their topographic impact on the collective

Photo: Ullstein bild / Granger—all rights reserved.

memory of industrial culture in the region is well known through the genre of the “Monte Schlacko” (Schlacke being the German word for slag), a

simply to dump molten slag from an elevated point

publically accessible spoil tip that could become a

and let it settle as it made its way down a slope

site for recreational activities like sledding.125 Two

(fig. 41). The other, generally more popular, method

prominent examples, both from the latter half of

was to transport settled slag to a specific location

the twentieth century, are popular locations in the

where forms of land could be plastically shaped. In

cities of Oberhausen and Siegen. Irregular forms

France, perfect conical forms that made no secret

were even more common, even if geometrically less

of their artifice were popular, as at the Nord-Pas de

pleasing to the eye, including those at Schlackeberg

Calais mining basin.124

(off Kruppstrasse), the Heinrich-Hildebrand-Höhe



(also known as the “Tiger & Turtle”), and Halde

In the Ruhrgebiet, spoil tips that were roughly

pyramidal in shape were not uncommon either,

Rockelsberg, all in Duisburg. One would be hard

Industry

81

pressed to find slag heaps from before 1930 in the

seems to have been turned inside out. Its entrails

Ruhrgebiet, however. This is not because they were

are strewn about, nearly the entire surface of the

not made but because most of the slag was dug

ground is covered with cinder-heaps and mounds

out of the heaps in the twentieth century for use in

of scoriae. The coal, which has been drawn from

building materials or as agricultural fertilizer.

belowground, is blazing on the surface. The district



Slag heaps were not without their own environ-

is crowded with iron furnaces, puddling furnaces,

mental problems. The fact that they trap solar heat

and coal-pit engine furnaces. By day and by night

made it difficult for vegetation to take root before

the country is glowing with fire, and the smoke of

the inventions of the later twentieth century. This

the ironworks hovers over it.”128 These mountains

in turn encouraged erosion, landslides, and acid

in miniature—the slag heaps—that sprang up

rock drainage that sent noxious chemical com-

with increasing frequency in the world’s steel-

pounds into runoff and water sources. Slag heaps

making regions were indeed troublesome to those

can contain large amounts of hydrocarbons and

concerned about environmental health. But the

coal dust, which make them subject to a process

general public seemed to embrace them as if they

known as spontaneous subterranean combus-

were the modern-day version of ancient Egypt’s

tion, which generates fires out of nowhere that

pyramids. Unlike the factories and headframes of

cannot easily be extinguished and may linger for

steel country, these monoliths interfaced directly

decades.127

with nature, forever changing its topography and



making the unequivocal point that the iron and

126

82

After visiting a British coal district in 1830,

the Scottish engineer James Nasmyth described

steel industry was not only destined to change lives

the landscape in dystopian terms: “The Earth

but also destined to change landscapes.

Precious Metal

Chapter 3

Production

Fuel

access to large and densely wooded forests, as in East Prussia, Scandinavia, Russia, Austria-Hungary,

The rise in the scale of production of iron and steel

and the American West.1 This allowed iron and

to meet the demands of industrialization also meant

steel to be produced in frontier environments that

a rise in the scale of production of any number of

were being settled or modernized, which in turn

auxiliary industries. From the production of blast

allowed them to be settled and modernized more

furnaces to transport equipment for steel and iron,

efficiently and at a more rapid clip. The rapacious

the industry’s boom had effects that went far beyond

exploitation of wood fuel for the production of iron

the production of metals. Fuel for the smelting

and steel in these locations meant that mills were

process remained the single largest production need

often only semipermanent facilities, moving once

of the metals industry, a need that outpaced even

they had depleted the local supply of timber. The

that for iron ore. Coal was the most efficient form

second reason for the sustained use of wood fuel in

of fuel, but it was not always available or, in some

iron and steel production was that the impurities in

instances, desirable. There were two reasons for

coal continued to contaminate molten iron ore and

this. One was the geographical location of a given

could—and often did—jeopardize the overall qual-

iron- or steelworks and its proximity to fuel sources.

ity of the finished product.2 While the process of

In many instances, especially in the nineteenth

baking coal and turning it into “coke” resolved many

century, iron and steel factories relied not on coal

of the issues with impurities, it could not address the

but on wood fuel, particularly in locations with

reality that coal was not always available.

15

Water

Ice

Land Cover (ha x 109)

Other Land 10

Unexploitable Forest

Primary Forest 5

Secondary Forest

Grass

Natural Grasses 0 900

1100

1300

Figure 42. Diagram showing changes to the world’s surface vegetation over time. Illustration: Trey Kirk.

1500

Crops 1700

1900

cubic feet in 1910, a near thirtyfold increase in just sixty years. Although American statistics are the most dramatic, the trend was more or less the same



Rapid deforestation was a serious effect of iron

and the falling costs of transport meant that timber,

by the use of wood in mining architecture and the

like coal, could be imported if it was not readily

spiking demands of other industries like ship-

available, and heavily forested Scandinavia, Russia,

building and the sleeper cars needed for railways.3

and Canada became key trading partners for iron

In the early nineteenth century, a single English

and steel manufacturers in northern Europe and

furnace consumed an average of 240 acres of trees

North America.5

per year. At this rate, it becomes easier to under-



stand how the long nineteenth century would bear

fuel in French iron and steel mills is a particularly

witness to the largest changes in the world’s surface

instructive example, as it exhibits virtually all of the

vegetation since the Ice Age (fig. 42). In the United

factors that contributed to industrial-era deforesta-

States, for example, annual per capita consumption

tion for the iron and steel industries. In the first

of timber shot up from 5.4 cubic feet in 1850 to 157

half of the nineteenth century, wood fuel was used

4

84

across the entire industrial West. Timber deficits

and steel production and was compounded further

Precious Metal

The rise and ultimate fall of timber as wood

mostly by mills with quick and affordable access

the story of King Vikramarka, who was saddened

to it, which led to the smattering of mills in the

by the brevity of life. To console Vikramarka, his

country’s northeastern regions bordering Germany

brother reminds him of the presence of a tree at

and the lowlands. This meant that deforestation

the center of the world, a tree called Udetaba that

was most severe in the country’s center and south,

emerges with the sunrise and reaches its summit at

even though these were not the centers of indus-

high noon before diminishing again and retreating

trial production. As the railway network and coal

into the earth at sunset. Vikramarka’s brother urges

markets expanded, the consumption of wood fuel

him to travel to the tree and to sit on it at dawn,

dropped from twenty cubic feet per capita per

allowing it to lift him up to its summit by noon, at

annum in 1816 to just about two in 1900. Despite

which point he can ask the tree to give him a long

the dramatic decrease in deforestation for iron and

life. Vikramarka does this and is granted a long and

steel production over the course of the century,

vigorous life of two thousand years.8 Schleiden’s

however, enough woodlands had been cleared to

point in recounting the story of Udetaba for

warrant widespread reforestation efforts.6

German audiences is threefold. He is reminding his



readers that they share a fate similar to that of trees

Germany experienced a similar trajectory,

but it was accompanied there by more vocal

and, by extension, all life forms: they grow, peak,

public concern about the environmental effects

and then wither before returning to earth. This

of Entwaldung, or deforestation. Expanding on

flowering and withering is part of an unending

the themes of naturalism and Romanticism that

cycle, as predictable as the diurnal cycle itself. Most

had been developed by Hegel, Kleist, Schlegel,

important, the tree can function as the mediator

Schopenhauer, and Hauptmann, such writers as

between humankind and the natural world, and

the Bavarian naturalist Sigmund Friedrich Freiherr

humans can, with good stewardship, avert their

von Löffelholz von Colberg, the Austro-Hungar-

fears of having only a short, inconsequential exis-

ian conservationist Moritz Kožeśnik, the Swiss

tence on the planet.

politician Xavier Marchand, and the Prussian



botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden urged their

promotes through the example of Udetaba does

compatriots to reconsider the idea that the forests

not necessarily hinge on the figure of the tree.

of central Europe were an unending source of fuel

After all, isn’t the tree just an allegory? Couldn’t

for industrialization.

the tree instead be an animal, another plant, even



something nonliving? Could one not also imagine

7

Schleiden, who is most famous for his devel-

The concept of stewardship that Schleiden

opment of cell theory, penned an homage to

a naturalist imploring us to leave metals like iron

the tree and the forest in 1870 titled Für Baum

ore in the ground for the same purpose of good

und Wald, a treatise that is rooted as much in

stewardship? Schleiden makes clear that the answer

Schleiden’s botanical research on cell behavior as

to these questions is a definitive yes—the tree

it is in esoteric naturalism and makes the case for

and by extension the forest are merely a vessel for

the singular ecological and symbolic importance

promoting humans’ stewardship of nature. Even so,

of the tree. Schleiden highlights the importance

he continues to privilege the idea of a tree in par-

of the tree to Hindu Brahmin cultures, recounting

ticular, largely by virtue of its transhistorical and

Production

85



clear the particular existential urgency surrounding

Walde, die Bedeutung der Waldpflege, und die

the issue of Entwaldung.

Folgen der Waldvernichtung (Aesthetics of the



Forest, the Meaning of Forest Conservation, and

Demonstrating both his theoretical and prac-

tical interest in trees and deforestation, Schleiden

the Consequences of Forest Destruction) is a

then turns to issues of geographical and conserva-

similarly ambitious reflection on the importance of

tional specificity. With regard to the Mediterranean

forests, albeit with greater emphasis on the idea of

region, for example, he makes the point that

a discernible aesthetic of the forest. As part of his

deforestation will lead to an irreversible deserti-

exegesis, Kožeśnik contends that readers need to

fication of southern Europe, allowing the Sahara

abandon what he sees as the facile aphorism that

to quietly cross the sea and slowly transform the

“beauty must also be useful.” He acknowledges

ecology of the continent. Although this assertion

the utility of the forest—both as a source of wood

is completely accurate, and this has in fact been

and as a habitat for animals—but he asks that it

happening in slow motion ever since, there is

be understood as an incidental function, not an

nevertheless a nationalist undertone in Schleiden’s

intrinsic one. For Kožeśnik, the forest has a higher

work that one cannot escape. Schleiden implies

value than the sum of its parts or what it could

that the very real ecological threat is also tacitly

be instrumentalized into. He argues that this is

cultural, one in which an inferior culture (presum-

most readily understood when one confronts the

ably that of Islam and North Africa) marked by a

soul-wrenching sight of a felled forest, because

supposedly inferior ecology will encroach upon

there, where the utilitarian aspect of beauty has

a Europe that fails to act as a good steward of its

been rendered paramount, there is no way for

superior ecology and superior culture. Schleiden,

poetic, symbolic, and spiritual beauty to survive.

despite his cosmopolitan reading of the tree, thus

There is merely a void, a palpably different climate

likens the protection of the forests of Europe to

at odds with the flora and fauna that naturally

the preservation of European culture and races.

inhabit the site.11

Discussing the deforestation of Germany and cen-



tral Europe, he notes how the consequences create

against deforestation and Kožeśnik’s celebration

conditions that are anathema to its ecology and, by

of the “aesthetic” of the forest are examples of a

extension, its culture. In unmodified European for-

spiritual tradition of revering the forest that had

ests, the forest cover is so dense that few sunbeams

been around for several generations. This tradi-

even reach the forest floor to warm it up and dry

tion, deeply indebted to the work of Caspar David

it out. The ground is cool and moist, the atmo-

Friedrich, the German Romantic painter, is plainly

sphere one of shelter and shade, and Schleiden sees

on display in Friedrich’s 1814 painting Der Chas-

these qualities of temperature and light and air as

seur im Walde (fig. 43).12 In the painting, a soldier

intrinsic to central European identity. Exposure,

stands amid a dense ring of massive conifers.

dryness, and long-distance visibility—the results

His position at the center of the canvas is made

of deforestation—are qualities at odds with that

possible by the clearing of two of these trees, whose

identity.

stumps we see. The soldier stares into the abyss of

9

10

86

Moritz Kožeśnik’s 1904 book Die Ästhetik im

transcultural symbolism, and in this way makes

Precious Metal

Schleiden’s quasi-nationalist call to arms

the forest as if in confusion, and the composition leads us to believe that his fate may be sealed: he is lost and has no pathway out. He carries what at first may appear to be the axe that has cut down the two trees, but upon closer inspection we see that it is a rifle, a useless object in this setting. The chopped-off trees have been removed, probably some time ago, as a bird now sits atop one of the stumps waiting for something to happen. Friedrich painted Der Chasseur im Walde at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, just as Germany was successfully pushing French soldiers back after their incursion. The trained viewer would recognize the soldier’s uniform as French, something also indicated by the painting’s title. With this recognition, the image becomes clearer: the soldier, retreating in the German forest, has been separated from his regiment. Lost and bewildered in the thicket of trees, his chances do not look promising, and the bird sitting on the tree stump may in fact be a scavenger preparing for an imminent meal.

The two felled trees are particularly signifi-

cant. For one thing, they stand out because they are clearly the exception. This is not a forest that is regularly cut down. These are old-growth trees, and someone at some point came to take only the timber he needed, perhaps to build a modest home. This reasonable use of resources exposes the hubris

Figure 43. Caspar David Friedrich, Der Chasseur im Walde, 1814. Oil on canvas, 66 × 47 cm. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Shonagon.

of the French soldier, dwarfed by the scale and seeming endlessness of the forest, his useless rifle held loosely in his hand. We understand the forest



to be both friend—the provider of a modest amount

the long nineteenth century that we might describe

The kind of sensibility surrounding forests in

of timber—and foe, a dizzying maze filled with

today as environmental activism was in fact wildly

scavengers awaiting the man’s demise. It is precisely

successful. By the close of the century, timber was

this ability of the forest to be both friend and foe

predominantly harvested for durable goods like

that behooves us to learn how to engineer a symbi-

furniture, not for expendable purposes like fuel,

otic relationship with it, and to understand it as a

and forests were generally healthier than they

space of both personal and national importance.

had been at the beginning of the century, despite

Production

87

an enormous increase in the number of people

fuel for iron and steel mills was a decidedly domes-

living at the edges of the world’s forests. Friedrich,

tic phenomenon. Krupp’s archives are littered with

Schleiden, and Kožeśnik all contributed in their

plans, both realized and unrealized, for brand-new

own ways to a national culture that prized the idea

iron and steel mills in countries for which Krupp

of conserving Germany’s primordial forests, a goal

was consulting as those nations sought to indus-

the National Socialists would also adopt with great

trialize. Brazil’s government, for example, sought

enthusiasm. But one of the costs of this profound

Krupp’s expertise in 1912, in the establishment of

sacralization of wood was the almost diametri-

that country’s first steel mill in the southern state of

cally opposite attitude that it encouraged toward

Minas Gerais. Unsure about exactly how much coal

coal, which had nothing like the artistic or literary

there actually was in Brazil, and about how well the

advocacy that trees did. It is easy to imagine why.

country could scale up its coal-mining infrastruc-

For starters, coal existed underground and thus

ture where it did exist, Krupp recommended that

outside the image of nature framed by the Roman-

the government begin by harvesting wood for fuel

tics, an aesthetic experience that was characterized

from Brazil’s vast forests.14 The forest as such was

more by serendipity than by effort. That it was seen

more a national concern than a universal one.

13

only by those who were paid to retrieve it, and only with the special equipment of the miner, made it a relatively abstract thing. In addition, unlike the

Equipment

beautiful conifers of the Black Forest, coal was ugly and dirty and dead. None of this is to suggest

Debates about fuel sources did, however, make

that those seeking fuel for iron and steel mills

calculable changes in the design of furnaces and

and other industrial operations were blind to the

crucibles, the technological centerpieces of any

environmentally deleterious effects of coal. They

iron- or steelworks. The types of furnace, crucible,

surely understood these effects, as we know from

and other specialized equipment were often the

the issues of soot and acid rain with which the

defining characteristic of smaller operations and a

Ruhrgebiet had to contend. But at some point they

very significant characteristic of larger ones, which

also chose against wood and in favor of coal, not

tended to have several different types of each piece

least because they saw coal as something far less

of equipment. Manufacturers of iron and steel

sacred, and its harvesting as far less detrimental,

products commonly marketed them by highlight-

to the nation as well as the environment. In truth,

ing the type of furnace and crucible from which

neither wood nor coal was ever a good choice.

their molten mixture emerged. The furnace in

Weighing the relative pros and cons of one versus

particular, consuming whatever kind of fuel it was

the other was merely a way to postpone a more

fed like a monster with an insatiable appetite, was

fundamental conversation about renewable fuels

the most carefully designed object on the campus

and sustainability, a conversation that would take

of any iron and steel producer. The global steel

another century to gain traction.

industry had what can only be called an obsession



with the furnace, and the constant updating and

It is important to note, however, that the cam-

paign against deforestation and the use of wood as

88

Precious Metal

adaptations that were made to it meant that there

was also a massive industry for the production

for mass industry, while also removing impurities

of furnaces, probably the single most important

from pig iron through an oxidation process that

auxiliary industry of iron and steel production after

involved the infusion of blown air into the molten

fuel sourcing.

iron mix.17 Bessemer’s design called for a large



With any burgeoning industry there comes a

ovoid steel container with an inner lining of clay

reliable stream of associated literature. In Germany,

or dolomite, an element known as the Bessemer

theoretical and historical writings on the blast

converter. The converter would typically have a

furnace (and its central European progenitor, the

carrying capacity ranging from eight to thirty tons

Stückofen) and other specialty equipment began

of molten iron, with most designs having fifteen.

in earnest in 1867 with Richard Troska’s book

The converter had an opening on top through

Die Hochofen-Dimensionen auf Grundlage des

which the molten mix was first poured and ulti-

Hochofen-Prozesses: Ein Leitfaden bei Zustellung

mately removed. The bottom of the converter had

von Eisen Hochöfen (Blast Furnace Dimensions

a number of perforated channels known as tuyeres,

as Determined by the Blasting Process: A Guide

through which air was forced while the converter

for the Making of Blast Furnaces). The book set

was rotated on trunnions, allowing for mixing and

the tone for a rigorous debate about design in

oxidation to occur simultaneously. Once finished,

Germany. The machinery and equipment for the

the mix was poured out of the converter into molds

Siemens-Martin process, the Huntsman process,

with the help of ladles. Bessemer’s patent drawings

and ultimately the Bessemer process, among several

for the converter, like any good patent drawing,

others, all underwent a kind of unofficial peer

show each of the discrete elements and moving

review in trade publications in which their design

parts, including illustrations of the section of the

was scrutinized, both physically as objects and

converter with the molten mix inside (fig. 44).

transitively through the metals they produced. The



importance of the design of iron- and steelmaking

process fundamentally changed the nature of struc-

equipment in the middle third of the nineteenth

tural iron and steel production, and German firms

century outpaced the importance of iron and steel

like Krupp occasionally registered some envy that

products themselves, attracting the flurry of patent

they had not made the game-changing discovery—

activity that is experienced by only the most rapidly

not least because use of the Bessemer process in

changing elements of industrial culture. Whereas

Germany was dependent on English pig iron for

the last decades of the century were very much

the first decade or so. But the Bessemer process

oriented toward the proliferation of choices for the

gradually came into its own in Germany, and firms

consumer market, these earlier decades focused on

like Krupp tried to “naturalize” the process in their

the machinery and methods that would make that

own production lines and with their own adapta-

cornucopia of products possible.

tions, even as Bessemer’s application for a German



patent from Prussian authorities was rejected.

15

16

Henry Bessemer’s first patent in 1855 for the

More than any process before it, the Bessemer

process bearing his name is a case in point. Bes-

Krupp was the first firm in Germany to adopt the

semer’s primary goal was to design a system that

process, installing two small two-ton converters

could scale steel production up to the level needed

in 1862, followed by two five-ton converters a year

Production

89

Figure 44. Henry Bessemer, portion of original patent drawing

competitive, they really did need to adopt the

for the Bessemer converter, 1855. Photo: World History

system wholesale (along with some smaller recent

Archive / Alamy Stock Photo.

adaptations that had made a patent unnecessary), a goal they accomplished by the end of the decade.

90

later. Ultimately, however, Alfred Krupp opted out

Much of the confidence that Germany exhibited in

of his exclusive agreement with Bessemer, deciding

moving forward with Bessemer-style production

that the political hurdles to implementing a foreign

came from the fact that it was now sourcing pig

system, as well as the investments and retrofit-

iron from less threatening trade partners like Spain

ting that would be necessary for the facilities in

and Algeria, all the while eyeing the resources of

Essen, were not yet worth the headache. For the

prospective colonial acquisitions. The yield of new

time being, Germany would continue to use the

products with the Bessemer and Bessemer-adop-

crucible process and work on perfecting it.18 With

tive systems was in fact so great that both Britain

German unification completed in 1871 and English

and Germany were experiencing an overproduc-

Bessemer steel saturating the global market,

tion crisis by 1880, which marked the moment

however, manufacturing leaders like Krupp and

when the industry again turned its energy to the

Thyssen came to realize that, to remain globally

design of products and away from equipment.

Precious Metal



J. S. Jeans, secretary of the British Iron and Steel

supposed shortcomings, seizing the opportunity

Institute, had this to say about the overwhelming

to recharacterize the totality of Bessemer’s contri-

overproduction crisis:

butions and demonstrate how German inventors played a hitherto unsung role in the long-term

Concerning the large yields obtained in modern steel

success of his system. Beck notes, for example, how

works: It is in this respect, more, perhaps, than in any

Bessemer made a “mistake” in his earliest attempts

other, that the Bessemer system has advanced within

to produce iron with a converter by using insuf-

recent years. In its main mechanical features that process

ficient amounts of molten mixtures. He explains

is much the same now as it was when originally estab-

that a converter experiment by a German engi-

lished on a working scale by its distinguished inventor.

neer at the Heinrichshütte in the German state of

But by abolishing the pit, by using improved bottoms,

Thuringia overcame this mistake by testing larger

and by sundry other improvements of detail that are

amounts for their forgeability. He also points

referred to in the text, the output of steel from a given

out that the Austrian metallurgist Peter Tunner

plant has gradually been raised to a figure that would

claimed that some of Bessemer’s key inventions

have been deemed almost incredible a few years ago.

may have originated in unpatented methods that

19

had already been under way for some time in the

The Bessemer converter in Germany had come

Swedish iron and steel industries.20

full circle: from object of envy, to adoption, to rejection and back, a cycle the cultural historian Ludwig Beck chronicled with great verve in his

Mill

five-volume history of iron, Die Geschichte des Eisens in technischer und kulturgeschichtlicher

While the furnace, crucible, and converter

Beziehung (The Technical and Cultural History

garnered much of the fame and attention in

of Iron). Beck dedicates more than forty pages to

nineteenth-century iron and steel culture, the true

the “entrepreneurial” and “enthusiastic” Henry

workhorses of the production process were the

Bessemer, more space than he devotes to any other

array of finishing presses, molds, and pieces of

inventor over thousands of pages, recounting in

rolling equipment. Whereas the middle decades of

great detail the innovations of each of Bessemer’s

the century witnessed an obsession with the power

patents related to the converter and its processes.

of the preparatory equipment, the turn to con-

Although the work is ostensibly a cultural his-

sumer options during the latter decades rendered

tory, Beck’s section on Bessemer reads more like

that period the golden age of finishing equipment

a primer for an engineering student on the man’s

for making a vast array of forms in iron and steel.

singular accomplishments, instructing the reader

Whether cast into molds, rolled, or extruded,

about how he remained at the nexus of debates

the molten mixtures generated by blast furnaces

over how iron and steel, structural and otherwise,

and converters required a means of transforming

might still be brought to an ever greater mass

amorphous and dangerously hot liquids into cold,

market. However, Beck punctuates his otherwise

solid, and useful forms. Nothing highlights the

rapturous account of Bessemer with notes on his

dynamism and plasticity of iron and steel more

Production

91

1918, a text that would come to be widely circulated and studied by a broad variety of metallurgists (including those working with other metals, like copper, bronze, silver, and gold) and fabricators. Although the Brearley brothers explored many of the conditions and problems surrounding ingots through experiments in their own laboratory in London, some of the study subjects in the publication came from commercial manufacturers. Krupp was one of these, supplying the study with evidence of the troublesome yet surprisingly beautiful formation of steel “crystals” in ingots (fig. 45).22

Manufacturers making architectural cast steel

commonly employed ingots of wrought iron, which they would heat for several days just below the point of fusion in contact with charcoal (which provided carbon) in a closed vessel where the carbon could be absorbed. The ingots became steel Figure 45. Plate from Arthur W. Brearley and Harry Brearley, Ingots and Ingot Moulds (London: Longmans, Green, 1918),

in the process and emerged from the vessel with a

depicting crystal formation in a Krupp ingot. Digitization

blistered surface. The blistered bars would then be

Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

broken up and sorted for their “temper,” or degree of carbonization. They might then be melted in crucibles and poured into a mold, cast back into

vividly than its transformation from liquid to

ingots for later use, or hammered and rolled into

solid. Whether it was being extruded as a form

linear forms. All of these forms are cast steel.

with a continuous section, the way a piece of paper

George Hand Smith, an American metallurgist

moves through a paper shredder, or shaped, like

who wrote one of the first theoretical treatises on

a sculptural bust, by a plaster cast that endlessly

cast steel, Cast Steel: Process of Manufacture Direct

reproduced its form, there were numerous ways

from the Ore, in 1864, characterized the resulting

to achieve a desired form, including the profiles

material as follows:

and shapes that had utility for the engineering and construction sectors.

The higher the degree of carbonization conferred, other



The most elemental forms of the finishing

things being equal, the harder and more brittle the steel.

process were ingots, blocks of finished metal that

The lower the carbonization, the softer, and (generally)

could be reheated and cast, and the molds that

more tough it becomes. But the quality of goodness

gave ingots their shape. The British metallurgists

of the steel, whether of high or low temper, depends

Arthur and Harry Brearley wrote the authoritative

exclusively—the work being equally well done—upon

text on the subject, Ingots and Ingot Moulds, in

the quality, and uniform quality of the iron from which it

21

92

Precious Metal

is made. The great difficulty in making cast steel in this



country has arisen from a want of this uniformity—ren-

to an assembly line in iron and steel manufacturing

The rolling mill, as the closest thing there was

dering the steel unreliable. Iron suitable for making the

in both logic and form, epitomized, in conjunction

finest cast steel should not only be as chemically pure as

with the Bessemer process, the truest fruition yet

possible, but uniformly so.23

of the mass production of metals. In 1835, at the age of twenty-three, Alfred Krupp—who had been



Smith’s concern about the uniformity of the

forced to leave school at the age of fourteen to take

material quality of iron in the production of cast

over the nascent steelworks created by his father

iron and steel was universally shared. Discrepancies

in Essen—made a sketch that appears to envision

in quality were particularly risky in the production

a systematic method of fabricating structural units

of structural elements, where human lives could be

(fig. 47).26 Two men with large hammers flank a

on the line with every fracture or impurity in a way

piece of metal with a continuous sectional profile.

that they were not with cutlery or cookery or even

A pulley suspends the piece along a horizontal

artillery. Casting, for all its value as a plastic method

surface in which another continuous form is

of iron and steel fabrication, came with too many

embedded. The men are applying their hammers

risks for large structural units.

to pieces that push against this one, suggesting that



it is being forged into a consistent shape, perhaps

Many manufacturers on both sides of the

Atlantic turned instead to the rolling process.

having its flanges chiseled down to take on the

Simply put, rolling was a process in which a metal

shape of the flange above. It is unclear whether

stock was moved through one or more pairs of

Krupp’s intention was to depict a railway gauge or

rolls to reduce the thickness of the unit and make

an I-beam, but the idea of a rolling assembly line

it uniformly thick for its entire length, as with

is certainly present in this sketch. Six years later,

extrusion. There are two distinct methods of

Hermann Krupp, Alfred’s brother, would invent the

rolling: hot and cold. If the temperature of the

Walzenmühle (rolling machine) for the serial man-

metal is above its recrystallization temperature as

ufacture of cutlery, which Alfred then patented,

it moves through the rolls, it is hot rolling, and if

and this set the course for the firm’s exponential

not, it is cold rolling. Steel (and some iron) mills of

expansion and rise. Alfred would commit a huge

the nineteenth century perfected the assembly-line

portion of the company’s resources specifically to

strategy of rolling mills in which multiple pairs of

the perfection of the rolling process.

rolls are grouped together in order to forge metal



products quickly and evenly. This process, ini-

dramatic and symbolic effects of the assembly line,

tially developed by Leonardo da Vinci and refined

and it was a subject of interest for a considerable

through advances in Britain, France, Germany,

number of artists interested in industry. The paint-

and the United States throughout the nineteenth

ing The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes) by the

century, was eminently suited to the production of

German realist painter Adolph Menzel, executed

a majority of structural steel elements, including

sometime between 1872 and 1875, is an example

I-beams, angle stock, channel stock, and railway

(fig. 48).27 The painting depicts a sooty factory

gauges (fig. 46).

setting teeming with men, most wearing aprons

24

25

The rolling process also lent itself to the same

Production

93

and wielding some form of special metallurgical equipment. The two-point perspective of the painting stresses its two main subjects. Along the axis receding to the right side of the painting is the rolling mill itself, indicated by the white-hot beam emerging from the rolling mill closest to the viewer in what appears to be the factory’s main source of illumination. Along the axis receding to the left, we see the mill repeated over and over again, practically ad infinitum. Menzel’s composition reinforces the idea that it is not merely the iron beam that is being repeated endlessly but also the human labor

Figure 46 (opposite). Leonardo da Vinci, sketch of a rolling mill,

involved in making it. The environment, while cha-

ink on paper, ca. 1500–1510. Photo: Dennis Hallinan / Alamy

otic and dirty, is not without its virtues for Menzel.

Stock Photo.

As in Courbet’s work before him, there is valor in

Figure 47. Alfred Krupp, sketch depicting two workers with

physical labor, particularly when one considers the

hammers, ca. 1835. Photo: interfoto / Alamy Stock Photo.

date of the painting, which places it at the moment when German industrial power was being consolithe mill’s rollers, machine parts that had to sustain

dated in the wake of unification.

The setting is in fact the Heckmann Brassworks

the processing of white-hot steel with almost no

in Berlin, which Menzel had visited in 1869. It

rest. Earlier rolling mills often failed because the

is believed that Menzel’s friend Paul Meyerheim

rollers cracked or broke or generally wore down,

encouraged him to visit the mill, as Meyerheim

which naturally had a negative domino effect on

was himself working on an artistic series depicting

the form being produced. Beck enumerates the

the history of railways for the industrialist Albert

many manufacturers and inventors who tackled

Borsig.29 Unlike many of his peers, Menzel was not

the problem of rollers over the ensuing decades,

interested in the alienation that humans experi-

suggesting rather boldly at the end of his summary

enced in the face of such machinery. Rather, he was

that the technical issues facing rolling mills in the

interested in the process and in capturing how it

nineteenth century had more or less been resolved

demanded a new type of labor and produced a new

by the turn of the twentieth and that rolling mills

way of life.

were now capable of accuracy, even perfection.





28

Again, Ludwig Beck offers the authoritative

A large part of this progress, as it were, had to

summary of the historical and technical devel-

do with the increasingly complex arrangement of

opment of the rolling mill (Walzwerk), both

the rollers themselves, as exemplified by Conrad

internationally and in terms of specific national

Erdmann’s 1880 invention of the Dreiwalzen-

patterns. From the 1870s onward, the effectiveness

ständer, or three-roll bearer. By moving beyond the

of the rolling mill for precisely fabricating a partic-

standard pairs to groups of three or more rollers,

ular form was largely contingent on the quality of

manufacturers were able to reduce the stress and

30

Production

95

Figure 48. Adolph Menzel, The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes), ca. 1872–75. Oil on canvas, 254 × 158 cm. Photo: painting / Alamy Stock Photo.

wear placed on any single roller. The additional

variety of shapes and sizes of structural units. None

rollers also made for a more faceted profile, leading

held wider interest than the beam, the long, sturdy

to shapes that appeared less crude and exhib-

building unit used to carry horizontal and vertical

ited greater design precision. Beck also notes the

loads. As with the timber beam before it, the iron

importance of the various apparatuses that further

and steel beam held such great promise because of

supported the rolling process and its accuracy. One

its many uses and the ways in which it could facil-

such advance was the “rolling table” invented by

itate ease in design and construction through the

Robert W. Hunt of Troy, New York. Hunt’s rolling

repetition of parts. Although the invention of struc-

table allowed metal stock moving through rolls to

tural iron and steel did much to change the nature

rest at a consistent height throughout the course

and course of architecture, it did little to challenge

of its processing, without the more labor-intensive

the primacy of the beam as a building unit—in fact,

use of pulleys or handheld supports. Erdmann’s

it probably only helped consecrate the beam as the

rollers and Hunt’s table were but two of many

architectural building block of our day.

inventions that made it plainly evident that, in the



new age of iron and steel production, the number

tion from the timber to the iron and steel beam

of people involved in the production process was

involved a one-to-one transposition. Long estab-

often inversely proportional to the quality of the

lished theorems and calculations for how a beam’s

finished product, in turn making it clear that the

strength could and should be measured needed

process of automation had begun in earnest. Beck’s

to be changed, as did the beam’s sectional pro-

book, though ostensibly a dispassionate history of

file.32 One of the first tenets to be revisited was the

these advances, was widely read by the managerial

Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, a simplified version

class of German iron and steel manufacturers,

of the linear theory of elasticity that was used to

including Krupp and Thyssen. It was the most

calculate a beam’s carrying capacity and deflec-

effective summary of the patents and advances of a

tion characteristics. The beam’s role as a carrier

given technology related to the industry at a given

of forces is even clearer in the German word for

time and place, and the vast amount of research

beam, Träger, which literally translates as “carrier.”

and synoptic effort that went into it allowed these

Building on Galileo’s and Leonardo’s attempts to

readers to assess and modify their own equipment

develop a theory of beams, the Swiss mathemati-

and processes so as to further maximize their pro-

cian-physicists Leonard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli

duction efficiency and output.

developed and published a theory of beams in 1750

31

This did not mean, however, that the transi-

that, while strikingly accurate, was still the subject of considerable skepticism because there had been

Beam

no large-scale, practical testing.33

Over the course of the ensuing century, most

The metallurgical progress that allowed iron and

structures, including the earliest structures using

steel to become broadly structural by the middle of

iron and steel beams, relied on precedent rather

the nineteenth century, combined with the fact that

than theoretical models. Two key structures

these materials were plastic, allowed for a broad

changed this for metal architecture. The first was

Production

97

the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel’s wrought-iron

minimum. This led to the early abandonment of

lattice tower constructed for the 1889 World’s Fair.34

the rectangular section and the rapid adaptation

The second was the Ferris wheel, designed by

of the “flange” form, a narrow central column that

George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. and first unveiled

widens symmetrically at the top and bottom to

at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.

meet certain load expectations. Charles Peterson

Eiffel and Ferris probably both felt emboldened to

has shown how, in England and perhaps other

employ purely theoretical models for the designs of

countries that adopted railways early, the flanged

their beams because neither structure was intended

railway gauge was tactically adapted by engineers

for occupation for a long period of time and neither

aiming to make structural advances beyond the

structure bore loads much greater than its own

realm of the railway.37

weight. Both men were able to lend the Euler-Ber-



noulli theory widespread credibility by virtue of the

recognized a cotton mill built in Salford, Manches-

sheer prominence of their respective designs.

ter, in 1801 as the first to use the I-sectioned beam



in a building’s lateral load distribution. The beam

35

98

Eiffel and Ferris both adapted the Euler-Ber-

The Scottish railway engineer William Fairbairn

noulli theorem to structural metals, and although

in this structure had extruded the flanges to more

the equation remained the same for any material,

or less match the profile of what we would today

the inherent differences between timber and metal

identify as the biaxially symmetrical I-beam.38 He

necessitated several adaptations. Timber beams, as

hailed this as an example of the “intuitive recog-

unaltered organic material forms that decrease in

nition of the most efficient shape in advance of

strength over time, benefited from having rela-

the calculations that would prove it to be such.”39

tively massive rectangular sections. These massive

There is no evidence that the engineer at Salford

sections allowed the overall beams to both deflect

applied the Euler-Bernoulli theorem to the beam

minimally under forces and, optimally, absorb

per se, but the “intuition” of his design matches

vibrations and other shocks, compared to odd-

what would have been dictated by the theory.

shaped beams with more than four faces. Engineers

This established a remarkable paradigm shift for

who worked with structural metals decades before

construction and showed, by way of example rather

Ferris and Eiffel, and had at least some interest in

than theory, the practical and dynamic utility of

the Euler-Bernoulli theory, understood that the

the wide-flanged I-beam. Although countless other

same could not be said of structural metals. The

beams would emerge in the decades to come, each

iron railway gauge, itself a structural element since

with its own specific and critical optimal function,

the birth of the modern railways, was the first great

no other type of beam would prove as widely useful

subject in the study of the inherent differences

as the I-beam. This shift is also well known in the 36

between the timber beam and the metal beam.

history of infrastructure, where it proved partic-

Early railway engineers recognized that because

ularly critical in the construction of bridges and

iron was exponentially stronger than wood in its

other forms of infrastructure that were essential to

carrying capacity, exponentially heavier in its mass,

the development of industry and denser cities.

and exponentially more expensive to produce, it



was important to keep the sectional profile to a

in 1801 as a sea change, one fueled by the innate

Precious Metal

Fairbairn presented the work of his colleagues

intuitive genius of the Industrial Revolution’s first

this by creating specialized sales materials for the

protagonists in the United Kingdom. This laid the

engineering and design sectors that limited the

foundation for a historiographical narrative of

information they contained exclusively to the issue

technological progress as something that emanated

of beams. The materials came with diagrams that,

axiomatically from Great Britain. Sigfried Giedion

along with verifying calculations associated with

adopted Fairbairn’s assertion for architectural

the Euler-Bernoulli theory, outlined the load and

history, showing how the I-beam would become

carrying capacities of each type of beam as it was

the building block for the most heroic aspects of

rendered in different shapes and with different

modern architecture and infrastructure: jaw-drop-

dimensions. The firm offered a handy explanation

ping cantilevers, a dramatic reduction in the

of how to determine which beam was necessary

density of columnar configurations and the libera-

for a given purpose: by finding the average point

tion of the floor plan, the ingenuity of an armature

of the carrier’s horizontal lines (which represented

for “skin” cladding, such as the glass curtain wall,

the uniform load), and the vertical line (which

and more.40

represented the cantilevered length of the beam),



and then tracing the nearest diagonal line from this

The naturalization of the I-beam (and its many

structural conjugations) in the German market mir-

average point, one could determine the profile of a

rored that of the Bessemer process. Having arrived

given beam.

from Germany’s main industrial rival in the middle



of the nineteenth century, the I-beam’s significance

nical and cultural history of iron, enumerated the

as a construction unit, like the Bessemer converter

contributions of countless British engineers to the

as a process, was not immediately adopted with

creation of a universal beam system, but he was

unbridled enthusiasm. But its importance became

also keen to include the contributions of several

clear quickly enough, and Krupp, yet again, was one

German inventors who, like those who tinkered

of the first German firms to take up the innovation

with the Bessemer process, made further valuable

on the nation’s behalf. Krupp began producing

contributions to the modernization of systems

I-beams en masse in the 1870s, about a decade after

building with beams. These included Hugo Sack of

the same process began in England. Architects, as

Duisburg, whom Beck praised as the first man to

the trepidation over the theoretical models used by

design a “universal” system of prefabricated metal

Eiffel and Ferris indicated, were not early adopters.

beams.42

Instead, it was primarily civil engineers who made



early purchases of Krupp I-, H-, U-, and other pre-

of iron and steel design grew by the end of the

fabricated iron and steel beams.

nineteenth century, manufacturers like the Gute-



hoffnungshütte were careful to test their units

The Gutehoffnungshütte of Oberhausen,

Ludwig Beck, in the final volume of his tech-

Even as confidence in theoretical models

another early manufacturer of structural steel

under the conditions they expected a unit would

beams in Germany, had an operation that for

encounter in the real world, such as when they

several decades was arguably more successful than

supplied the beams for Johann Eduard Jacobsthal’s

Krupp’s at marketing structural metals to archi-

new railway bridge at Dirschau in what is now

tects and engineers.41 The manufacturer achieved

northern Poland, alternately known as the Neue

Production

99

Figure 49. View of test pieces for the Neue Weichselbrücke, Dirschau, produced by the Gutehoffnungshütte of Oberhausen, ca. 1888. Deutsches Museum, Munich.

Weichselbrücke or the Linsenträgerbrücke.43 One

their permutations out of the realm of theoretical

image from the test shows several segments of

physics and into the mass market. Many people,

iron I-beams, using the Gilchrist-Thomas process,

not least the manufacturers and their engineers,

lined up together to highlight the various defor-

harbored doubts that needed to be assuaged before

mations each endured while being tested (fig. 49).

this could happen. Such tests, though largely

Although it is unclear exactly what kind of tests

hidden from consumers, were a key part of that

the beam sections underwent, most have a major

process.

deflection indentation in their center, as if the ends



had been pinned and a load, applied at or near

eth century, I-beams were everywhere, including in

the section’s midpoint, had been increased until

architecture. As Euler and Bernoulli had presaged,

those administering the experiment registered a

the beam would indeed become the metal building

deformation, which in turn allowed them to verify

block of the twentieth century. Its specific form as

calculations for maximum loads. In much the same

an I-beam would emerge as a symbol of that frui-

way that Krupp preferred to keep such images

tion, and its wide-flanged profile would become the

unpublished, so too did the Gutehoffnungshütte.

universal signifier for a new world of possibilities

Nevertheless, the existence of these images attests

in architecture and construction.

to the decades-long struggle to bring I-beams and

100

Precious Metal

But happen it would: by the turn of the twenti-

Chapter 4

Dissemination

Product

it to market necessitated fundamentally reshaping how designers and engineers, not to mention the

The Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 inspired

general public, thought about steel and showing

a great deal of curiosity about steel. It was the

them how it could be useful, safe, and affordable.

brawniest, strongest material the world had ever



seen, and massive steel objects were among the

manufacturers needed to find ways to distribute

exhibition’s most popular attractions. Neverthe-

information about steel to people in the design

less, for the next two decades, steel remained

professions, rather than just the metallurgists who

synonymous with something that most ordinary

read their specialized research papers. Second,

people would not interact with in their daily lives:

they needed to devise an array of products that

armaments. In addition to being brawny, steel

could speak to the needs of the construction

had a rarified, precious reputation that gave many

industry in dynamic ways: semistandard and

people the impression that it was too specialized

standard steel products that could gain credi-

and too expensive for anything they might want

bility through their consistent capacities, sizes,

to build with it, even in the metropoles of the

and behaviors. Finally, they needed to promote

industrial West. By the 1880s, with the advances

these products by any means necessary to open

of the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin processes,

the market to them. Nowhere else in the pro-

steel was no longer out of the reach of engineers,

cess described in this book were architects more

architects, and others who might see its value as a

important to the success of steel than they were

primary construction material. However, bringing

during this phase, as they evaluated the products

This meant many different things. First,

offered by the manufacturers and determined what

the factory onto the desks and into the homes of

was useful and what was not.

its customers. Exterior views extend endlessly to



the horizon in a dramatic two-point perspective,

American firms were undoubtedly the most

aggressive marketeers of their products for a host

as if to suggest the boundlessness of its capacity

of reasons, including a strong advertising infra-

and potential, not unlike Menzel’s depiction of the

structure, a broader range of specializations among

rolling mill.

a large number of firms, strong competition, and



a domestic market that was geographically larger

“Modern Store Fronts,” fully prefabricated façades,

than European markets and that tended to import

made largely of steel and iron, for a range of

very little steel. The materials generated by the

business types: fashion and shoe retail, large

International Steel & Iron Company in Evansville,

object retail, movie theaters, post offices, grocers,

Indiana, provide an excellent case study of how

and dry goods stores. The steel façades of “the

new steel products were brought to market and

Modern Store Front,” proclaimed International

described to their potential customers. Opening

Steel, “not only serve their purpose in creating a

the firm’s sales catalogs in the 1910s and ’20s were

favorable impression, but also act as a perpetual

affirmations of the company’s commitment to its

advertisement at the lowest known cost there-

three tenets: “quality, service, and courtesy.” So far,

for [sic]—simply the initial price of the material

we have focused on the material and its develop-

and installation.” The firm also offered designs

ment—that is, its quality. But these catalogs and

for ready-to-assemble modern public garages

many other firms’ sales brochures make it clear

made from steel decks and trusses. The compa-

that there was an essentially human component in

ny’s reminder that “garages are required to house

bringing steel products to market. The products

inflammable and explosive materials and for this

offered in these catalogs, new and unfamiliar to

reason fireproof materials should be used as much

many buyers, were only as good as the people who

as possible” was another invitation to the construc-

sold them—people who needed to assure buyers

tion industry to think of the burgeoning typology

that what they were buying was safe, durable, and

of the automobile garage as one destined for steel

came with some sort of guarantee of satisfaction.

construction. As with these garages, designs for

International Steel & Iron sought to convey such

industrial buildings of all stripes could be fur-

reassurance through images in its sales brochures:

nished without cost or obligation, offering a certain

views of its interiors (its steel plant, main office,

level of proof before a client would commit.1 The

and woodworking plant) and views of its exteri-

most important aspect of the firm’s sales catalog,

ors (main office and sheet metal plant, structural

however, was its overriding emphasis on discrete

steel plant, and woodworking plant), bringing

steel units that came ready-made and with unlim-

One of the company’s specialties was its

ited potential for recombination. Skylights, siding, shutters, doors, ventilators, cornices, trusses, Figure 50. International Steel & Iron Company, International Service (sales catalog) (Evansville, IN: International Steel

girders, lintels, awnings, grilles, tie rods, anchors,

& Iron, n.d. [ca. 1919]), 18. Digitization Lab, University of

railings, stirrups, brackets, columns, chutes, and

Rochester River Campus Libraries.

wickets all came in an astounding variety (fig. 50).

Dissemination

103



Trade specialists were also likely to read trade

working in direct consultation with design offices,

publications like the American Exporter, which reg-

advanced structural engineers were increasingly

ularly reported on advances in steel construction

expected to publish their calculations and prog-

alongside advertisements from leading manufac-

nostications regarding the ever-increasing array of

turers such as the Trussed Concrete Steel Company

off-the-shelf materials populating the market.

of Detroit, manufacturer of Albert Kahn’s “Kahn



System.” One advertisement states that “the Kahn

Barth’s 1904 Die Maschinenelemente: Kurzgefasstes

Trussed Bar, with its rigidly attached diagonals,

Lehrbuch, mit Beispielen für das Selbststudium und

reduces the field work and is the ideal reinforce-

den praktischen Gebrauch (A Short Textbook on

ment for beams, long span construction, or

Machine Elements, with Examples for Self-Study

One important handbook was Friedrich

wherever shearing stresses are to be resisted.”

and Practical Use), which examined the multiple

German manufacturers, like the Hoerder Bergw-

ways in which steel and iron products that were

erks- und Hütten-Verein, took a less commercial

new to the market behaved and could be deployed.

approach than their American counterparts.

Barth referred to the mass-produced parts as

Beginning in the 1880s, Hoerder Bergwerks chose

“machine elements,” indicating that these elements

to simply publish drawings of its beams, gauges,

were largely seen as most useful for inventors

and other parts, annotating these drawings with

of new machinery. Significantly, this concept of

the dimensions and weights of each element.3

machinery included architectural constructions.

The catalog grouped the elements into families of

Barth summarized the importance of these hand-

similar forms and assigned each of these a number,

books in the introduction:

2

increasing from the lightest to the heaviest object.

104

Sales catalogs were not the only method

Machine elements are the individual elements that make

of publicizing the potential of steel. Designers

up a machine. In order to be able to completely design a

needed to cross-reference these catalogs and ads

machine, knowledge of the machine elements is there-

with physics and engineering handbooks that

fore necessary. Whereas in the past the calculation and

could verify whether specific parts could in fact

construction of machines was partly based on empirical

meet buyers’ needs. This was particularly true for

formulas and partly done with the help of pure mathe-

structural units such as I-beams and trusses that

matics, it has recently been steered in completely new

were expected to carry both dead and live loads.

directions. Sometimes it is easiest for the practitioner

The practice of cross-referencing sales catalogs

to determine a dimension from an empirical formula,

with handbooks was one of the first signs that

but for the novice who wants to penetrate a new area of

architecture was indeed becoming an industrial,

machining, working with empirical formulas does not

assembly-line process in which the role of the

help in the deepening of his knowledge, but leads to the

designer was becoming increasingly managerial

flattening of his independent thinking. Even pure math-

and less embedded in the work done on the draw-

ematics does not help here, since technical questions

ing board. As the profession of design adjusted

should not be confused with mathematical calculations.

to this new mail-order reality, so did the field of

The correct solution must be based on the results of

engineering, although to a lesser degree. Instead of

observation and on practical experiment, either because

Precious Metal

the individual developments are based on the experi-

studies are sectional details in which the steel or

ment, or because the experiment serves to subsequently

iron parts appear as dark, rigid objects, in sharp

confirm what has been found theoretically.

contrast to the baroque detailing of the secondary

4

covering materials that hide it from view. This is Barth’s call to designers and engineers to approach

particularly true of the volume covering architec-

this new world of “machine elements” both math-

ture, or the “above earth” (Hochbau) constructions

ematically and experimentally was illustrated by a

that enclose space, as architecture was called in the

handbook replete with mathematical formulas for

context of the larger spectrum of construction.

elements like I-beams that assisted with important



calculations.5 Yet Barth’s handbook was also a the-

that describes cantilevered stone cornices is just

oretical text, with rich discussions of how elements

one of several examples that demonstrate how to

might interrelate and how to conduct experiments

hack traditional forms of masonry construction

to test the unknown “machines” of the future.

with off-the-shelf steel and iron parts, particularly



Another influential handbook was the Hand-

A section of the Handbuch der Architektur

C- and I-beams. One illustration shows how two

buch der Architektur unter Mitwirkung von

beams come together to support the historicist

Fachgenossen (Handbook of Architecture under

façade of a new building (fig. 51): “Two C-beams

Consultation with Experts), which appeared a

with their flanges back to back form the . . . beam,

few years before Barth’s text. In sharp contrast to

penetrating far enough so that the pressure of their

Barth’s text, the editors of the Handbuch took a less

bearing on the surface stone does not exceed 20

theoretical approach to deploying architectural

to 40 kg per cm sq. Their architectural connection

steel, depicting it not as a tool for machining but as

to the columns is through a Haustein bracket in

one that could enhance architecture with a capital

the reveal, which is worked onto the supporting

“A.” To do this, the editors positioned their book

cuboid but must not be loaded onto the beam. Two

as a kind of encyclopedia of recent “successful”

I-beams, placed higher than the rolling shutter

case studies in which a given material or product

drum, support the binding cornice pieces and the

was deployed to the satisfaction of its designer.

ceiling beams inside.”6 In other words, every effort

Although the case studies themselves occasionally

was made to apply these materials in such a way

exhibit the spirit of experimentation supported by

that they could accommodate traditional archi-

Barth, they do not emphasize these developments

tectural forms, altering them minimally while also

as laudable exercises in material experimenta-

enhancing their strength and spatial capacity.

tion. Moreover, the architecture cited in case



studies throughout the volumes is almost entirely

the marketability of these new products was

revivalist, showing, for example, how an I-beam,

the certification that they received—or failed to

when strategically integrated into a façade, could

receive—from a new type of institution: the mate-

accommodate Palladian styling while also increas-

rial examination authority. Most major industrial

ing the openness of the interior floor plan: modern

countries had at least one such entity in place

layouts combined with familiar historical signifiers.

by the end of World War I to monitor industry

Virtually all of the illustrations supporting the case

standards. In the United States, this body was

Another crucial element contributing to

Dissemination

105

the American Society for Testing and Materials

carbon content, and weight) through formulas and

(ASTM) in Philadelphia, an organization founded

tests and then laid out the results, accompanied

in 1898 by the chemist and early proponent of

by an elevation and a section, one after the other.10

industrial standardization Charles Dudley, among

Those that passed muster received the organiza-

others. Dudley and several colleagues were con-

tion’s stamp, which the manufacturer could then

cerned about the frequency of breakages in new

boast about in its marketing materials.

railway gauges, a major disruption to the rapidly



growing railroad industry. To mitigate these dis-

was the most successful in disseminating its

ruptions and to assure quality control, Dudley and

products around the world early and thoroughly;

his colleagues used the agency to issue a high-level

the earliest orders abroad tended to be the kind of

set of specifications for the production of steel in

armaments that the company would highlight in

the railway industry. The ASTM would go on to

early world’s fairs, such as the Crystal Palace. The

assess a broad variety of materials and products

firm developed a pattern of wooing foreign gov-

that it put through rigorous tests, including struc-

ernments into massive and profitable arms deals.

tural steel and reinforced concrete; the results were

A high government official from another country

widely read by the industries they dealt with.

would travel to Berlin for a state meeting with his



German counterpart or even with the chancellor.

7

8

The German equivalent of the ASTM was the

Among European steel manufacturers, Krupp

Königlichen Materialprüfungsamt (Royal Material

This was then followed by a trip not to Hamburg

Testing Agency, or KMA), which was founded in

to witness trade, Munich to experience culture,

Berlin in 1904 under the leadership of the German

or Frankfurt to visit the great German banks, but

metallurgist Adolf Martens. Like the ASTM, the

directly to Villa Hügel in Essen, where the digni-

KMA published the results and assessments of

tary would meet with Alfred, Friedrich Alfred, or

the many tests it conducted. Steel, which was so

Gustav Krupp.

crucial to the German economy, was a frequent



subject of KMA reports, and the rigor with which

matic archive mirrors that of a private corporation

the organization studied new steel products was

so closely, but that was the case with the key con-

probably greater than that which they applied to

nection between Berlin and Essen. These important

products that were less competitive as exports. The

state visits from every corner of the globe were

KMA assessed I-beams, the building blocks of the

extremely well coordinated between the two cities

new art of steel-frame construction, particularly

and prompted dozens, if not hundreds, of success-

frequently. In each analysis, it assessed the vari-

ful business overtures, complete with elaborate

ous qualities of the beam (its precise dimensions,

dinners, gifts, sanitized factory tours, and general

9

There are few instances where a state’s diplo-

flattery. The state visits included Brazil in 1852, Egypt in 1855, Morocco in 1877, Chile and Mexico Figure 51. Illustration from Josef Durum, Hermann Ende,

in 1890, Thailand and the Dutch colonial admin-

Eduard Schmitt, and Heinrich Wagner, eds. Handbuch der

istration of Indonesia in 1901, Japan in 1903, and

Architektur unter Mitwirkung von Fachgenossen. Vol. 3, part 2. (Stuttgart: Arnold Bergstrasser Verlagsbuchhandlung,

the colonial administrators of southwestern Africa

1899), 139. Photo: Hathi Trust / University of Michigan.

in 1906, to name only a very small cross section.11

Dissemination

107

By 1871, Krupp was so overwhelmed by orders that

particularly well traveled, although their foreign

it had to carefully select which to prioritize and

travel was typically for the purpose of visiting other

which to push to the end of the line (prioritization

manufacturers rather than clients. Fritz Thyssen

was coordinated with the Foreign Office), all the

and his associate Franz Dahl went on an extensive

while enlarging its facilities to meet the unprece-

tour of American steel factories in the fall of 1901,

dented international demand for its products.12

visiting a number of firms in Illinois and Ohio



over the course of several weeks.17 On the one

The shipment of these armaments, it would

appear, was something that Germany, Krupp, and

hand, the tenor of Thyssen and Dahl’s laboriously

other German manufacturers tried to keep secret in

detailed and primarily descriptive reports from the

certain cases, such as shipments to Venezuela, where

field projects a confidence that their firm’s vertical

Germany was known to have colonial ambitions.

structure was superior to that of the American

Reporting for the British Foreign Office from its

firms they visited, while, on the other, expressing

post in Trinidad, one official alerted the authorities

some anxiety about the exponentially rapid rise

back home to a suspiciously large amount of cargo

of American steel. Thyssen and Dahl considered

that was passing through the island on its way to

the technology on display in the factories of the

Caracas: “In very many instances I notice that labels,

American heartland roughly on a par with the

and all marks indicating country of origin, have

technology back in the Ruhrgebiet. However, they

been not only carefully removed, but in addition a

expressed genuine concern about the efficiency of

plane has been used to obliterate the marks. One

American management, even without any of the

case, marked AC Hamburg, has been planed, but not

welfare infrastructure provided for steelworkers

sufficiently to prevent the name being read, and in

back in the Ruhrgebiet. The Americans pumped

another instance there are two labels left on the case

out beams, girders, and other products at a lower

which appear to be railway labels, which read ‘from

cost per ton, and although Thyssen and Dahl

Nuremberg.’” The export of armaments would

believed that this system was less ethical than

become illegal by 1892, following a decree by Kaiser

the German system, they feared that it would

Wilhelm based on concern that these weapons could

increasingly come to threaten Germany’s global

fall into the hands of the Russians or the French. In

dominance in steel production, a fear that proved

1916, at the height of the Great War, Wilhelm would

to be absolutely on the mark.

13

14

15

bar the export of any steel whatsoever, while simultaneously establishing a “Steel Trust” that developed guidelines for price margins for steel products of

Artifact

two kinds: Type A, which included ingots, billets, girders, and railway matériel (more essential), and

Handbooks, sales catalogs, and other marketing

Type B, which included bar iron, sheets, pipes, and

efforts made a wide assortment of steel products

wires (less essential), all of this intended to support

available to industry professionals across consider-

the war effort.

able distances by the turn of the twentieth century,



radically remaking building practices around the

16

It was not just the world coming to the Ruhrge-

biet. Officials from Krupp and Thyssen were

108

Precious Metal

globe. At least initially, these same manufacturers’

exhibitions made the broadest impact on a wider

simply flaunt their finished products were required

cultural consciousness, putting less emphasis on

to consider how they might exhibit the process

the utility of steel goods—including for construc-

instead—for example, “A sufficient number of

tion—and stressing their strength and grandeur

articles, however dissimilar, will be admitted for

as artifacts. The display of manufactured steel

the purpose of illustrating process, but they must

products was also an important moment for

not exceed what may be actually required.” The

architecture and construction, particularly because

organizers prohibited manufacturers from affixing

these products, unlike weaponry, were typically

prices to display artifacts, although manufactur-

not meant to be seen and consequently had no

ers could boast of an object’s inexpensiveness if

intrinsic visual value. Globally, no single manufac-

that distinguished it and if cost was a factor in

turer made more of this opportunity than Krupp,

the organizers’ decision to include it.19 In the end,

which participated in several exhibitions from the

locomotives, steam engines, fountains, benches,

mid-nineteenth century onward. Krupp put its

lampposts, and anything else that could be cast

greatest efforts into the blockbuster exhibitions,

from molten metal were on display to be admired

including the Great Exhibition in London in 1851

as artifacts and not as consumer products per se.

(at Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace), the World’s Fair



in Vienna in 1873, the Centennial International

set the tone for how corporate manufacturers were

Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and the World’s

to exhibit their wares in the future, it also offered

Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The

an array of distinctive approaches to exhibiting that

firm also put notable effort into a series of smaller

highlighted the themes of process and material-

exhibitions that represented strategic regional

ity very specifically. These included encouraging

interests, such as the Allgemeine Deutsche Indus-

exhibitors to display the raw materials (such as iron

trie Ausstellung in Munich in 1854, the trade fair

ore) used in connection with the artifacts on dis-

in Düsseldorf in 1902, the Railway Exhibition in

play, materials that would in turn be connected to

Buenos Aires in 1907, and the Deutscher Werkbund

an overall description of the mineral kingdom that

Ausstellung in Cologne in 1914.

connected all the artifacts on display. A number



of these material samples were designated for

18

One of the many reasons why these exhibitions

While the Crystal Palace exhibition may have

were so important was that they placed a filter—

acquisition and later incorporated into a handful of

the organizer—between the reliably promotional

museums in London. The organizers also encour-

narratives of the corporation and the general

aged exhibitors to include illustrations that would

public. This meant that there were limits to what a

demonstrate the various means used to extract,

corporation like Krupp could do, including limita-

prepare, reduce, work, and combine raw materials.

tions on what and how much it could present, how

In addition, the exhibitors asked that machines,

much space it could occupy, and often what kind

including those made of iron and steel, be exhib-

of didactic elements it could employ. The guide-

ited in motion whenever possible.20

lines established by the Crystal Palace organizers



were widely referenced in subsequent exhibitions.

in delimiting the didactic strategies of the partic-

Corporate manufacturers that might be tempted to

ipants, often with strict limits on the number of

Exhibition organizers had a great deal of power

Dissemination

109

objects a firm could include, the content and length

for his existence; there, commanding them for

of explanative labels, and the supplemental mate-

his recreation; here, a feeble folk nested among

rials that were permitted. The stipulations for the

the rocks with the wild goat and the coney, and

London International Exhibition of 1874 in South

retaining the same quiet thoughts from generation

Kensington offer some key insights into the options

to generation; there, a great multitude triumphing

available to manufacturers seeking to introduce their

in the splendour of immeasurable habitation, and

steel production to the world. The organizers asked

haughty with hope of endless progress and irresist-

exhibitors to display all their artifacts with samples

ible power.”23 Ruskin and his intellectual ilk had no

of the raw materials that went into making them and

interest in praising the likes of Krupp, despite the

to show how that material was transformed chrono-

undeniable nature of the achievements on display.

logically in each sequential step of production. All

Ruskin had no patience for blind faith in a form

of the final artifacts had to be presented, along with

of industrial progress that failed to reckon in any

their price, either per unit of weight or per finished

way with the interplay that industry should have

item. If the object was a machine, as many of the

with the natural world, which Ruskin saw it slowly

steel objects were, it was the responsibility of the

beginning to ravage.

exhibitor to make sure that it was running or could



be demonstrated, so that it would not stand idle in

exhibitions were primarily organized by nations,

the exhibition hall.

corporations were still able to exert influence,



either by being prominently featured within

21

The story of the Crystal Palace Exhibition

of 1851 is well known and does not bear repeat-

their nation’s exhibit or by appearing in one of

ing here. For steel manufacturers like Krupp,

the thematic exhibitions staged apart from the

its greatest consequence was what it did to raise

geographically arranged exhibits. In the World’s

these firms’ international profile and impress

Columbian Exposition, Krupp was one of a

upon the general public that steel was a material

handful of manufacturers permitted to have its

of the future. Faith in technology and optimism

very own pavilion, a testament to the conviction

about industrialization had never been greater, as

that the firm’s wares were of superior quality and

countless primary accounts of the exhibition attest.

global importance.24 Whether through a national

To the most critical circles, however, the exhibition

exhibition or a freestanding exhibition of its own,

was not an unalloyed success. Gottfried Semper,

the corporate manufacturer’s prominence in these

for example, likened it to Babel, depicting it as an

global events accelerated the erasure of the idea

homage to man’s hubris and vanity with little or

of authorship. The items on display belonged to

no poetic content. John Ruskin penned a similar

Krupp (or some other manufacturer), not to the

critique, contrasting the natural world (including

fabricators, metallurgists, engineers, or designers

the park surroundings in which the Crystal Palace

who created them but had to accept the fact that

stood) with the utter artifice of the exhibition hall

their contributions were merely tacit and sub-

and its contents. Like Semper, Ruskin addressed

sumed in the greater corporate good.

the blind faith in technology without poetry:



“Here, man contending with the powers of Nature

Exposition four decades later entailed a massive

22

110

Although the Crystal Palace and other large

Precious Metal

Krupp’s pavilion at the World’s Columbian

Figure 52. View of the Krupp pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. Photo: PF-(bygone1) / Alamy Stock Photo.

effort by the firm.25 This included the construction

monster. . . . We owe much to the Emperor William,

of a Teutonic-revival structure whose open plan for

Germany’s young “War Lord,” as he loves to call himself.

housing massive works of artillery was supported

Not the least of our obligations is the interesting artillery

by a demountable construction system of arch

exhibit which he prevailed on Herr Krupp, the great gun-

span trusses made of light steel (fig. 52). Unlike

smith of Essen, to make at the Fair. Germany seems to

exhibitions that featured a wide range of products,

have taken the lead in heavy artillery among the nations,

Krupp’s exhibition in Chicago consisted exclu-

and we feel it would be rash indeed to attack a nation

sively of weaponry—specifically, heavy artillery.

with such terrible engines of war at her command.26

Two American brothers, James and Daniel Shepp, described the pavilion in laudatory terms, appar-



Krupp’s pugnacious presence was not limited

ently taken with the imposing building itself, while

to exhibitions. Representatives from the firm also

also offering praise for the sophistication of the

participated in numerous international confer-

artifacts on display inside:

ences. Foremost among them was the art historian and board member Hans Eberhard von Boden-

This is one of the most tastefully constructed pavilions

hausen.27 Bodenhausen, whose name was widely

on the ground. The color is a dark French gray. The

recognized, occupied a special place on Krupp’s

structure is slightly castellated, with turrets and signal

corporate board beginning in 1907. He was often

towers. . . . On entering, the building appears plain

charged with aspects of the firm’s cultural diplo-

enough. There is no apparent attempt at decoration . . .

macy, and that is precisely what was on display in

but there is [a] sufficient [amount] to engage the atten-

a keynote talk he gave at the inaugural meeting

tion even of the most fastidious. Of course, the great

of the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Inter-

Krupp Gun is the centre of attraction but there is much

national Conference of Steel Producers in New

more food for the thoughtful mind than this grim iron

York City in 1914.28 Bodenhausen’s talk followed an

Dissemination

111

extensive tour of American steel manufacturers,

Krupp’s technical achievements, Heine suggested

and in his presentation he sang the praises of the

that it also demonstrated an industrial zeal devoid

United States Steel Company’s new Gary Works,

of artistic ambition and summed up Germany’s

which he saw as the best model of steel production

militarism, which, he predicted, would curdle into

that America had to offer.

mistrust and hostility among Germany’s interna-



tional neighbors—a charge that presciently foresaw

These large displays were not without their

critics, however. One such criticism came from

the critiques of the Deutscher Werkbund.32

the Berlin engineer H. Heine after he visited the



Philadelphia World’s Fair in 1876. In a damning

minted director of the Museum of Decorative Arts

critique, which spared only the works of the kine-

in Berlin, may have been aware of Heine’s critique

matic engineer and fellow critic of the exhibition

of German chauvinism when he published his own

Franz Reuleaux, Heine lambasted the German

cautionary report the same year, suggesting that

organizers for what he considered a tone-deaf and

Germany should more carefully consider its partic-

embarrassing German installation. His critique

ipation in the Paris World’s Fair being planned for

also applied to the artifacts displayed by major

1878. Lessing brought the eye of a design specialist

German manufacturers. Heine argued that, from

to this report, having made his name as the orga-

the looks of it, German industry had three dis-

nizer of a major decorative arts exhibition in Berlin

tinct traits, namely, “1) The German industry has

in 1872 and written an authoritative summary of

the basic principle of cheap and bad. 2) German

the decorative arts exhibitions at the 1873 Vienna

industry has no other motives in the commercial

World’s Fair.33 Lessing made the apt point that what

29

arts and fine arts than a tendency toward patrio-

is best for chambers of commerce is not necessar-

tism and the strong emergence of chauvinism and

ily best for the advancement of industrial design,

byzantinism. 3) [There is] a lack of taste in craft

particularly when it comes to objects in which taste

and a lack of progress in the purely technical.”

plays a role.

30



112

Julius Lessing, the art historian and newly

Later, Heine extended his critique to Krupp,

indicting the quality of the firm’s goods and the

Purely technical production, which works with definite

wanton chauvinism he saw as part and parcel of

marketable products, has long opened up world trade

the firm’s display of cast weaponry. He used the

even without exhibitions. The smallest price difference

twenty-inch Rodman gun as a leitmotif in his

pushes grains, oil, alcohol from the Russian steppes to

criticism, noting that while it was clearly superior

France, England, or Australia across the oceans; cloth,

to the American and other weaponry on display, it

canvas, leather, and wool are traded in thousands of

nevertheless goaded the American organizers, with

pieces after small market changes. All of this requires

their “Peace on Earth” motto, which had become

only a small amount of grandiose display. The real weap-

very important in the wake of the Civil War. Heine

ons of the international competition of the peoples in the

imagined that the average American viewer would

world expositions are in the products of the artistically

see “only an eminent achievement of German tech-

equipped, through which by diligence of the work, spirit,

nology, [in response to] which he cannot produce

and taste increased industry: painted pitchers and pots,

anything similar.”31 While the gun represented

carved and inlaid furniture, necklaces and bracelets,

Precious Metal

knitted carpets and wallpapers, glass and chandeliers,

priced and measured for efficiency in the exact

bronze candelabra, clocks, vases. . . . Here is the real

same way that paper, cotton, or glass was. The

contest, here not only the experts are called to the deci-

ambiguous and alternating guise of steel as both

sion; so too are the taste and aesthetic sensibilities of the

design component and technical artifact charac-

public in the widest circles. Each one is a judge who buys

terizes much of its dynamic if confusing role in

because he likes it or does not buy it because he does not

the discourse on art and industry spawned by the

like it. In these divisions the judgment of the public is

earliest of these world exhibitions.

formed on the success of the whole exhibition.



34

Resistance to the erasure of authorship in

industrial production was at the core of the

The kernel of Lessing’s critical strategy here,

Workmen’s International Exhibition of 1870 in

which motivated most of his professional career,

London, in which all of the exhibited artifacts were

was to work within the museum and fair system to

signed by the workers who made them. Where

promote artistry in industrial design while subtly

there was a division of labor, as was the case for

decrying the rigid technical focus that Heine had

most industrial objects, workmen were invited to

criticized in Krupp’s display in Philadelphia. For

exhibit specimens of the branch of work in which

Lessing, privileging industrial works that exhibited

they were specifically engaged. “Thus, for instance,”

artistry was not only a way to restrain the German

said one report on the exhibition, “a watch or a

chauvinism that Heine had described; it was also

piano might be exhibited showing in a complete

a way to rebuke the artless artifacts created for the

series the various parts on which the workmen

commodities trade and the stock market. Ulti-

are . . . employed, and the various steps by which it

mately, Germany would take a lighter touch at the

approaches completion.” In addition to this effort

Paris World’s Fair, perhaps partly in response to

to pluralize authorial voices, the organizers sought

Lessing’s widely circulated critique, and it would

to show how different cultures manufacture similar

be Lessing, yet again, who would write a definitive

objects, which could be further conveyed through

report on that exhibition for German audiences.35

the use of supplementary drawings, models, and



demonstrations.36

But where did steel fit into this equation?

Although neither Lessing nor Heine specifically



commented on the material, both men believed

lations at international exhibitions was probably its

that the architecture of these exhibitions was an

exhibit at the Düsseldorfer Ausstellung of 1902, also

important vessel for promoting good design,

known as the Industrie- und Gewerbeausstellung.37

irrespective of whether they favored particular

The special efforts of Krupp and neighboring steel

architectural choices from one exhibition to the

manufacturers in this exhibition must be under-

next. In this sense, the architectural steel that

stood in context. Düsseldorf was a major urban

was both on display as an artifact and used in the

center at the fulcrum between the Ruhrgebiet and

architecture of the exhibition was part of what

the less industrial trade areas to its south, and thus

Lessing described as a “product of the artistically

held a certain representative importance in linking

equipped.” At the same time, steel occupied the

industry and commerce. While the exhibition drew

domain of the plainly technical, with artifacts

an impressive five million international visitors,

The subtlest and most refined of Krupp’s instal-

Dissemination

113

Figure 53. Krupp’s display of its worker housing and other

frame beneath, affording a vast exhibition space

social welfare institutions at the 1902 Düsseldorf fair. His-

of about thirty-four hundred square meters.39 This

torisches Archiv Krupp, Essen.

design allowed an uninterrupted floor plan that could accommodate large artifacts as well as a

Krupp and other German firms knew that the bulk

more flexible division of space among the discrete

of those visitors would be stakeholders—ranging

exhibitions. The pavilion vaguely resembled a ship,

from current or potential clients to workers—and

with a mast and flags reaching high above the

not just mere fairgoers. The exhibition’s organizers

fairgrounds.

and architects situated the grounds and 168 exhi-



bition buildings on a long, narrow swath of land

typically contained artifacts that Krupp could ship

along the Rhine, allowing the exhibition’s industrial

abroad, notably, cannons, guns, and other items of

subject matter to be read in direct relation to that

war. In Düsseldorf, the approach was holistic, the

great German artery of global trade.

exhibition including a more expansive portfolio,



with a selection of these artifacts but also more

38

114

Krupp’s pavilion comprised an embellished

At international exhibitions, Krupp’s displays

cladding of wood, gypsum, and stucco with Beaux-

didactic displays that explored the firm’s relation-

Arts styling that concealed the rigid steel space

ship with the arts, mining, and its own program of

Precious Metal

social welfare and worker housing (fig. 53).40 In the Düsseldorf display, Krupp mounted idyllic images of some of its completed estates and juxtaposed them with beautifully drafted plans and sections. When viewed in concert with the comparatively stiff exhibitions of Krupp’s neighbors and competitors, the exhibition had the distinctive effect of elevating Krupp’s status to that of the most sophisticated, humane, and generally advanced manufacturer in Europe, if not the world.

Of all the exhibitions in which steel manu-

facturers took part, none brought industry into a direct dialogue with design more robustly than the 1914 Deutscher Werkbund Ausstellung in Cologne.41 This was probably the first exhibition in which a firm like Krupp took a back seat to the works of designers, including projects by Henry van de Velde, Heinrich Tessenow, Bruno Taut,

Figure 54. Bruno Taut, Glass Pavilion, Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne, 1914. Photo: akg-images / ullstein bild.

Hermann Muthesius, Josef Hoffmann, Walter Gropius, and Peter Behrens, among many others. The exhibition was the first to be staged by the newly

symbols of this moment in architectural design

formed Deutscher Werkbund, a consortium of

(fig. 54). Taut’s vision, which was based on the

artists, architects, designers, and industrialists that

full realization of a single material—glass—also

sought to bridge the gap between manufacturers

relied on a thin, winding web of steel mullions for

and designers that Lessing had described, which

its crystalline effect, demonstrating how steel was

could in turn improve the viability and competi-

destined to act as glass’s best supporting actor.44

tiveness of German products on the international



market through industrial mass production.

the awkward, if commendable, effort that manufac-

42

Krupp’s role in the exhibition is emblematic of

Even though the Deutscher Werkbund was more

turers put into this national effort to unify design

concerned with economic strategy than with

and production. The firm would not enjoy the

avant-garde design, it nevertheless was able to

prominent position of previous exhibitions: there

forge a fairly progressive ethos, “from sofa cushions

was no dedicated pavilion for it, nor were there

to city planning,” that broke free of the cycle of

any grand displays of weaponry, as this was not a

revivals and stylistic ruts that characterized much

mass-market product.45 Krupp was mentioned in

late nineteenth-century architecture. Bruno Taut’s

an ancillary fashion, as applicable, when the firm

Glass Pavilion, a utopian expression of crystalline

worked with a particular designer on a particular

glass architecture, designed a year earlier for an

project. Krupp’s greatest single effort at self-repre-

exhibition in Leipzig, became one of the enduring

sentation was probably its subtlest to date: a small

43

Dissemination

115

pamphlet translated into a number of European

the construction site, and this was contingent on

languages and Mandarin. In the pamphlet, Krupp

whether the site was within reach of the transpor-

highlights the quality of its crucible and Martin

tation infrastructure that was capable of shipping

cast-steel processes and the range and dynamism

large pieces of structural steel. This may seem

of the products made from them—from boiler

obvious, but by placing hydrogeography and rail

plates and railway axles to bespoke beams for the

geography front and center, it is possible to see how

construction industry. Although Krupp steel had

construction strategies and techniques were deter-

been used in numerous designs before, the com-

mined by nature and by transportation networks

pany specifically chose not to highlight any of the

connecting manufacturers to particular sites.

projects in which its steel was used, opting instead



to discuss the possibilities for how it could be used

vania Railroad Company completed a continuous

in the future. This suggests that Krupp was mindful

line between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, it was

of the progressive nature of the exhibition, and

easier for steel buyers in Philadelphia to get their

wanted to appear receptive to potential partners in

steel from Buffalo via the Erie Canal, Atlantic

the design world by positioning itself as a manufac-

Ocean, and Delaware Bay than it was to get it

turer that was neither stylistically entrenched nor

overland from Pittsburgh. When buyers did try

tied to a particular kind of client.

to get steel from Pittsburgh, it was an arduous,

46

For example, prior to 1852, when the Pennsyl-

time-consuming affair that involved a series of barely navigable rivers, canals, bridges, tunnels,

Network

and existing railways that employed human, animal, and steam power in piecemeal fashion,

116

These exhibitions brought the world to the altar

as shipments had to scale the Allegheny Moun-

of steel, but steel needed a means of finding its

tains and make their way down steep inclines to

way back to the world as well. Just as the sourcing

eastern Pennsylvania.47 In Europe, Krupp supplied

of iron ore, coal, and timber for the production

Rotterdam with much of its earliest steel by way

of steel relied on infrastructural networks to

of the Rhine, despite that city’s being closer to the

bring raw goods into factories, so did the sale and

steel manufacturers in Belgium. Both Pennsylvania

distribution of finished goods to their various

and the Rhine show how geographically centered

markets. In the first two-thirds of the nineteenth

patterns in steel distribution and ultimately steel

century, the primary method of shipping steel parts

construction emerged, patterns that were far from

for construction was by water; in the final third,

incidental.

and in fact through World War II, the dominant



method was rail. It is true that the design of a given

dence of geography and industrial development

structure is largely determined by its designer, but

than the Rhine watershed.48 The Rhine, central

the designer’s choice of materials, which in turn

and western Europe’s second-longest river, after

dictates countless design choices, was in this period

the Danube, originates in the Alps and has a

also elementally shaped by geography. Steel could

watershed spanning nine modern countries—

be used for building only if it could be brought to

Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany,

Precious Metal

No region was riper for this interdepen-

France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands,

at the lowest possible rates at the time. For the two

and Italy. Major tributaries include the Moselle,

and a half decades or so before ship transport was

Neckar, Main, Ruhr, Lippe, and Emscher Rivers,

eclipsed by rail transport, the river aptly took on

the latter three all in the greater Ruhrgebiet. Major

the appellation offered by Mark Cioc: the “Carbon-

cities along the Rhine include Basel, Strasbourg,

iferous Rhine.”51

Koblenz, Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Duisburg,



and Rotterdam. Despite its wide geographical

Kaiser were the only major steel manufacturers

reach, the Rhine is a nationalist symbol for only

in the Rhine watershed (fig. 55). The Moselle

one of the countries through which it runs: Ger-

alone had three distinct steel-producing regions:

many.49 The laws governing commercial navigation

the Left Bank, the Orne Valley, and the Fensch

of the Rhine are dictated by the Central Commis-

Valley.52 Major manufacturers in the French

sion for Navigation of the Rhine, a body created by

part of the basin included the Société des forges

the Congress of Vienna in 1815, whose rules were

de Châtillon-Commentry-Neuves-Maisons in

successively updated under the Conventions of

Neuves-Maisons (founded 1862), the Comptoir

Mainz (1831) and Mannheim (1868). Since the cre-

Métallurgique de Longwy in Longwy (founded

ation of the commission, the Rhine, navigable from

1876), the Société des aciéries de Longwy in

Basel downstream, has been open to international

Longwy (founded 1880), and the rail manufacturer

shipping and trade under international customs

Sogerail in Hayange (founded 1892).53 Luxembourg

and trade laws.

had a number of manufacturers in a highly produc-



The transport of structural steel on the Rhine

tive region around Esch-sur-Alzette, including the

began in earnest in the 1860s, undertaken by the

Société des haut-fourneaux in Hollerich (founded

major manufacturers in the Ruhrgebiet. These

1877), Rumelange (founded 1880), and Dudelange

manufacturers were able to bring their goods to

(founded 1882).54 In Germany, Krupp and Thyssen

market by way of the navigable portions of the

shared the Rhine watershed with AG der Dillinger

three major tributaries in the region: on the Ruhr

Hüttenwerke in Dillingen (founded 1809), Otto

beginning at Witten, on the Lippe beginning at

Wolff AG in Cologne (founded 1904), and Hoesch

Lippstadt, and on the Emscher beginning at Dort-

AG in Dortmund (founded 1871), among others.

mund. The only other major tributary with steel



50

Krupp and the Gewerkschaft Deutscher

No other monument signifies this network

production in its vicinity was the Moselle, which

of trade as potently as the Dombrücke (Cathe-

was navigable through World War I beginning

dral Bridge) of Cologne, a grand railway bridge

at the French city of Metz and joining the Rhine

connecting the banks of the Rhine just adjacent to

at Koblenz via Luxembourg and Trier. These

the well-known landmark the Cologne Cathedral

tributaries of the Rhine reached into the densest

(fig. 56).55 The bridge effectively connected Cologne

concentrations of coal and ore deposits in all of

to Berlin, although its route did not entirely run

Europe, even denser than the deposits of northern

through discontiguous Prussia until the annex-

Britain, making the Rhine the ideal infrastruc-

ation of Hannover in 1866. The bridge’s designers,

ture for exploiting natural resources, producing

Johann Henrich Strack and Friedrich Wilhelm

finished goods, and shipping them to market, all

Wallbaum, and the engineer Hermann Lohse

Dissemination

117

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NETHERLANDS

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Société des forges de Châtillon-Commentry-Neuves-Maisons M

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completed construction of the wrought-iron, lattice-trussed bridge in October 1859; it was only the second railway bridge to be built over the Rhine and only the third fixed bridge ever built over the river. The railway, part of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company of Prussia, not only connected the old city of Cologne with the growing new city on the right bank, but also provided a strategic connection for Prussian consolidation, allowing the empire to tighten its grip on a region—the Rhine’s left bank—that had long been desired by France.56 Strack designed the ornamental gates on either side of the bridge, while Lohse designed the intricate wrought-iron latticework cages. Lohse

Figure 55 (opposite). Map of the Rhine watershed and its major

based the design of these cages, which became

iron and steel factories, ca. 1870. Photo: Blair Tinker / Univer-

known locally as the “mouse trap,” largely on simi-

sity of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

lar designs for railway bridges that he had overseen

Figure 56. View of the Dombrücke, Cologne, ca. 1870. Photo:

on the other side of Prussia, over the Vistula at

Structurae.

Tczew and over the Nogat at Malbork, effectively expanding Prussia’s rail power in both directions.57

The bridge with which people are familiar

rail network in the Rhine basin and elsewhere, and

today, a three-span tied-arch bridge with concrete

you have the perfect equation for a self-propelling

piers and a steel superstructure, is a relatively faith-

cycle of production and consumption. A continu-

ful reconstruction of a bridge constructed between

ous line connecting the far extents of Prussia with

1907 and 1911 to replace the Dombrücke, which

the French and Luxembourgian railways existed by

officials believed could no longer accommodate

the 1850s, but it was not until the German Empire

the railway traffic needs of the city’s central station.

was consolidated in 1871 that the network was

The design was executed by Friedrich Dirksen and

geographically intricate and technologically

comprised four railroad tracks and one road until

capable enough to ship large quantities of steel

its destruction in 1945. Krupp provided the steel for

elsewhere, making 1871 more or less the point at

both the original and the reconstruction.

which the transport of steel by rail became both



logistically and economically preferable to ship

As both bridges demonstrate, the watery

infrastructure of the Rhine served a symbiotic

transport on the Rhine.

function in generating rail infrastructure along and



across its banks, which in turn propelled the steel

senger and commercial, fueled the rise of a specific

industry to markets farther afield. Add to this the

type of mapmaking, which made it easier for both

fact that the steel manufacturers produced the

vendors and buyers to measure the relative time

railway gauges that formed the rapidly expanding

(and hence the cost) of transporting any good,

The rise of railway transportation, both pas-

Dissemination

119

Figure 57. E. Martin and E. Chevaillier, isochronic map showing travel times from Paris, 1882. The University of Chicago Library Map Collection, G5831.P3 1882.M3.

including structural steel, from point A to point B.

as very effective marketing tools, making logistical

If you were building a bridge somewhere around

decisions more accurate for travelers, buyers, man-

Amsterdam circa 1900, for example, you could

ufacturers, importers, and exporters.

use this type of map, called an isochronic map,



to determine whether it made more sense to buy

undoubtedly the “carte des communications

lower-grade steel from nearby Belgium or high-

rapides entre Paris et le reste de la France” (map

er-grade steel from Essen, a bit farther away. An

of rapid communications between Paris and the

isochronic map is defined as a map that shows the

rest of France) produced by E. Martin and E.

points at which “something occurs or arrives at the

Chevaillier in 1882 (fig. 57). But it was Germany,

same time.” In the rapidly expanding transpor-

with its long-standing strength in the geographical

tation networks of the industrial West, isochronic

sciences, that came up with most of the early inno-

maps became a clear way to depict travel times,

vations in this mapping technique. Albrecht Penck,

factoring in all the relevant data: distance, train

a German geographer, geologist, and professor in

speed, river flow speed, road systems, road quality,

Vienna from 1885 to 1906 and Berlin from 1906

topography, weather patterns, and so on. As

to 1928, was the technique’s most important early

many railway users, particularly passengers, did

innovator.60 In 1887, Penck produced an Eisen-

not yet fully understand the speed and efficiency of

bahn-Entfernungskarte (railway distance map) of

continental rail transport, isochronic maps served

the Austro-Hungarian Empire, using one of its two

58

59

120

Precious Metal

The most influential isochronic map was

Figure 58. Albrecht Penck, isochronic map of railway travel

Vienna and the Moldavian frontier city Chernivtsi,

from Vienna throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1887.

for example, is 470 miles as the crow flies and

Photo © Charles University, Faculty of Science, Map Collection, www‌.mapovasbirka‌.cz.

about twenty hours via rail, the same amount of time it would take to reach Sarajevo, which lies 165 miles closer to Vienna. Three years later, Penck

capitals—Vienna, where he taught—as its centroid

produced a similar map for the German Empire,

(fig. 58). One notices immediately the weblike

with the imperial capital of Berlin as the centroid.

diffusion of colors marking the various distances,



sinuously following the railway lines emanating

part of a larger development in German geographic

from the city and dissipating within their inter-

theory, traceable all the way back to Humboldt,

stices. The map reinforces the key principle in

that came to fruition in Leipzig, where Penck had

transportation logistics that distance as the crow

studied. The so-called Leipzig school of geogra-

flies is not the same thing as the time one spends

phy, which converged largely on the ideas of the

traveling, which is dictated by available infrastruc-

geographer and ethnographer Friedrich Ratzel,

ture. Penck’s map shows that the distance between

promulgated the idea of Lebensraum, or “living

61

Some have viewed Penck’s isochronic maps as

Dissemination

121

space,” an idea that was used to justify German set-

power and an aggressive lust to acquire and dom-

tler colonialism. Lebensraum was a particular type

inate territory. Whereas the state was interested in

of expansionism based on spatial contiguity and

territorial domination, the corporation was more

expounded through a series of biological analogies

concerned with dominating markets and railways,

in which the caloric and material needs of a given

which, like rivers before them, demonstrated

population could warrant the appropriation of

that domination need not stop at the borders of a

land beyond a state’s existing borders. This school

nation or empire. That railways were made of steel

of thought has been studied for its relationship to

only reinforced this idea. German, French, Belgian,

the ideology and rise of National Socialism and,

Luxembourgian, and Swedish steel markets were

ultimately, the perpetuation of the atrocities of the

difficult to penetrate, given that they were already

Holocaust.

fairly well developed. This meant that Krupp, along

62



63

How does the concept of Lebensraum relate

to isochronic mapping? Hans-Dietrich Schultz

immediate sights on building a robust foreign trade

has argued that the logic of the isochronic map

market to both the south and the east—that is, with

was used to promote German expansionism into

Italy, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman

France, Poland and, ultimately, the tropics. Iso-

empire, three of which would join Germany to

chronic thinking dictated that space was a problem

form the Central Powers in World War I. If we add

to be overcome by technology and that land itself

the railway networks that Krupp and the kaiser

only had value relative to its distance from a power

helped construct in Argentina and Venezuela,

center by ship or rail. Addressing Berlin University

this could be called a transatlantic phenomenon.66

as its rector in the fall of 1917, Penck affirmed this

This helps explain why the development of railway

idea when he said, “the minimum of what we need

networks in these locations accelerated rapidly in

for the future is a living space for our German

the 1890s and commonly relied on the expertise

people, that we receive a colonial property, big and

of German engineers and financial backing from

rich enough to provide ourselves with the essential

German banks. The result was as much a political

raw materials of the tropics.”65

network as a trade network, and nothing moved



over the railway tracks to the south and southeast

64

122

with other German steel manufacturers, set its

Just as the isochronic map could serve as a

“scientific” tool for the consolidation of power

in greater quantities than steel.67

in the political arena, it could do the same in the



corporate and economic arenas, even though these

ing from Berlin and Vienna was not simply an

areas, vis-à-vis the isochronic map, are studied in

image produced by Penck’s isochronic maps. It was

far less detail. Steel firms everywhere, but partic-

also very much perceived by the neighbors upon

ularly in Germany, especially Krupp, employed

which it was encroaching. Germany’s obsession

isochronic maps in making business decisions

with isochronic logic was the subject of a type of

beginning around the early 1890s. These maps are

map distinct to the British: the seriocomic map, in

notable for the spatial and technological confi-

which European, and occasionally global, geo-

dence they project and the aesthetic beauty they

politics were anthropomorphized and depicted

often possess, but also as diagrams of strategic

as cartoonish interactions.68 This is precisely

Precious Metal

The tentacle-like form of expansion emanat-

Figure 59. H. & C. Graham Ltd., The Prussian Octopus,

10th, 1915: ‘we do not wage the war which has

lithograph, ca. 1915. Image courtesy of Roderick M. Barron—

been forced upon us in order to subjugate foreign

Barron Maps, www‌.barronmaps‌.com.

peoples, but for the protection of our life and freedom.’” The pictorial map is a commentary on the chancellor’s words. It shows how Prussia has stolen

the subject of a lithograph published by H. & C.

one province after another from her neighbors and,

Graham of London circa 1915 titled The Prussian

like a baleful octopus, is still stretching out her

Octopus that depicts central and western Europe

tentacles to grasp further acquisitions.69

as covered by two large octopuses whose com-



bined total of twelve tentacles (not sixteen) stretch

anachronistically to “Prussia” to remind the map’s

across the continent (fig. 59). The larger of the

viewers that “Germany” was a recent construct,

two, centered on Germany, wears a sinister facial

born from a panoply of duchies, diets, and king-

expression. The smaller octopus beneath it appears

doms that happened to have the German language

more cautious, perhaps concerned. The map’s

in common, glossing over the fact that the unifica-

legend begins, “‘We do not threaten small nations,’

tion of Germany in 1871 was, despite some friction,

declared the German Chancellor on December

executed peacefully and with the accord of a

The creators of The Prussian Octopus refer

Dissemination

123

124

majority of constituents.70 In addition to the states

and Vienna, could very well be read as isochronic

acquired, federated, or annexed by Prussia prior to

railway maps of these two central European

unification, the map also shows tentacles reaching

empires, their tentacles reaching out over much of

into Alsace-Lorraine (taken from France in 1871

Europe.

in the Franco-Prussian War), Belgium (invaded



and occupied in defiance of treaty obligations in

expansion was not limited to this particular map,

1914), Schleswig-Holstein (wrested from Denmark

of course. It was the cumulative effect of several

in 1864), and the Polish and Silesian territories to

decades in which Germany, through her market-

the east, seized at various points in the eighteenth

ing materials, exhibitions, and domination of the

century. The Austro-Hungarian octopus, described

transportation network, made it apparent to the

as “subjugated by Prussia in 1866, allied with Prus-

world that she was destined to become Europe’s

sia since 1879,” has its own territorial tentacles in

industrial superpower. And it was steel that best

Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

embodied that desire, just in time to transform it

From a distance, the octopuses, centered on Berlin

into architecture.

Precious Metal

The negative perception of German industrial

Chapter 5

Building

System

systems design from the latter two-thirds of the twentieth century, many of which employed metals

For those invested in the traditions of architecture,

in essential ways, have been explored by design-

there were several reasons to lament the increased

ers, critics, and historians, and they are familiar

availability of off-the-shelf iron and steel parts. This

today: prefabrication, “pattern language,” and mass

sea change in the construction process jeopardized

customization, to name only three.1 Although the

the sanctity of classical proportions and altered

industrial systems on which these forms of systems

the authorial role of the architect from the creator

architecture rest are indebted to the developments

of plastic architectural form to something more

and logic of nineteenth-century manufacturing

closely resembling an assembler of architectural

culture, there was little discussion of systems archi-

parts. Yet the agency that was ceded through

tecture itself in the nineteenth and early twentieth

industrial standardization, which had begun occur-

centuries prior to Taylorism. One reason for this

ring around the edges of architectural practice as

might be that the main development—the mass

far back as the eighteenth century, was also often

production of standardized parts like I-beams—

replaced by new forms of authorship. One of these

was promulgated by workaday engineers, not

was so-called systems design, or the design of

well-known architects, in Manchester, Essen, Pitts-

organizational methods and principles that could

burgh, and other industrial hubs. As we have seen,

constitute a new architecture, rather than a new

the scope of their publications was limited to sales

architectural form per se. Numerous guises for

brochures and handbooks rather than treatises or

1:1 model homes. By contrast, twentieth- and twen-

century, the École des Beaux-Arts was also where

ty-first-century figures like Konrad Wachsmann,

many top international students studied before

Christopher Alexander, Richard Rogers, and the

returning to illustrious careers in their home coun-

firm Kieran Timberlake were able to promote their

tries.3 An essential required course in construction

visions of systematized architecture through trea-

techniques that comprised forty lessons, Cours

tises or memorable demonstrations in exhibitions

de Construction, was the most important—and

and actual construction.

most fluid—course for students’ education in steel



Looking more deeply into the nineteenth

and iron and how they develop systematically. By

century, one can find that genealogy of architec-

the 1920s, about 10 percent of the curriculum was

tural thought and model a way in which authorial

dedicated to techniques of construction in metal.

agency can be inscribed in the anonymized

Students began this unit with a comprehensive

production of building parts. The point here is not

lesson in general metallurgy, learning about the

to isolate forgotten heroic figures. Something far

chemical composition of bronze, iron, steel, and

more fruitful can come from looking at the change

other metals. They then read the most current

in thinking that architects and engineers underwent

lectures on the “qualities, faults, and conservation

in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.

processes” of these materials, which included the

This change is nowhere more expressly codified

most up-to-date research from a variety of special-

than in the curricula of the academy, where courses

ist trade publications. The next unit, a new addition

in building technology and material studies were

to the course in the 1910s, was a study of the shapes

often considerably more responsive to industrial

and dimensions of the forms of iron and steel of

change than to changes in historiography, design

commerce and “special assemblies with iron and

principles, and architectural philosophy. Most

cast iron.” Then came in-depth orientation to

academies of both architecture and civil engi-

specific products: rivets, nuts, chainages, anchors,

neering expressed in their curricula the belief that

solid and hollow columns, decks, joists, spacers,

they had a mandate to educate students in the

armored beams, sheet metal, tubular beams, and

most current technologies, while also delivering

truss beams, among other items. Although none

the core design education that was part of either

of these products was explored in a studio envi-

a long-standing stylistic or philosophical tradi-

ronment, students did work through hypothetical

tion, or both. This made for a productive tension

design scenarios meant to address particular

between tradition and technology, a tension that

problems that prefabricated parts could potentially

formed the kernel of systems architecture.

address. The course culminated in a theoretical



study of the “resistance” (or physics) of these

2

126

The École des Beaux-Arts in Paris embodied

this tension between technological savvy and

materials for determining the selection of parts and

tradition, and the changing ways in which iron

systematic construction, essentially tabulating the

and steel were (or were not) part of its various

dead and live loads with which handbooks had also

curricula over the years had a widespread impact.

begun to assist professionals.4

Apart from being the most prestigious school of



architecture in the world well into the twentieth

Cross, Constant-Désiré Despradelle, and Victor

Precious Metal

Alumni like Raymond Hood, John Walter

Laloux all experimented with systems designs in

prefabricated iron houses for new settlements in

metal at some point in their careers.5 Most prom-

Australia, as well as in California, South Africa,

inent were the works of two of the American

and various locations across South America.

architects in the group—Hood and Cross—who

Because few of these houses are still standing, and

went on to design important steel-framed skyscrap-

owing to a dearth of records, it is hard to estimate

ers for New York (Cross’s General Electric Building,

just how many of them were produced, but Gilbert

1931) and Chicago (Hood’s Chicago Tribune

Herbert and Colin Davies have noted that one

Tower, 1925), each with systems-based skeletons

report from 1854 states that 30,329 packages of iron

of mass-manufactured steel parts. Yet compared

houses were imported from Britain to the Austra-

to the work of their American-trained contem-

lian state of Victoria in just that year alone.8 This

poraries, such as George Fred Keck’s 1934 Crystal

offers some indication of the massive scale of new

House, and even some of the works of their Ameri-

portable architecture generated in the factories of

can-trained predecessors, such as Daniel Burnham’s

England by the mid-nineteenth century.

Reliance Building (1890–95), the work of these men



shows a paramount interest in style. Metal systems

by woodworkers and ironsmiths, had their own

design, while clearly part of the education of Beaux-

system for assembly in situ. Hemming’s system

Arts architects, was ultimately subordinate to the

involved a structural frame of wood, and later

stylistic and representational interests that carried

wrought iron, clad in corrugated sheet iron and

over from the nineteenth century. The “true” ori-

sealed with wooden planks on the interior. Bell-

gins, as such, of metal systems design might in fact

house combined corrugated iron and cast iron,

have had little to do with the academy and far more

patenting in 1853 a system in which the flanges of

to do with a global change in trade and politics.

round cast-iron columns hooked into the corru-



gated iron panels that spanned the columns. In

6

Indeed, iron and steel manufacturers proved to

All of these houses, invented as they were

be fine partners in the European colonial project.

addition to houses, these and other manufacturers

As early as the 1830s, entrepreneurial builders

produced entire systems or parts for any number

in Britain were preparing “portable cottages” for

of buildings that required portability from England

settlers in Australia and New Zealand. Unsure

to its colonies: military facilities, hotels, factories,

about the materials that awaited them in these

warehouses, hospitals, stores, factories, and more.9

new lands and limited by the size of construction



tools that could be transported halfway around the

as a kind of gift to placate local indigenous leaders,

globe, these manufacturers envisioned flat-packed

offering them the opportunity to inhabit large,

and easily assembled houses that would ease the

exotic abodes, such as an iron bathing kiosk

transition of the settler colonists. The portable

for the viceroy of Egypt, which appeared in the

cottage by Henry Manning of London, a timber

English journal the Builder in 1860 (fig. 60).10 By

house, was the first of these.7 By the 1850s, manu-

the 1860s, British and French colonies had estab-

facturers such as Edward Bellhouse of Manchester,

lished their own local building industries that were

Charles Young of Glasgow, John Walker of London,

more efficient and incorporated more climatically

and Samuel Hemming of Bristol were all producing

appropriate materials than corrugated iron, with its

Prefabricated iron architecture was also used

Building

127

design until it was eclipsed by something better. Patent culture across the industrial West ostensibly rewarded innovation by conferring intellectual property rights, but the real effect was to accelerate the market itself. The gradual integration of architectural manufacturing into patent culture, along with the systems design that this integration privileged, was the single greatest force driving metals to the structural core of architectural production. Portable colonial architecture may have seemed to traditionalists like an amusing sidebar, but it had already changed the face of architectural producFigure 60. G. F. Sargent, Iron Bathing Kiosk for the Viceroy

tion more than many could imagine.

of Egypt, in Builder 4 (1860): 73. Photo: Artokoloro / Alamy



Stock Photo.

Germany, not yet unified and late to the

colonial land grab of the mid-nineteenth century,

Figure 61 (opposite). Illustration of a steel church for the tropics by the Belgian firm Forges d’Aiseau, printed in Stahl und Eisen 9, no. 2 (1889): 105. Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

largely bypassed this stage of metal architecture. Its colonial conquests began in earnest in 1884 and resulted in incorporating German west Africa (modern-day Cameroon and Togo), German southwestern Africa (modern-day Namibia),

low thermal mass and tendency to intensify the hot

German east Africa (modern-day Tanzania,

temperatures of tropical and subtropical climates.11

Rwanda, and Burundi), German New Guinea



(modern-day Papua New Guinea and a large

Manning, Hemming, and Bellhouse were better

equipped to represent the vanguard of metals sys-

number of Micronesian islands, and Samoa) and

tems construction than their peers at the École des

two port cities in China, Tsingtao and Yantai

Beaux-Arts were, not only because of their prox-

(Chefoo).13 Almost four decades behind its French,

imity to the industry but also because of how they

English, Dutch, and Belgian counterparts in Africa

adopted and replicated the industry’s particular

and the Pacific in the colonial land grab, Germany

approach to intellectual property. These manufac-

lacked the local building industries that its rivals

turers, unlike their peers in the ateliers, saw the

had firmly established by the 1880s, which led it

pursuit of patents as an essential part of their work.

to something of a rediscovery of the prefabricated

Patent culture was the quintessence of industrial

iron and steel construction systems that had been

culture: it privileged innovation, competition,

so popular a few decades earlier.14

and the accumulation of industrial progress.



Tradition, for them, was something to cite on the

manufacturers had had no need to develop

patent application, not the subject of reverence.

prefabricated iron and steel houses prior to the

A successful patent afforded manufacturers—in

1880s. Since the production of artillery for colonial

metals and beyond—the ability to monetize a

officials was the priority of Wilhelm I, Wilhelm

12

128

Precious Metal

Krupp, Thyssen, and other large German

II, and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, German

unlike masonry constructions, the panel structures

officials took to the trade periodicals to learn about

did not require complicated foundation work. The

the most recent developments in prefabricated,

system, which further rigidified itself as each panel

patent-based metal architecture. Their hope was

was plugged into place, only needed to rest on a

to emulate some of the leading designs for deploy-

horizontal frame consisting of U- and T-shaped

ment in Africa and the Pacific. One design that was

bars. The firm offered multiple adaptations, includ-

discussed at length was that of the Belgian firm

ing the addition of a second level and architectural

Forges d’Aiseau (fig. 61).

features that could offer a certain signification to



the structure, such as a steeple to show that it was

15

Despite an overall decline in the popularity

of prefabricated metal structures for colonies,

a church. One of the single biggest challenges of

Forges d’Aiseau had been at work on improving the

metal structures in the tropics was rust, and to

traditional design—specifically, on finding a way

avoid this, the firm galvanized each and every piece

to allow cladding to enhance the overall rigidity of

of the system. The firm built a model of the system

the structural frame, something that corrugated

in the town of Boma, in the Belgian Congo.17

iron and steel could not do. This would, by exten-



sion, afford a patent that could profit from a second

in the German journal Stahl und Eisen, which

major wave of colonialism in the last third of the

played a critical role in circulating up-to-date

nineteenth century. Instead of corrugated sheets,

developments and patent news on iron and steel

Forges d’Aiseau developed a system in which two

systems construction to the trade in Germany. This

sheets of steel were pressed, one intertwined with

monthly journal, founded in Düsseldorf in 1881,

the other through a series of folds, into a structur-

emerged as the official publication of the Technical

ally supportive and simultaneously decorative shape

Society of Iron and Steelworkers, founded twenty

that registered each discrete double-layered panel.

years earlier.18 In its inaugural issue, the journal

Each sheet locked into a horizontal strip and was

made the case that it was high time that a publica-

secured vertically with the help of small T-shaped

tion focused exclusively on iron and steel helped

bars. The interposed horizontal and vertical links

shape the field. “There is no longer a comprehen-

and the panels themselves, firmly bolted together,

sive engineering practice,” the editors proclaimed

contributed to an overall strength that the manufac-

in a foreword, “and in order to be successful in

turer claimed was just as good as masonry.

today’s competition, it is necessary to point all our



energy in one direction and represent the interest

16

130

Forges d’Aiseau insisted that its design offered

Praise for the Forges d’Aiseau system appeared

something that previous iron and steel prefabricated

of this one special subject.”19

structures lacked—dignity—and German readers



were responsive to this. This was also the kind of

represented, was an articulation of the freestand-

quality that could not be patented but certainly

ing importance of the iron and steel industries,

carried its own value with prospective buyers. The

bringing them out from under the thumb of the

different panels and decorative effects, applicable

companies whence they sprang, especially artillery

to both interior and exterior, did everything that

and more particularly Krupp. This might explain

plastic materials like masonry could do. Moreover,

why the journal’s pages in its first two decades are

Precious Metal

Stahl und Eisen, along with the associations it

dominated by discussions of architectural and con-

not the concrete, was tasked with anticipating the

struction systems, indicating that many engineers

compressive and tensile stresses of a structural

were interested in this topic, even when the compa-

unit, which allowed designers to use a minimal

nies they worked for or those that were their clients

amount of concrete. This in turn permitted the

still thought of metals in construction as an issue

bulky material of concrete to take on ever thinner

secondary to rapidly growing military production,

and more complex silhouettes, like the paraboloid

which formed the cornerstone of the symbiotic

shells of the mid-twentieth century. Iron and steel,

relationship between the German Empire and pri-

in other words, were the workhorses of the heroic

vate industry. This emphasis on construction was

new world of reinforced concrete.

perhaps a nod to what iron and steel specialists saw



as the untapped desires of the consumer market,

were also a hallmark of early reinforced concrete

something Stahl und Eisen sought to address in a

construction. Among the best-known exemplars

diplomatic salvo in the inaugural issue, stating that

were the Kahn, Cummings, Unit, Koenen’sche

the journal’s purpose was “to represent the interests

Voutenplatte, Corr, Hennebique, pin-connected,

of the German iron and steel industry, taking into

and Luten Truss systems, each with its own

account not only the needs of the producer, but

distinct features.22 Among these, the Hennebique

also those of the consumers, and it can be seen

system, named after its French inventor, François

as a major purpose of our paper to mediate the

Hennebique, was the most influential—at least

exchange of views between the two.”

initially—since its inception in Europe in 1892.23

20

Systems design and patent-based architecture

Hennebique, who together with Joseph Monier is considered one of the fathers of reinforced con-

Reinforcement

crete, supposedly “discovered” reinforced concrete while designing a house in Belgium in 1879.24

The rise of reinforced concrete in the late

Seeking to protect the wrought-iron beams from

nineteenth century and its wild success in the

fire, he laminated them in a thick layer of concrete,

construction market is a story that is often overly

effectively making them disappear from view

focused on concrete alone. To be sure, the

while allowing the structure to retain the strength

concrete component of reinforced concrete was

afforded by its iron construction. He continued

extraordinary for the ease and low cost with which

experimenting with this process for horizontal

it could be made. One could not, however, expect

units and determined that stability was increased

concrete to withstand the loads and stresses of

by the employment of steel bars in concrete only

any significant structural building unit without

when the slab was held in tension, and other-

its reinforcement by iron or steel. The beginning

wise relied exclusively on the concrete in areas of

of the answer as to why the metal component

compression. That is, the steel enabled concrete to

does not take center stage lies in the obvious

perform well in tension, which it could not do on

fact that the reinforcement bars are hidden from

its own. Steel, by contrast, which could function in

view. This was particularly true for prestressed

both tension and compression, could not gener-

and precast concrete, where the metal skeleton,

ate the infill of structure that concrete provided

21

Building

131

Figure 62. Eugène Freyssinet, airship hangar at Orly Airport,



ca. 1924. Photo: RIBA Collections.

popularization of the Kahn system, which com-

Meanwhile, the United States witnessed the

prised reinforcements rolled with flanges, bent upward to resist the shear of the concrete beam in without vastly exceeding the cost and weight of the

which they were embedded. Systematization arose

construction. The combination was a proverbial

when the designer wished to extend the beam,

match made in heaven. Hennebique systemati-

in which case inverted bars were placed over the

cally created a palate of columns, beams, cladding,

supports in the upper part of the beam to extend

and joinery systems that could be recombined ad

the horizontal unit over the region of maxi-

infinitum for virtually any purpose, although the

mum tension.26 Prefabricated trussed bars came

system was particularly well suited to industrial

in two varieties, square section bars and “new”

settings that required a large floor area with mini-

section bars, with two and three standard sizes,

mal interruption from columns and load-bearing

respectively.

interior walls, such as the early airplane hangars of



the French engineer Eugène Freyssinet (fig. 62).

the design of reinforced concrete systems, German

25

132

Precious Metal

Although Germany was not at the forefront of

manufacturers did their best to keep pace with the

skeleton within reinforced concrete, as in Max

developments coming out of France and the United

Berg’s Centennial Hall in Wrocław (then Breslau).

States. A notable contribution was the Koenen’sche

Breslau, the capital of the Prussian region of Silesia

Voutenplatte system, produced in Munich by the

and the most significant city in the empire’s far

Münchner Gesellschaft für Beton- und Monierbau

eastern periphery, was the site of a famous proc-

GmbH.27 The system, though far less adaptable

lamation by Frederick William III of Prussia, in

to prefabrication and mass production, proved

which he encouraged his subjects to rise up against

remarkably strong. It comprised a long, nonrigid

Napoleon’s occupation. To commemorate the cen-

bar supported at each end by a clamp and haunch-

tennial of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, Kaiser Wilhelm

like reinforcement.

oversaw the construction of a massive fairground



in Breslau.29 It is fair to suspect that the planning of

Systems design in reinforced, prestressed, and

precast concrete was largely limited to industrial

this event in the city of Breslau, home to a robust

constructions on both sides of the Atlantic, per-

Slavic nationalist movement, was also intended as

haps because the material was considered too harsh

a strategic way to project imperial power and build

for use in the realms of civic and domestic archi-

support for Berlin. The centerpiece of the fair-

tecture. In those areas, engineers were far more

ground was the massive Centennial Hall, set within

interested in seeing what metal architecture with-

a masterplan designed by Hans Poelzig, one of the

out concrete could do. William Le Baron Jenney’s

city’s most important architects.30

ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago,



completed in 1884, set the standard for larger build-

rich von Thiersch’s recently completed Festhalle in

ings relying primarily on steel for their structural

Frankfurt, with its archetypal quatrefoil plan and

integrity. Holabird and Roche’s Tacoma Building

exposed steel trusses (fig. 63).31 Berg’s large central

(1889) and Burnham and Root’s Monadnock Build-

hall, like the hall in Frankfurt, was housed under a

ing (1891) followed in rapid succession in Chicago,

massive dome, with extensive translucent perfora-

paving the way for the typology of the steel-framed

tions on its sides for light.32 This facilitated good,

skyscraper to blossom in other cities, such as

even lighting for large open-plan exhibitions. Berg’s

New York with Burnham’s Flatiron Building in

scheme also allowed segments of the quatrefoil

1902. These structures became the internation-

plan to be partitioned and enclosed by massive

ally famous faces of steel-frame construction and

floor-to-ceiling curtains. Berg updated Thiersch’s

left a vivid image in the minds of architects across

historicist design by designing his own structure in

Europe. Despite its distinctly American origins,

reinforced concrete, at least in part out of concern

the phenomenon of the skyscraper overshadowed

with fireproofing and in part as a nod to the city’s

28

Both Berg and Poelzig were inspired by Fried-

some of the equally innovative if less audacious

concrete market halls. The hall bore the imprima-

developments taking hold in Europe, particularly

tur of Poelzig’s own recently completed department

those that did not share its obsession with height.

store on Junkernstrasse, just a few miles away from



Indeed, many of the unsung innovations of

the hall. In an article for the Deutsche Bauzeitung,

early steel construction were born in Europe, and

Berg mentioned the fire that ravaged several pavil-

many of those were in the hidden form, like the

ions in Brussels’s Exposition Universelle in 1910,

Building

133

which led to the loss of several treasured artifacts

interior with a stunning diameter of 226 feet. Berg’s

(fig. 64). As Berg put it, reinforced concrete “was

quatrefoil plan functions as a massive drum for the

chosen not only because it turned out to be cheaper

seventy-five-foot-high, four-tiered dome, whose

than [fire-resistant coated iron alone], but also

clerestory windows pour light into the open space

because it allows an architectonically and construc-

below (fig. 65). On the one hand, its references are

tively meaningful design”—suggesting that the iron

clearly classical. On the other hand, it is a decidedly

and steel pavilions of London, Frankfurt, Brussels,

contemporary structure in its reinforced concrete

and elsewhere had proved not only dangerous but

piers, executed by the specialists Schlesische Bet-

also passé. Berg was by no means unaware of the

on-Baugesellschaft, which carry both the building’s

developments in steel architecture that were afoot

horizontal and its vertical loads. The building is

in North America and even in the crystalline archi-

Gothic without the hierarchy; essentially, it is one

tecture of continental colleagues like Bruno Taut.

massive continuous buttress. Indeed, Berg likened

But he remained wholly committed to an archi-

the thirty-two ribs to the ligature of Gothic archi-

tecture that was about heft and mass and that was

tecture. As with Gothic architecture, the meeting

anchored by the earth rather than reaching for the

point of the buttress and the vertical support was

sky, a position that by 1913 seemed downright defi-

the most difficult operation of the overall struc-

ant. Berg’s quest for an earthbound architecture did

ture, except that here it was at the base of the drum

not end there. In contrast to the refined concrete

rather than at a point in the sky.34

work in Hans Poelzig’s neighboring Four Domes



Pavilion, also completed for the Breslau fair, Berg

tung, Berg wrote very little about the audacious

celebrated the imprints of the wooden formwork

design of the Centennial Hall, yet many of his

on the concrete in the structure’s interior, memo-

radical spatial and structural ideas come to us

rializing both the construction process and the

in the form of unpublished sketches held by the

absolutely massive amounts of timber that were

collection of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.35

harvested from Polish forests to accomplish it.33

In one sketch of a number of planar arrangements,



Berg experiments with trifoil and bifoil compo-

Recalling the ambitions of Brunelleschi in

Apart from the article in the Deutsche Bauzei-

Florence and the Byzantines in Constantinople,

sitions that take on a rather baroque appearance.

the crowning achievement of Centennial Hall was

In another, Berg focuses on the key moment at

its massive cupola (which essentially constituted

which the ribs meet the vertical supports, showing

its entire form), a dome that allowed for an open

details of ribs that narrow to a thin point at their bottom and columns that narrow to a point where they meet the rib, as if to suggest two elements

Figure 63. Interior view of the Festhalle Frankfurt, 1951. Design by Friedrich von Thiersch, 1909. Photo: Historical Archive MAN Augsburg. Figure 64. Postcard view of a destroyed building from the Brussels Exposition Universelle, 1910. Digitization Lab,

gently kissing, not unlike the column detail of Peter Behrens’s AEG Factory in Berlin (fig. 66).36 This particular sketch is critical because it demonstrates that Berg may not always have been wedded to

University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. Collection

the idea of reinforced concrete, with which such a

of the author.

detail would simply be impossible to achieve. He

Building

135

Figure 65. View of Max Berg’s Centennial Hall, Wrocław, completed 1913. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Jarek Ciuru´s (CC BY-SA 3.0 PL). Figure 66. Max Berg, sketches for the design of the Centennial Hall, Wrocław, ca. 1911. Deutsches Museum, Munich.

may in fact have entertained another primarily

as the last great architectural pronouncement

metal structure, like that of the Frankfurt Festhalle,

of the German Empire as a political unit and of

for the optical and almost supernatural qualities

what Wolfgang Pehnt has called Wilhelmism in

for which he had a penchant—such as a kissing

its artistic style because of how it balances sheer

column—that structural steel alone could achieve.

brute force with the light technological touch of



the reinforcement.41 Berg’s structure in fact offered

Although Berg offers fireproofing as his main

rationale, there is in the end a decisive rejection

an alternative to the Chicago school, one in which

of the supernatural associations that come with

steel could function as the backbone of a new

metal and glass architecture like Taut’s, and an

monumentalism in which mass was celebrated

embrace of the earthbound yet equally auda-

over height and volume over ligature. In the end

cious effects afforded by concrete, which bring

it was a stillborn moment, as the Centennial Hall

to mind the work of Rudolf Steiner or, later, Le

opened to the public only a few months before the

Corbusier. In heavily modeling such a vast dome

outbreak of war, during which steel production

with concrete, yet with the perforations that steel

in Europe would quickly shift back to its earliest

reinforcements would allow, Berg gave the early

purpose: the production of armaments. By the end

twentieth century its own version of Boullée’s

of the war, Breslau was no longer German, and

1784 cenotaph for Isaac Newton, bookending

Berg’s structural manifesto now lay in the hands of

the other end of the long nineteenth century,

an upstart Poland.

37

as Eric Hobsbawm characterized it, with a new, tectonic exegesis on Platonic form and suggesting a distinct (and ultimately undercharted) way

Infrastructure

forward in the twentieth century.38 Is this the last great building of the long nineteenth cen-

In German construction parlance, the words Tiefbau

tury or the first great one of the twentieth? As

and Hochbau refer to construction that takes place

Nikolaus Pevsner put it, Berg “created a noble

below- and aboveground, respectively. Architec-

monumentality without hiding the boldness of

ture qua architecture was commonly referred to as

the construction.” Apprehending the building,

Hochbau, particularly when it was designed and

one cannot help but feel a sense of disconnection

constructed by a firm that specialized primarily in

between the heaviness of its concrete envelope

civil engineering—as was often the case with railway

and the utter lightness of its structural metal

stations, for example, which were clearly works of

framework, its very grandeur apparently coming

architecture but also part and parcel of the larger

from the uneasy juxtaposition of those two

engineering project that was the construction of

qualities. The structure, to the trained eye, reads

a railway line. As a whole, rail lines were typically

essentially as one massive diagram of what steel

considered large yet discrete engineering projects,

could do on the eve of the Great War, despite the

and the engineers, and particularly the architects,

fact that there is no steel in sight.

who staffed the major building firms in Germany



until the mid-twentieth century were, by and

39

40

Whether or not it bookends a century, Berg’s

structure was definitely one befitting its status

large, sectioned off into either Tiefbau or Hochbau

Building

137

departments. This meant that architects who spe-

a considerable amount of steel, something the

cialized in, say, façade ornamentation would never

engineers at Holzmann knew well, as they were

be called to work on the construction of a subway

concurrently at work on the construction of the

station, just as a tunneling expert would not be

Ottoman railway network, but subways required

employed in work on a façade. Exceptions did occur

exponentially more work, for they required build-

when architectural practices, like that of Peter Beh-

ing metal-framed structures underground, namely,

rens, submitted proposals for large civil engineering

the tunnels and stations, in addition to the metal

projects, but small firms rarely won these bids. This

needed for the railway line itself.

bureaucratic division within engineering practices in



Germany led to some ambiguity, as the line between

Berlin’s rapid transport network will be obvious to

Tief- and Hochbau was blurred by new technolo-

any casual viewer, as it is the omnipresent material

gies and the engineering they required. No single

symbol of the city’s circulatory system, evoking the

technology was more disruptive to this meeting of

same allegorical power that other early mass transit

the traditional provinces of the underworld and

networks did in cities like New York, Moscow,

the overworld than subways, which first appeared

Vienna, London, Paris, and Chicago.46 It would be

in Germany in 1902 in Berlin, in the form of an

easy to say that this new ubiquity of iron and steel

east-west line connecting Knie (today Ernst-Reuter

in cities was simply the urban exponent of the new

Place) in the Charlottenburg district and War-

architectural typologies of industrial society, par-

schauer Strasse in the Friedrichshain district.

ticularly the railway station. But in its diffuseness



and ubiquity, it was in fact something altogether

42

43

In the years that followed, the City of Berlin

planned an array of new extensions and inter-

different: a kind of material ligature that sought

change lines to be opened beginning in 1913. The

to discipline the unwieldy experience of navigat-

labor for building these lines, which would extend

ing the metropolis into something manageable,

the city’s network farther east and west and also

efficient, and familiar. The grand wrought-iron

create a major artery connecting the northeast of

entrances to subway stations, the predictable

the city to its southwest, was divided between two

repetition of the lines of steel columns in elevated

firms: Siemens & Halske in Berlin and Philipp

railways, the cast-iron logos and ticket booths, the

Holzmann GmbH in Frankfurt. The arterial

banisters leading deep underground—all sought to

line connecting the northwest at Nordring in the

reconnect the city dweller with a sense of place, the

Prenzlauer Berg district and the suburb of Dahlem

very opposite of the alienation for which moder-

in the southwest, near Potsdam, effectively created

nity was supposed to be so famous.47

the second major interchange in the city, Alex-



anderplatz in the central district of Mitte, after

reconnect the city dweller with a sense of place lies

Gleisdreieck in the Kreuzberg district.

in the articulation of the iron and steel columns,



both those in the realm of Hochbau, in the entry

44

138

The role of steel and iron in the construction of

The amount of construction required by this

In Berlin, the clearest expression of the desire to

massive expansion qualified as the single larg-

portals and elevated trackways, and those in the

est order for iron and steel for any one project

realm of Tiefbau, on the subway platform and

in the world to date.45 All railways necessitated

elsewhere underground. A composite of the iron

Precious Metal

and steel columns built during the first two decades

very modest, Corinthian capital, the transition

of the construction of Berlin’s rapid transportation

to Gothic tectonics is clear: a groin vault with

network provides a master class on the quest—and

semicircular ribs and riveted trusses.48 As Sigfried

struggle—to render this enormously disruptive

Giedion put it, “Labrouste inserts the iron frame

infrastructure as something that was august and

into the building like the works into a clock.”49

palatable. It is perhaps unsurprising that the



column, the Platonic symbol of architecture, was

was Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin

asked to do this work more than any other archi-

Woodward’s design for the Museum of Natural

tectural element. In the process, Berlin, and other

History in Oxford, completed in 1860.50 Here too a

cities, contributed immensely to an evolving debate

field of thin columns support an iron-framed glass

about the new visual role of metals in public life,

ceiling that bathes the space below in light. In this

contributions that often surreptitiously preceded

case, however, the architects use the column to

those of architecture with a capital “A.”

bind the Gothic Revival architecture more closely



to the ground plane. The masonry bases stand

The classicization of iron and steel architecture,

At once remarkably different but also similar

in both Tiefbau and Hochbau, was by no means

only a few inches above the ground, and most of

unique to Berlin’s rapid transit system. Much

them support a tight bundle of four columns, two

of the morphology of the column on perpetual

of them thinner than the other two. The vault-

display in Berlin’s transit network is indebted to

ing, executed with flanged and riveted beams, is

several decades of rigorous experimentation in

steep and pointed, inevitably evoking the religious

the treatment of the iron, and later steel, column

architecture that John Ruskin, a key consultant on

in Germany, but perhaps even more critically

the project, studied.51 Braces fastening each column

in France and England. Since the middle of the

to its bundle occur twice over the course of the

nineteenth century, architects and engineers had

column’s upward ascent. By grouping the columns

created numerous ways of rendering the unfamiliar

and creating a relatively low base and ceiling,

slenderness of iron and steel as something con-

Deane and Woodward seem to be striving for

nected with precedent. Henri Labrouste achieved

something strikingly different from Labrouste: a

this brilliantly in two library projects—the Saint

metal architecture that is light yet dense, luminous

Geneviève (built between 1838 and 1851) and the

yet cloistered.

Bibliothèque nationale (commissioned in 1857 and



opened in 1867)—by raising the base of each iron

how both the stylistic and the structural treatment

column on a kind of sculptural pedestal, ending

of the column defined the new metal architecture

at just about the height of an average visitor. This

of the civic realm of a secular, industrial culture.

What these two influential projects reveal is

lifted the thin field of fluted columns into the air,

Around 1860, with the lands that would consti-

evoking, on the one hand, a hypostyle hall for the

tute the German Empire still largely monadic and

industrial age and, on the other, an architecture

self-referential, the development of architectural

that existed, quite literally, aloft: above and beyond

form, with the important exception of Prussia and

the scale of the human body. As the slender col-

the work of Schinkel, was limited. The steel and

umns give way to a strictly proportional, and hence

iron industries were nascent. This is what makes

Building

139

a comparison with forty, even thirty years later so

material-based sections to a discussion of metals,

astounding. Germany managed to unite a mass

the outgrowth of a treatise titled Practical Art in

of disparate territories and metal industries into

Metal and Hard Materials: Its Technology, History,

a coherent and intensely productive industrial

and Styles, written while in exile in London.53 For

whole. Continental purists of iron and steel his-

Semper, metals were one of the most important

toricism would probably have been less impressed

measures of human innovation, and in his plan

with the belated iterations produced in Germany,

for a universal museum, he sought to feature them

perhaps seeing them as derivative or as stylistically

prominently as such, taking care to create cogent

confused and undercooked. But such a critique

categories that could paint a common object-based

would fail to consider that the Germans insisted

history of humankind across time and space.54 To

that this architecture be both infrastructural and

his mind, the molder of metal form, at whatever

ubiquitous, moving out from and well beyond the

scale, dealt with the universal truth of the mate-

discrete and still rarified world of positivist envi-

rial as it related to all forms of technology.55 The

ronments like the library and museum. By way of

techniques and treatments of one culture or period

contrast to the recent precedents of France and

could reliably yield knowledge when compared to

England, the new iron and steel architecture of the

another, suggesting that the value of metallurgical

German Empire presented a problem less of style

innovation lay in an object’s ability to reveal its

than of scale and diffusion into every corner of

truth in relative terms. In this, Semper revealed a

public life. German designers nevertheless under-

worldview in which metals occupy the full scale

stood the singular importance of the column and

of the built environment as an index of humans’

knew that its morphological and infrastructural

relationship with material truths. His concern with

development would be the clearest articulation of

a metal architecture, to the extent that he believed

the aesthetic values these national cultures would

such a thing might come into existence, was

embrace, carrying the baton of metal architecture

consequently about the truth of metal as an object

into the new century.

of architecture, not architecture itself. This could



explain the bold and simple beauty of the iron

None of this is to imply that Germany before

unification was without its own innovative and

columns forming the colonnade of Semper’s depot

enduring traditions of metal architecture. What

(or “Semperdepot”) for the Vienna opera house,

seems richer, though, was a kind of culture in

which was used to make scenery and set pieces and

the theory of metals more than anything else,

was completed two years before Semper’s death in

something we might trace back to Agricola. In

1879 (fig. 67).56 These columns, each supporting a

the nineteenth century, this mantle was taken up

trussed floor level on the perimeter, act together

by the architect, theorist, and polymath Gottfried

to convey the dramatic openness also on display

Semper, most famous for the design of the opera house bearing his name in Dresden, completed in 1841.52 In his multivolume Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten, oder Praktische Aesthetik, Semper dedicated the last of his eleven

140

Precious Metal

Figure 67. Unknown, interior view of Gottfried Semper’s Semperdepot, Vienna, completed 1877. Courtesy of Vienna Gin Festival.

A. Unknown, Capital design, Berlin S-Bahn, 1882.

B. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin S-Bahn, Kottbusser Tor, 1902.

C. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin S-Bahn, Kottbusser Tor, 1902.

D. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin S-Bahn, Wassertor, 1902.

E. Alfred Granander. Capital design, (Berlin S-Bahn, Dredener Straße, 1902.

F. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin Suspension Railway, 1906.

G. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin Suspension Railway, 1906.

H. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin Suspension Railway, 1906.

I. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin Suspension Railway, 1906.

J. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin Suspension Railway, 1906.

K. Bruno Möhring. Capital design, Berlin Suspension Railway, 1906.

L. Alfred Granander. Capital design, Berlin U-Bahn, 1913.

in the metal architecture of France and England.

section, one can see the use of O- and U-beams,

But they do so as discrete, stacked objects, stripped

respectively, above and below the shaft, to further

of virtually all the ornament one had come to

reinforce it.

expect. The columns thus highlight a productive



divorce between metal units and metal architec-

years later, in 1902, which was designed by the

ture and intimate a universal purpose that could

Swedish architect Alfred Frederik Elias Grenander

exist beyond the building envelope, as the building

under the corporate auspices of Siemens and

blocks of a new society.

Halske, shows a dramatic departure in the column



form.59 Grenander, who was trained as a neo-

Because of his revolutionary activities following

The actual elevated railway realized twenty

the construction of the Semperoper in Dresden,

classicist in Stockholm, was clearly interested in

Semper was more or less estranged from Germany

jettisoning this repertoire in favor of the Jugend-

and wound up creating his most important late

stil that Otto Wagner had so brilliantly perfected

pieces in Austria and Switzerland. But his influence

two years earlier in the construction of Vienna’s

in Germany was never clearer than in the decades

own S-Bahn. Grenander’s multiple column styles,

following his death. A small army of architects

such as those at Wassertor, Görlitzer Strasse, and

in Germany cited his influence on their work,

Dresdener Strasse, which were also completed in

including those who were tasked with building

1902, are different permutations of the organic

the important new infrastructure of the German

motifs that characterized the style and the opera-

state after unification. As early as 1882, as Berlin

tional tendencies the stylistic repertoire exhibited

considered plans for its first elevated railways, the

for bundling and encasing form (fig. 68b).60

stylistic treatment of the cast-iron columns that

Nevertheless, like Wagner, Grenander intimates

were to repetitively punctuate the city’s streets were

a protomodernist sensibility through several

at the core of the architectural debates regarding

gestures. First, he eliminates the artifice inherent

one project’s merits relative to the next. The

in the hollow column. Each of his designs is a solid

most widely acceptable format was a column that

piece of cast steel with no hidden reinforcement

fell within the formal tradition of Karl Friedrich

structure. Although these pieces are certainly not

Schinkel and Karl Bötticher after him, updated to

off-the-shelf pieces like I-beams, each has flanges

metal: a hollow fluted column with an entasis and

on either end that at the very least reference

decorative band in its middle section (fig. 68a).

elements of mass production. Most important,

Aside from its materiality, the only exterior hint

each unabashedly celebrates the motif of the rivet

of the column’s industrial function are the splayed

that Grenander deploys as a form of staccato,

extensions that reach outward from the Blütenkapi-

industrialized ornament, as if to counterbalance

tel-style column capital to support the weight of the

the organicism of the Jugendstil ornamentation

track bed and, in turn, the railway car itself. In one

featured in the column’s upper half. The celebra-

57

58

tion of the rivet may also have been conceived as a connective device, linking the appearance of Figure 68. Illustration of twelve steel column capital designs

the riveted but otherwise unadorned steel of the

from the Berlin transit network, 1882–1913. Photo: Trey Kirk.

track bed’s underside to the “architectural” form

Building

143

supporting it and lifting it aloft. This was exactly

and that which exists in the closed realm of the

the strategy of Grenander’s contemporary Bruno

station, despite both being public places, must also

Möhring in his own designs elsewhere in the

be considered. It is possible that Grenander saw the

S-Bahn network.

street-bound architecture of the S-Bahn as war-



ranting a certain level of formality and ornamental

61

An unrealized project for Berlin on which

Grenander, Möhring, and Behrens collaborated

embellishment, whereas the underground arena

was the Berlin suspension railway, a project

was something more akin to an industrial space. In

planned by AEG that would connect Gesundbrun-

any case, the contrast certainly makes it clear that

nen in Mitte with the district of Neukölln in the

the difference between Hochbau and Tiefbau, even

city’s south.62 Here again, the articulation of the

if only as an idea, were still a very powerful force in

street column reigns as the supreme architectural

the mind of the architect.

moment. Extant drawings for the project by both



Grenander and Möhring suggest that the two

a handful of new stations that today constitute the

men were being compared for their ideas. Each

city’s U2 line, which traverses the sprawling hub

produced three types of column design: one in the

at Alexanderplatz.64 The most curious elements of

form of an upside-down Y-shape, presumably to

these stations are their ionic pillars, which explic-

allow for vehicular traffic beneath it, and two each

itly reject both the fully pared-down designs of

of a standard design with a splayed capital connect-

six years prior and the Blütenkapitel that was so

ing to the track bed (fig. 68c).

essential to historicism in the wake of Schinkel



(fig. 68i). Here, for the first time, it is possible to

At the same time, Grenander was at work

on several of the city’s underground stations. It

sense a certain rejection of self-seriousness and

is unclear how, exactly, he was transferred from

perhaps an embrace of architectonic humor. Is this

his Hochbau work to Tiefbau work, but the ease

a wistful joke, or is Grenander making an earnest

with which he made this transition only revealed

attempt to convince Berlin’s subway riders that the

that the distinction between the two was largely

steel structure of the subway station is somehow

artificial to begin with. At the stations at Leipziger

part of a lineage of historical structures, something

Platz and Kaiserhof, for example, Grenander

he rejected at Leipziger Platz and Kaiserhof?

further embraced the modernist direction of the



S-Bahn column designs by paring columns down

column capital was not limited to iron and steel.

to spartan I-beam forms with rivets and a pair of

In fact, other “new” building materials, including

This obsession with the treatment of the

two small light fixtures at the top, which coalesce as

reinforced concrete, were rife with ornamen-

an abstract allusion to a column capital (fig. 68d).

tal adaptations that had no intrinsic structural

The reasons for this radical new treatment of the

function. One could find classicizing capitals and

column were, in all likelihood, born primarily

so-called mushroom capitals that even ardent

of the natural evolution of Grenander’s stylistic

rationalists like Claude Allen Porter Turner saw as

position. But the possibility that it was also the

an abstract form of “classicization” and that could

expression of a perceived difference between archi-

help ease the introduction of skeptical audiences to

tecture that exists in an open realm, as in the street,

new building materials.65

63

144

One last design by Grenander appears in 1913 in

Precious Metal

Figure 69. Construction of the Spreetunnel between Insel-

essentially as a giant bathtub, allowed for the

brücke and Klosterstraße stations, 1913. Photo: Siemens

tunnel to be built relatively close to the bottom

Historical Institute.

of the Spree, which in turn minimized the loss in gradient that would otherwise have occurred.



It is also important to note the ways in which

Prior to its installation, a catchment dam was

steel played a key auxiliary role, as it did in the

inserted in the central portion of the river, next

construction of the subway tunnel under the

to which a reinforced concrete tube was inserted.

Spree River (fig. 69). In fact, the U-Bahn’s Spree-

Water, mud, and silt were pumped out of the tube,

tunnel was the first large tunnel to be constructed

and the process was then repeated with a larger

in Germany, and the construction method its

tube until the desired size of the tube was reached.

engineers used—an open, steel-reinforced exca-

The tunnels on either side of the river were

vation pit—was modeled on tunnels constructed

capped and then reopened once the connection to

for the Chicago subway. The steel, operating

both sides was complete.66

Building

145



Berlin, like Germany as a whole, greeted World

an extension to his museum that would use steel

War I with confidence because it was so well

beams in its roof to allow for a large open-plan

equipped with the steel armaments produced in

gallery. For his part, Krupp suggested to Bode that

Essen. Yet for average Germans, that stockpile was

the museum should not make any loans abroad for

an abstraction. What they saw was the ubiquity of

the foreseeable future, a practical suggestion during

their new metal infrastructures—railways, sub-

wartime but also one that Bode followed for some

ways, and skyscrapers—and these parts of their

time after the war’s end.68

environment shored up their faith in their own



newborn power.

Krupp’s leadership was not, however, intended to

The kind of cultural nationalism exhibited by

stymie global business. When a strategic partner required artillery and some form of built work,

Structure

Krupp did not hesitate to enter the design arena. This was the case with Morocco, an ally Germany

146

Apart from the architecture of their own indus-

sought to play against France and a country to

trial campuses and housing settlements, firms

which Krupp had delivered a massive amount of

like Krupp and Thyssen seemed ambivalent about

artillery since the 1860s. In 1899, the firm gladly

how their products were changing the face of

participated in helping the Moroccan government

architecture and construction. On the one hand,

construct a battery employing steel near the city of

it certainly benefited them that the market for

Rabat.69

high-grade iron and, in particular, steel was on



the rise. On the other hand, the widespread use of

often something that was also demonstrated

these materials was increasingly associated with the

abroad, even if not in the colonial format. The

Werkbund and a burgeoning avant-garde, neither

emancipatory capacity of mass-produced units,

of which served the kaiser’s vision of his empire,

which offered opportunities to places that didn’t

despite doing much to promote its economy.

manufacture structural metals themselves, was,

67

As the case of Rabat shows, power was very

What little mention of actual architectural design

by the early twentieth century, a very real thing,

beyond the Ruhrgebiet can be found in the archives

facilitated by maritime trade. One unit in partic-

is limited largely to the mechanisms of Krupp’s and

ular, the I-beam, was the first and most important

Thyssen’s political and diplomatic needs. Gustav

unit when it came to facilitating the “autono-

Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, for example,

mous” transformation of architecture in the lands

entertained the idea of using the firm’s personnel

of Germany’s non-Western trading partners. In

to design architecture only for an important friend

the Ottoman empire, the I-beam both extended

or client, such as his friend Wilhelm von Bode,

and countered European norms in iron and steel

the creator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, now

construction. One site in particular, the Arif Paşa

known as the Bode Museum, in Berlin. In 1917, the

Apartmanı (1902) in Istanbul, deserves in-depth

two men exchanged lengthy letters about the muse-

attention. Here, the I-beam provides an opportu-

um’s new building and their fondness for collecting

nity to understand the adaptability of standardized

furniture. Bode solicited Krupp’s assistance with

construction materials in the transmission and

Precious Metal

mutation of architecture outside those materials’ original centers of production.

The Arif Paşa Apartmanı, known today as the

Sarıcazade Abdullah & Osman Bey Apartments, is located on Elmadağ Street in the Harbiye district of Istanbul and is widely considered the first building in Istanbul—indeed, in the Ottoman empire—to be made in its entirety with a structural metal frame, in this case an iron column and deck system.70 The Sveti Stefan Kilisesi (1898), or St. Stephen Church, a Bulgarian Orthodox church in the Balat neighborhood of Istanbul, is the complex’s most important progenitor, comprising a partial iron frame in concrete reinforcement.71 Completed sometime between 1903 and 1906, the seven-story Arif Paşa

Figure 70. Constantin P. Pappa, Arif Pas¸a Apartmanı, Istanbul,

Apartmanı building contains thirty-six apartments

completed ca. 1903–6. Photo: Orhan Kolukısa.

and several small shops on an eight-hundredsquare-meter footprint (fig. 70). The apartment building’s primary façade faces south toward

On the eastern and western façades, the corbeling

Taksim Square, from which it was once quite con-

used for the bay windows is transformed into the

spicuous. A central courtyard is carved out of the

support for what appears to be a projecting eave,

center of the façade, from which two entry portals,

distinct from the bay window on the main façade

as if beveled from the eastern and western corners,

and common to the traditional Ottoman house,

provide access to the two sweeping staircases that

an image enhanced by its cladding in wood. Both

act as the building’s main vertical circulation. Each

the stairwells and the apartments are adorned with

level of the complex is more than four meters tall

hand-painted frescoes depicting floral motifs and

and contains four apartments, with two larger

the occasional landscape. Iron reinforcement bars

ones flanking the courtyard and two flanking the

are openly visible in certain areas.

perimeter. The apartments were equipped with all



the modern conveniences of the day: radiators,

Constantin P. Pappa, whose work appears to have

service elevators, doorbells, seated flush toilets,

been connected to commissions from the wealthy

and bathtubs. Laundry and storeroom facilities are

Istanbul Sarıca family, which included the imperial

The architect for the Arif Paşa Apartmanı was

located on the uppermost level.

doctor, Arif Paşa, for whom the apartment com-



plex was named.72 The Sarıcas were a prominent

The façade follows several Beaux-Arts cues: a

rusticated lower portion, an upper portion with

Turkish military family who migrated from Euboea

a strong roof line, the separation of levels by cor-

after the Greek War of Independence in 1830.73

nices, and ironwork on balconies and bay windows.

The family acted as landlords of the building, and

But there are also divergences from this idiom.

some family members lived there. They rented the

Building

147

remainder of the apartments to bureaucratic elites

architecture of the imperial palaces on the Bospho-

and other notables who were either interested in

rus in the nineteenth century.80 Alyson Wharton

or flexible enough to adapt to apartment living.

has shown how the Balyans were, first and fore-

This was a dramatic departure from the traditional

most, influenced by the systematic teaching of

model of living in a freestanding house, a practice

building types and styles that prevailed at the

that dominated elite circles in Istanbul well into the

École, a pedagogical model that strongly empha-

twentieth century.

sized the frontal façade’s role in communicating the



function of a building.81 In addition to receiving an

Not much is known about Mimar Pappa

himself, save a few details. We know from burial

introduction to advanced structural and building

records and his tombstone that he was a member

systems at the École, including the use of structural

of the Greek Orthodox community, studied at

metals, the Balyans were also instructed at length

the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, as attested in

in classical architecture and antiquities, to which

business listings in a handful of newspapers and

they consistently made references on the skin of

the Koç Archives,75 lived from 1868 to 1931, and

their buildings.

was active in Istanbul between at least 1900 and



1928. Although it is unclear whether Pappa’s status

come to be synonymous with imperial power. By

as a member of the Greek community somehow

the time of Pappa’s work in early twentieth-century

connected him to the Sarıca family, this is a strong

Istanbul, the Balyan legacy, now a distinct reper-

possibility. At the École, he would have studied

toire for any architect practicing in the Ottoman

alongside two fellow Ottoman students who were

capital, carried clear political connotations befitting

to go on to more illustrious careers in Istanbul:

a consolidated imperial power that, while adopt-

Alexander Vallaury, architect of the Ottoman

ing Western architectural traditions, nevertheless

bank, and Vedat Tek, a leader of the First National

rejected nationalist, secular, and avant-garde cur-

movement. The Sarıca family also championed

rents. Those currents were instead the domain of

74

76

77

the career of August Jachmund, a German archi-

Pappa’s more successful contemporaries who were

tect most famous for his design of Sirkeci station,

part of the loosely defined First National Style, or

Istanbul’s European rail terminus, demonstrating

“National Architectural Renaissance,” in late Otto-

a certain international taste in their architectural

man and early republican Turkey.82 As architectural

commissions.78

historian Ahmet Ersoy and others have shown, the



First National Style had its basis in historical ref-

Despite his pioneering use of structural iron,

Pappa appears to have been drawn to the project

erents as well, albeit Ottomanist and Islamic ones,

of historicism—unlike many of his contemporar-

neither of which had the antiquarian or scholarly

ies, Vallaury being an exception. In the Ottoman

legacy to draw upon that the Greek and Roman

empire, the historicist traditions of the Beaux-Arts

traditions held for the French at the École.83 This

school had been firmly associated with the state

generated a loose, dynamic historicism that flirted

ever since the esteemed Balyan family of Arme-

with aspects of contemporary movements, partic-

nian architects serving the Porte, also trained at

ularly art nouveau and Orientalism. It also made

the École, had applied strong elements of it in the

for an architecture that was far less concerned with

79

148

It was no accident that Beaux-Arts idioms had

Precious Metal

the frontal façade than with the communication of a complete three-dimensional image. It is hardly surprising that the apartment complex’s pro-imperial patron family resisted the First National Style. What is truly impressive, however, is that the Sarıca family and Pappa chose to emphasize structural progressivism with a radically new metal frame used in conjunction with a stylistic conservatism, as if to offer a spatial, rather than a visual, formula for an Ottoman architectural modernity.

The iron I-beam and deck system of the Arif

Paşa Apartmanı is entirely embedded in the concrete floor plates, save for the auxiliary supports evident in the interior (fig. 71). Despite his being trained in Paris, Pappa appears to have drawn upon the American precedent of an externalized courtyard carved out of the structural frame, such as could be seen at the Dorilton Apartments in New York (1900) and the Marlborough Apartments in Baltimore (1905), among numerous other prominent examples.84 Even more profitable than speculation about precedents, however, are the ver-

Figure 71. Constantin P. Pappa, detail of structural system in

ifiable ties that can be drawn specifically between

the Arif Pas¸a Apartmanı, Istanbul, completed ca. 1903–6.

Pappa’s architectural innovations and the construc-

Photo: Orhan Kolukısa.

tion of railways in the empire, which ushered in the industrial-scale trade of iron and steel within the Ottoman empire. The railways, and consequently

florescence of metal production that was already

the iron and steel economy in the empire, thus

under way in the Ottoman territories; the enor-

represented exactly what the stylistics of the Beaux-

mous railway ambitions of Abdülhamid II, the

Arts style could also represent: the projection and

Ottoman sultan most obsessed with moderniza-

consolidation of imperial power through technol-

tion, meshed nicely with the industrial activity that

ogy and the articulation of a spatial, as opposed to

was already occurring.86 Tanzimat reforms, a set of

a primarily visual, modernity.85

modernization efforts in the Ottoman empire that



began in the first half of the nineteenth century,

A massive influx of iron and steel from

abroad accompanied the German construction

had spurred considerable industrial development

of the Ottoman railways in the last quarter of the

across the empire, particularly in Istanbul, where

nineteenth century. This infusion must also be

the northern Marmara littoral on the city’s Euro-

contextualized within an intra-imperial industrial

pean side, a roughly nine-mile stretch running

Building

149

east-west of Yedikule along the Edirne road, was

been classified as semipublic land. The urban, not

envisioned by the Porte, the Ottoman central gov-

to mention aesthetic, effects of this strategy have

ernment, as the site of an “Ottoman Manchester,”

deep importance for virtually all of the railway’s

a place that would awaken the national economy

encounters with population centers. For one thing,

through industry and manufacturing.

fences separate certain modern sectors from older



neighborhoods. Fencing off property, particularly

87

While the exploration of coal and iron ore

deposits proved that the Ottoman empire was

with orderly picket fences (whether additionally

capable of a true industrial florescence, the absence

supported with metal posts or not), was primarily

and often prohibitive costs of the most advanced

a European rather than an Ottoman practice and

equipment from Europe, particularly for mining,

demonstrates how the beam had already begun to

caused a bottleneck in the production of iron and

formulate ways of visually and spatially articulating

steel goods. This bottleneck, exacerbated by the

territory.

empire’s ever-increasing debt toward the end of the



nineteenth century, limited internally produced

to its railway associates in the Ottoman empire

goods to small-scale objects, rather than the large-

around 1888 and prefabricated cast-iron columns

scale elements necessary for the construction of

around 1895.90 It was not until 1903 that the com-

architecture and infrastructure, which required

pany made its first shipment of I-beams outside

more precise production processes and more

Europe for the construction of Haydarpaşa station,

sophisticated equipment. Where, then, did Pappa’s

the new Asian terminus of the Ottoman railways

I-beams come from?

completed in 1909. The German architects of



Haydarpaşa station designed an iron I-beam and

88

Unsurprisingly, Constantin Pappa had a direct

connection to railway technology. In its last five

deck system not only to create a railway station

decades of existence, the Ottoman empire was

of unprecedented scale and grandeur, but also to

more deeply invested than any other imperial

facilitate its construction on top of landfill.91 The

power in railway technology. Since the 1870s,

construction system, excluding the landfill, was

Krupp had provided the vast majority of iron and

remarkably similar to that of the dry dock at the

steel for the construction of the Ottoman railways.

Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in the German

This included the railway gauges, the construc-

city of Kiel, the principal shipbuilding site of the

tion of which had largely been directed by Philipp

German navy.92

Holzmann.





I-beams delivered to Istanbul in 1903 for the

89

150

Krupp began exporting prefabricated iron ties

Even casual observation of the Ottoman

It is highly probable that the order of Krupp

railway network reveals the ubiquitous effect of

construction of Haydarpaşa station also included a

German construction rules. These rules mandated

small subset of beams and decks for Mimar Pappa

the construction of wooden fences in cities and

to use in the Arif Paşa Apartmanı, not least because

villages, and sometimes along rivers, that clearly

of the construction similarities between the two

demarcated the railway’s property from other

projects. Well connected with the foreign architects

properties—which in turn rendered Ottoman

in town, Pappa could easily have piggybacked his

usufruct ambiguous, as railbeds had previously

I-beam order onto that of the railway contractors.

Precious Metal

Pappa was evidently looking to the German archi-

flammability were well known, both in Europe and

tects and engineers and the railways for structural,

in the Ottoman empire. Yalıs, or summer homes

not stylistic, inspiration in his commission for

common to the Bosphorus, and other wooden

the Sarıca family, adopting—even if tacitly—the

structures regularly burned down, particularly

dialectic of imperial might and modernity unique

in densely packed communities where fire could

to Tanzimat ideology.

spread easily.





One notable feature of the apartment building

It is possible that the Porte may also have seen

is a strong underlying connection between the pri-

the metal structural frame as a way to deal with the

vate sphere of real estate development and the state

centuries-old problem of urban conflagration and

and its ideology. One also sees innovations that

the social and political nature of fires.94 Istanbul

do not mark a one-to-one relationship between

had long been the victim of catastrophic fires, and

state ideology and architecture but highlight the

its extensive, dense fabric of wooden architec-

syncretism that can occur through technology

ture along narrow streets was the single greatest

transfer. There are also issues of style and typol-

contributing factor to the terrible scale and mag-

ogy. With regard to typology, Constantin P. Pappa

nitude of their devastation. A lack of preventive

certainly would have been familiar with the range

infrastructure and a weak fire department did not

of Ottoman house types of the day, none of which

help. Accidents, particularly those originating in

is directly replicated in the Arif Paşa Apartmanı.

the kitchen, were the most common cause of fires,

The konak, a formal official residence, for example,

followed next by arson. In addition to destroying

also has projecting bay windows (cumbalar, almost

buildings, fires played a major role in shaping new

always aligned with the sofa, or living area), but it

modern districts. The introduction of a material

was by definition for a single family and built of

strategy—the iron and steel frame (along with the

wood. The köşk, or freestanding “kiosk” model,

growing use of concrete)—as a deterrent to fire in

which by the nineteenth century had become a

Ottoman architecture predates spatial precautions

primarily suburban typology, exhibits the outward

like fire escapes and multiple egress systems that

orientation that we see in the balconies of the Arif

would emerge in republican architecture from 1923

Paşa Apartmanı, and the köşk’s typical setting in a

onward.

garden can be seen as analogous to the exteriorized



In his exploration of the sociopolitical con-

courtyard of the apartment building. While the

text of fires in late Ottoman Istanbul, Burak Fıçı

use of wood in the side façades of the Arif Paşa

describes how arson in particular, and the plunder

Apartmanı is certainly a signifier of architectural

that often ensued, was an important mechanism

tradition, it is also an important material lesson in

to “ventilate protest and put pressure on authori-

a transition to the increased regulation of nonmetal

ties.” This tactic was used by a number of groups,

building materials for building safety. This hints at

including the Janissaries.95 As a long-term strategy,

the dialectical relationship between materially-in-

it seems quite possible that the Porte (and its loy-

formed style and building safety. By the beginning

alists) viewed iron- and steel-frame construction

of the twentieth century, the structural limitations

as a way not only to quell the human and financial

of wood construction and the dangers posed by its

costs of fire in the city, but also to thwart arsonists’

93

Building

151

use of fire to incite social and political change.

new building construction in the Ottoman empire

Simultaneously, architects in Istanbul, which is

between 1915 and 1919, there was little opportunity

located in a major seismic zone, began to see how a

to put these new structural recommendations to

more carefully engineered building could safeguard

the test at any significant scale. Yet concern with

the urban population from catastrophic building

seismic design may help explain why the I-beam

collapses while also allowing the city to grow verti-

was adopted with such enthusiasm as an integral

cally. Architects and railway engineers proved their

building material in the Turkish Republic and how

achievements in the wake of the great earthquake

important the few late Ottoman precedents were

of 1894 in the Gulf of İzmit, from which both the

in shaping the recombinant uses of structural iron

railways and other structures using metal elements

and steel parts under the new political regime.

emerged largely unscathed.

Istanbul, and to a lesser degree other Ottoman



cities, would soon see a number of four- to six-

96

The value of structural metals in reinforcing

buildings and infrastructure against earthquake

story edifices with iron and steel frames lining old

damage was championed by the Ottoman Min-

streets after urban renewal, or entirely new ones in

istry of the Interior. Shortly before the disastrous

the new modern suburbs.

Şarköy-Mürefte earthquake of 1912 in what is now



western Turkey, the Baghdad Railway Company

Apartmanı’s decorative wooden siding, extremely

questioned its own use of metals as they related

uncommon for a building constructed with a

to seismic safety conditions. This prompted

metal frame, can also be seen as a sort of stylistic

the company, in consultation with the Porte,

compromise operating at the intersection of Tan-

to commission a study by the leading German

zimat ideology, fire safety thinking, technological

seismologist Fritz Frech, the final section of which

ambition, the adaptation of domicile typologies

focuses on how the railway network—particu-

for the modern city, and Ottoman identity. On the

larly its buildings, tunnels, and bridges—could

one hand, Pappa recognized the structural integrity

be fortified against the danger of earthquakes by

of the iron framing through the main plastered

using I-beams.98 Frech’s report included excerpts

brick façade and the regularized treatment of

from studies by the pioneering Japanese seismol-

the building’s fenestration. On the other hand,

ogist Fusakichi Omori, who had revolutionized

he introduced a rough vernacular element in the

building, bridge, and tunnel construction safety

nonfrontal façades, giving the impression that the

against seismic activity after extensive study of San

south façade might not be entirely representative

Francisco following its disastrous 1906 earthquake

of the apartment complex’s contents, like a sort

(discussed in more depth in the next chapter).

of Beaux-Arts mask hiding an unconventional

97

99

While Omori’s expertise was honed in San Fran-

interior. Inside, the sofa arrangement of spatial

cisco, his interest in the seismic safety of railways

flow between rooms is evident in some but not all

emerged from the hard lessons of the Mino-Owari

apartments. This is very telling, as the layout of the

earthquake of 1891, an event that destroyed many

sofa (or its omission) in plan, as some scholars have

of Japan’s brand-new railway bridges.

100

With the

onset of World War I and a dramatic decline in

152

To return to the issue of style, the Arif Paşa

Precious Metal

shown, determines the fundamental type of an Ottoman domicile.101 A sofa-less house (sofasız tip)

typically required families to gather in a courtyard,



while the dış sofalı tip (or hayat), an externalized

Paşa Apartmanı represents a new housing typology

sofa, though also outside, provided for an open gal-

for modern living, or a distinct syncretic build-

lery. The iç sofalı tip (with an interior sofa, often at

ing style born of pro-imperial logic, it is perhaps

a perimeter) and the orta sofalı tip (with a central

most interesting to view the structure as a tech-

sofa) marked the two interior types of arrange-

nological object. From this perspective, the Arif

ment, and versions of both of these appear in the

Paşa Apartmanı represents the moment at which

plan of the Arif Paşa Apartmanı.

architecture, in the final days of Ottoman power,



102

While it could certainly be argued that the Arif

The tensions and internal contradictions

emerged as an extension of industrial infrastruc-

between tradition and an ostensible modernism

ture, employing new material elements, such as

are not unique to the Arif Paşa Apartmanı. In fact,

the I-beam, both to fulfill the shared mission of

they are rather emblematic of late nineteenth-cen-

Tanzimat modernization reforms and to counter

tury Ottoman architecture as a whole (and,

secularist and anti-imperial movements opposed to

arguably, of architecture in the nineteenth century

the state. The I-beam was, in this sense, emblem-

writ large). But this is the first such example where

atic of an idealized Tanzimat object, if not also an

the spatial genesis was guided exclusively by a

idealized Ottoman state: invisible, strong, scalable,

metal space frame and where the direct transmis-

and durable. Invisibility is perhaps the most salient

sion of infrastructure technology into the domain

feature here, demonstrating how architectural

of architecture, and the cascading impact of a

identity turned to a decidedly spatial, as opposed to

state-sponsored infrastructure system on architec-

a visual, strategy.

ture, can be seen.

Building

153

Chapter 6

Return

Rust

mortality of even heroic modern architecture and a cascade of maintenance headaches ranging from

August Thyssen’s memorable quip, “If I rest, I rust,”

minor inconveniences to structural collapse. This

foreshadows some of the concerns of pioneer-

may not necessarily have imprisoned the builder

ing industrialists with respect to the longevity of

in his own work, but it certainly shackled him to

iron and steel and the danger that one particular

the claims of strength and durability of the most

villain—rust—posed. Rust stood to erode the faith

essential of architecture’s materials—metal.

placed in modern architecture and engineering



and the belief that these materials would last far

consequences is ancient, but it was not until the

But what is rust? Familiarity with rust and its

into the future, untainted. Rust menaces because it

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that metal-

tends to frighten us, whereas rust’s natural succes-

lurgists began to pinpoint the chemical roots of

sor, the ruin, is imbued with a reassuring character.

corrosion and what could be done about it.2 The

The ruin restores the human to nature, whereas

understanding of corrosion and how to prevent it

rust “confines him in the middle of his production

grew more or less in tandem with the use of iron

as if within a prison, a prison all the more terri-

and steel in critical infrastructures, particularly for

ble since he is the builder,” as Antoine Picon puts

the military, and with how much of these metals

it. Indeed, the corrosion of iron and steel, given

were being sold on the mass market. This meant

the right conditions, could begin before a work

that iron and steel companies, including Krupp,

of architecture was even complete, signaling the

executed the most advanced research on the topic.

1

Much of this research culminated in the pithy and

iron to heavy steel. This is a sort of inversion of

widely referenced book The Corrosion of Iron and

the photomicrography that is so important at the

Steel (1910), by the American metallurgist Alfred

beginning of the iron- and steelmaking process.4

Sang. Sang outlined the nature of rust as a ferric

Sang, like so many of his contemporaries, relied

sesquioxide that comes in both hydrated and

on biological analogies, in this case to explain the

unhydrated forms and has a brown, reddish brown,

behavior of the “pitting” process associated with

or yellowish brown color when exposed to air and

corrosion, in which impurities like slag are likened

a deeper tint and colloidal nature when underwa-

to “tubercles”:

ter. The shininess of rust is largely contingent on the speed with which water on the surface of iron

The rust commences to form at distinct points which

or steel evaporates—the faster, the shinier—giving

must therefore be particularly liable to attack; the

rust distinctly different hues in different climates.

spreading of the rust from these original points is like

Sang introduced the reader to a range of so-called

that of a disease. There is a peculiar formation known as

theories of rust, which describe the ways in which

“tubercular corrosion” which owes its name to the wart-

rusts form and interact under different conditions:

like concretions of rust and earthy matter derived from

the carbonic acid theory, the hydrogen peroxide

the water, which grow on the metal . . . if the “tubercle”

theory, and the electrolytic theory.

is removed, a hole is found in its place. Rusting starts



at certain points and spreads out until the different

3

Sang’s study is most notable for two things.

The first is how it specifies, for the first time for

growths unite into a continuous covering. The theory of

a lay audience, the extent to which rust’s behav-

pitting . . . is that at the point where it takes place there is

ior differs between iron and steel. The second is

a speck of impurity, such as a particle of slag or scale, or

how it synthesizes existing knowledge about why

a segregated constituent of the metal, which gives rise to

corrosion happens where it does, dispelling the

galvanic action.5

common misconception that the location of rust

156

was more or less arbitrary, a misapprehension that



could mean the difference between nuisance and

metallurgy that had the greatest impact on

wholesale failure. Sang explained that the elemen-

architectural practice (as opposed to on the met-

tal difference between iron and steel—the higher

allurgical community) was narrative prose that

carbon content of the latter—dictates much of the

featured such biological analogies. This kind of

difference in how they corrode. Rust, a carbide,

language resonated and was theoretically sexy, but

behaves differently depending on the type of

it was also something of a chimera. Pitting and

carbon in the structure it is acting on, whether a

tubercles are nothing like cancers because, even

microscopic flat crystal of graphite or a carbide of

in imperceptible amounts, they start altering most

iron, of which many varieties are known. The kind

steels immediately. As with cancer or tuberculosis,

of rust reflects the proportional amount of each of

a steel frame can hit a point of no return, a point at

these types of carbon, effectively making visible, at

which remediation is no longer possible, but this

least to the trained eye, the chemical composition

does not mean that the processes of getting to this

of any particular metal on the spectrum from light

point are the same. The concept of the steel frame

Precious Metal

By all accounts, the scientific literature in

as a “skeleton”—a metaphor consistently in use, in

support system known as the “spiral mushroom

many different languages, since the 1880s—only

system,” which is also promoted as something of

reinforces a false equivalency between the human

an antidote in his book. Turner, supported in large

body and the steel-frame building. In considering

part by the demonstrable success of his system

the “health” of the metal structure, including the

and that of his contemporary Albert Kahn, proved

presence or absence of corrosion, we benefit more

that it was not so much that steel and concrete

from early screenings than we do from autopsies,

were irreconcilable with each other but that early

making the earliest decades of steel corrosion all

applications had failed to engineer the rebar cor-

the more important for a holistic understanding of

rectly, often placing the steel units too close to one

the degeneration of metals.

another or to the surface of the concrete mixture.



Their predecessors had also failed to optimize

The limited number of buildings with struc-

tural metal frames in existence at the time of Sang’s

the shape of the rebar. Steel and concrete, Turner

field guide to corrosion had most of their metallic

argued, were actually sympathetic to each other

frames hidden beneath layers of cladding, floor

and could deliver on their initial promise without

plates, and other secondary materials such as wood

corrosion, if executed properly:

and plaster. Most of these structures—for example, the skyscrapers of Chicago and the factories of the

Fortunately, in concrete steel construction we have in

Ruhrgebiet—had been made with high-grade steel

the cement the most perfect protective coating known

that was well sealed and painted, and their corro-

for iron and steel. Bars somewhat rusty if placed in wet

sion, visible or not, would take some time before

concrete and removed after one week will be found per-

becoming a serious cause for concern (if at all).

fectly clean, the rust having been chemically destroyed

Reinforced concrete was a different story. During

by the cement. The bond between cement and steel is

its first several decades on the construction scene,

formed better between bars somewhat rusty when placed

the material could quickly show signs of corrosion.

in the concrete than between bars new from the mill.

This was due to a number of factors, including the

The reason seems to be that a small amount of rusting

difficulty of simultaneously managing the anticor-

removes the black mill scale and allows the cement to

rosion needs of both Portland cement and the iron

come in contact with the solid bar. . . . Bars removed

or steel reinforcements, needs that were sometimes

from cement after over twenty years’ exposure of the

at odds. Concrete frequently chipped off and

specimens to the elements have been found bright and

exposed the rebar, which further accelerated the

as good as when first placed in the work. This protection

rusting process, necessitating a costly restorative

however is dependent entirely on the thorough covering

patching process and shaking the confidence of

of the steel by the wet concrete and hence the importance

those using these increasingly common struc-

of using a plastic mixture—one that will flow slowly and

tures—many of which were infrastructural, such

thoroughly surround the steel, requiring only puddling

as bridges. The concerns were significant enough

rather than tamping to secure substantial work.7

6

that Claude Allen Porter Turner addressed them at length in his book Concrete Steel Construction,

Turner’s and Kahn’s obsession with concrete’s

just one year after receiving a patent for his flat-slab

ability to support rather than degrade the strength

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157

Figure 72. View of the first stainless steel conveyor belt,

resist the deleterious effects of acids, a particularly

designed by the Swedish firm Sandvik, 1901. Photo: Sandvik.

meaningful advance for the use of steel in industrial settings where acids were used. Although brittle, acid-resistant steel was widely viewed as

of steel gave way to another innovation that would

a defining metallurgical achievement of the day,

return steel to its autonomous position: the inven-

metallurgists in France, Britain, and Germany

tion of stainless steel.

continued to tinker with Berthier’s formula,



lowering the amount of carbon and creating a

8

In 1820, two British metallurgists, James Stodart

and Michael Faraday, published a report describ-

steel with a microscopically thin and transparent

ing the unique ability of iron-chromium alloys to

seal of chromium oxide on its surface. The result

resist corrosion. The French metallurgist Pierre

was astounding: a metal that could heal itself after

Berthier went one step further, exploring how

abrasions and that was almost entirely resistant to

iron-chrome alloys in steel allowed the material to

corrosion (fig. 72). That said, the process was more

9

158

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involved and more expensive than the process for “normal” steel and led many to believe that the new type of steel, dubbed “stainless steel” by Harry Brearley, had no widespread application in either architecture or industry. By the turn of the twentieth century, as critical industrial machinery made of steel began to corrode from acid, weather, and other elements, it became increasingly clear that stainless steel might be a solution when the longevity of steel was the user’s primary concern.10

Architecture and civil engineering were the big-

gest benefactors in the perfecting of stainless steel. Environmentally stable and with an appearance that would not change radically over time, stainless steel was the perfect muse for new and experimental designers who wanted to be able to count on aesthetic longevity, which was only enhanced by stainless steel’s ability to take and retain lusters very well, all combining to make one of the most definitive aesthetic motifs of the “machine age” in architecture.11 Nothing would come to symbolize this achievement better than William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building in New York City, completed at the height of the stock market chaos of 1929 with

Figure 73. Oscar Graubner, Margaret Bourke-White atop the Chrysler Building, ca. 1930. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

the stainless Enduro KA-2, or Krupp austenitic steel (fig. 73).12

The widespread use of stainless steel in architec-

and lustrous material version of its own skeleton,

ture would take hold mostly after World War I, and

designers projected an image, largely wishful, of

it was rarely deployed, before or after the war, as a

steel’s invincibility. That stainless steel was more

material in the core structure of a steel space frame.

viable as a cosmetic application than it was as a

Its primary uses included finishing details such as

structural one may also tell us something about why

sheathing, ornamentation, and hardware; stainless

its moment in the sun was relatively brief.

steel was never an integral element in the structural constitution of architecture. Nevertheless, the implications for architectural aesthetics generally and for

Ruin

the conceptual relationship between architecture and time were formidable. In sheathing and dressing

If we are to believe that the ruin is the extenuation

the steel structure in a self-healing, noncorrosive,

of rust, then we must also describe what allows the

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159

horrible specter of rust to be transformed into the

economic collapse, but of natural processes like

uplifting emotion so often associated with ruin.

rust, rot, and infestation? One cannot look at this

This is a question typically associated with style, as

side of the ruin through the same allegorical lens

in the vexed legacy of the classical tradition in the

because time, unlike human actions, acts on the

modern and postmodern periods. In the certified

ruin in a relentlessly linear manner and is free of

narratives of the development of architectural style,

human will.

much of the desire to learn from and adopt the



ruins of the past seems to express a yearning for a

the turn of the twentieth century offered an episte-

moral victory. This is well summarized by Georg

mological opportunity for a deeper understanding

Simmel, who in 1911 noted that “the ruin strikes

of a building material that was not yet inscribed

us so often as tragic—but not as sad—because

with any particular historical narrative, but instead

destruction here is . . . the realization of a ten-

with a fair amount of projective ideas and potent

dency inherent in the deepest layer of existence

technological optimism. That is, early iron and

of the destroyed.”13 To use the ruin anew was to

steel ruins forced a reckoning with the Industrial

cherry-pick what was beautiful about a culture

Revolution’s sense of self and its own historicity

while also offering a corrective to the failures of

at a time when such a reckoning could potentially

that same culture, an assertion of sorts that history,

tame the unbridled optimism of transformation

while wonderful, would not repeat itself.

that the revolution had worked so hard to fortify.



In addition to letting the construction industry

Despite their propensity for rust, steel and, to

a lesser degree, iron structures were not prone to

ease into the brave new world of steel framing

the speed and type of classical degradation that

more slowly, reflections on early iron and steel

Simmel was surely reflecting upon. The earliest

ruins imbued the new construction system with

steel structures achieved the “reassuring” quality

a philosophical complexity that industry was not

we associate with the ruin in a kind of alternative

equipped to contrive on its own. Echoes of earlier

practice of ruination: that of disassembly. Just as

reflections on ruins by the likes of Immanuel Kant

the Eiffel Tower acquired specific symbolic power

and John Ruskin, their invocation of the sublime

through the spectacle of its construction, it was

in particular, can be sensed in these early metal

not inconceivable that an equally systematic metal

ruins.15 But so too can we sense new strains, which

structure, like the Crystal Palace or the Galerie des

might be described as technopessimism and

Machines at the 1889 Paris exposition, could do the

chronophobia.16

same thing—but in reverse.





of Ypres serve as a case in point. The city occupied

An exhaustive body of literature on the

Accounts of the destruction of the Belgian city

temporal quality of vestiges, detritus, debris, and

a key position during the Great War owing to its

wreckage elucidates the ways in which the ruin has

location near the French border and in the path the

been saddled with an allegorical burden for the

Germans drew to sweep through France from the

aesthetics of architecture. But what of the ruin’s

north, known as the Schlieffen Plan. Ypres, which

ecological quality—its status not as a remnant of

had a medieval center and industrial districts

the vicissitudes of human activities like war and

around it, sustained three withering battles in 1914,

14

160

The iron and steel ruins in the decades around

Precious Metal

Figure 74. Aerial view of the village of Passchendaele, northeast of Ypres, before and after battle, 1917. Photo © Imperial War Museum (Q 42918A).

1915, and 1917, the last being the most severe.17 In an

sides would advance tactical operations. “Our

account of the first battle published by the German

stereo-telescopes were . . . used through loopholes

General Staff, German officials described their

in the ruins or at the chimney openings, and the

circumscription of the medieval town with a “belt

observers were often far safer on such lofty perches

of steel,” referring to the firewall of artillery at the

than our reserves in the cellars of the battered vil-

perimeter. In that battle and the two that followed

lages,” said one official.18 These were ruins of bricks

it, troops on both sides successively shelled and

and mortar from medieval churches and modest

bombed the city and its industrial outskirts until

homes, but also of steel and iron from recently

it was effectively erased from the map (fig. 74).

built Flemish factories, some of which made the

While the ruins of the city still existed, they served

very kinds of machines that formed the “belt of

as heaps on and behind which soldiers from both

steel” that sealed the city’s destiny.

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161



On the Bolshevik front of the war to the east,



These accounts, along with countless similar

Florence Farmborough, a British author, nurse, and

ones from across the continent, form a body of lit-

photographer, described the “whirling storm” of

erature that moves beyond the primarily aesthetic

steel, dust, and gases over the destroyed landscape

accounts of ruins in the tradition of Kant and

there, relating the experience of a Bolshevik soldier,

Ruskin. These narratives too explore the experience

Andrei Lobanov-Rostovsky, as he fought the battle

of the sublime, but with the added figures of indus-

in the industrial ruins of the cities on the Dniester

trial technology, so often represented by steel and

River: “It is impossible to convey the sensation in

its remnants on the battlefield. And they leave an

words, but anyone who has been through such an

impression that the trauma invoked by the ruins of

experience knows what I mean. Perhaps the nearest

these war-torn cities is compounded by the punc-

description would be a continuous and violent

tuation of steel in the landscape. Whereas a brick

earthquake together with thunder and lightning

does not destroy another brick, steel aircraft and

while some foolish giant amused himself by taking

tanks can destroy steel architecture, undercutting

hundreds of flash-lights.”19

feelings of physical safety in towns and cities before



the advent of industrial warfare, and in particular

“The worst havoc is not necessarily where there

was the hardest fighting,” Red Cross administra-

air warfare, and perhaps forcing a reckoning with

tor George Ford explained regarding the ruins

the ethical value of steel as a material. There is

of the Great War. “It is rather in the industrial

also the issue of the unsettling of time, or chrono-

towns behind the lines, such as Lens, Chauny, and

phobia, that this new metal ruin induces. Steel, so

Tergnier, where the invaders had the time scien-

young and new, was supposed to be the material

tifically to blow up every building, that we find

that would endure. How could one reckon with this

the structures completely flattened down.”20 Ford

broken promise?

describes just how systematic this demolition was in the French industrial town of Chauny:

Rubble The Mayor of Chauny told me that a few days before the enemy was driven out of the town, some German

Just as the transition from rust to ruin marks an

engineers came to his house and asked to be taken down

intrinsic change in meaning, so too does the dis-

into the cellar. There they sounded the floor, walls, and

tinction between a ruin and rubble. Whereas a ruin

ceiling, and made a number of measurements; then they

can suggest the whole of a work, either simply by

left, never saying a word. Just before the Germans left

its presence or through an implacable presentation

the town, all the inhabitants were taken to a few houses

of its essence, rubble implies entropy and the phys-

on its western edge; meanwhile the German engineers

ical evidence of erasure. Rubble tends to be linked

placed a carefully calculated charge of dynamite in just

to the behavior of humans who must be involved

the right spot in the cellar of each house and then blew

in acts such as war to render the demolition or

them all up. As the Germans withdrew they proceeded to

destruction that reduces structures to rubble. But

shell the houses in which they had left the inhabitants.

it can also be the signature symbol of a ferocious

21

162

Precious Metal

natural disaster, such as an earthquake, on humans’

landscape, urban or otherwise. The viewer can

built environment.

fully comprehend this rejection of convention in



an 1861 photograph of the Pont St.-Louis that takes

The decades leading up to World War I in

which steel buildings were built limit the number

us inside the bridge’s concave steel underbelly,

of examples of steel rubble available for consider-

abandoning the orientation that both landscape

ation to just a handful. This small sample size is

and orthogonal projection provide (fig. 75). We

useful in that it sheds light on both the instinctive

are instead offered the view of the engineer, whose

and the formative approaches that evolved when

exclusive documentary concern is structure and

the world reckoned that steel, like wood and stone,

who, for that reason, bucks the facile formalism

and despite all the heroic rhetoric surrounding

of the genre of architectural photography that was

it, was not invincible. The Franco-Prussian War

emerging at the time.25

(1870–71), World War I (1914–19), and the San



Francisco earthquake (1906) all offer insights in

Désastres de la guerre (Disasters of War) comprises

this regard.

twenty-one prints of wartime “disasters,” mostly



ruins and rubble resulting from the Siege of Paris

The devastating Franco-Prussian War was the

An album composed a decade later and titled

first major instance of steel structures’ coming

during late 1870 and early 1871. Andrieu’s photo-

down in any significant number, and one can

graphs were widely reproduced and disseminated

recognize in the visual documentation of that war

in popular periodicals such as L’Illustration.26 A

a palpable unease with this new kind of rubble,

significant number of the Désastres photographs

distinct from what is invoked by the traditional

contain mangled and broken steel ruins and heaps

images of rubble that follow disaster and war.

of metal in landscapes of rubble devoid of people.

Photographs by Auguste Hippolyte Collard and

These include the collapsed wreckage of the Pont

Jean Andrieu provide excellent examples of

d’Argenteuil, a two-way rail bridge in the north-

this unease. Alisa Luxenberg cites Collard as an

west of Paris (fig. 76a). The bridge had four spans

influence on Andrieu; both men adopted bold

traversing the Seine, supported by three pairs of

and tonally rich frontal compositions that high-

concrete columns. The two longer spans in the

22

light a structure’s physics instead of its style, be it in a state of completion or of wreckage.23 Collard, the Paris Department of Transportation’s offi-

OVERLEAF

cial photographer, had the professional mandate

Figure 75. Auguste Hippolyte Collard, Ossature du Pont St.-

to document the new steel structures sprouting

Louis, 1861. Albumen print from Pont Louis-Philippe et Pont St.-Louis: Vues photographiques prises pendant l’exécution

up across the city and was officially, as Andrieu

des travaux en 1860–1862 (Paris: École nationale des ponts

would be electively, particularly concerned with

et chaussées, 1862), 17. Photo: École nationale des ponts et

bridges.24 Unlike Andrieu, however, Collard often rejected the conventions of architectural photographs in which structures recede into the distance while being clearly placed within some kind of

chaussées. Figure 76. (a) Jules Andrieu, Désastres de la guerre: Le Pont d’Argenteuil, ca. 1870–71. (b) Jules Andrieu, Désastres de la guerre: L’Hôtel-de-Ville, Galerie des fêtes, 1871. Photo: Canadian Centre for Architecture.

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163

and other building materials (fig. 77). An archway serves as the framing device for the baroque architecture. The dissolution of the architecture and its classical references evokes the semi-ruined landscapes of Piranesi. The intricacy of the baroque architecture, which occupies the entirety of the image’s middle ground, creates a field of soft textures. But both behind and in front of that softness, we are challenged by the rigid forms of the modern: a gridded ruin in the background and the remnants of mangled iron fencing or grating jutting out on either edge of the engraving’s lower half, creating a sharp overlay for the image’s interior.

Despite their very different architectural subject

matter, all three images of Paris in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War seem to project the same sort of trauma: the trauma of the maimed body and the exposed skeleton, an analogy that is enhanced by the absence of real human bodies. In the case of the Palace of St. Cloud and the bridge, the flesh is Figure 77. Unknown, Ruins of the Palace of St. Cloud, Saint-

the steel and iron, whereas in the case of the hotel,

Cloud, France, 1870. Lithograph. Photo: Artokoloro / Alamy

the metals function as the skeleton. In each case,

Stock Photo.

the flesh has been violently ripped away, leaving ligaments and tendons dangling and exposing us to the shock of a structure that has experienced

middle have collapsed and fallen directly into the

something even worse than simple collapse: having

river, while the end spans, in seeming choreo-

its exterior structure and interior content violently

graphed symmetry, dip downward into the water

separated, allowing us to recognize distinct com-

below. The series also includes an interior shot of

ponents of architecture while also registering the

the Hôtel-de-Ville’s Galerie des Fêtes, or banquet

shock of their dismemberment.

hall, the bombardment of which left the ironwork



that supported a now obliterated ornate coffered

lighted the failures of certain reinforced concrete

ceiling exposed and dangling (fig. 76b).

structures in his influential study Concrete Steel



166

An unmarked lithograph titled Ruins of

Claude Allen Porter Turner, for his part, high-

Construction, taking that industry to task for its

the Palace of St. Cloud, a building that was also

misleading tests and negligent oversight. He under-

destroyed during the Siege of Paris, similarly

scored the sudden structural failures with images

depicts the contrast between architectural metals

of the rubble of the Bixby Hotel in Los Angeles and

Precious Metal

a building under construction at Eastman Kodak’s

of the construction faults in each building revolved

headquarters in Rochester, New York.27

around a number of common causes: unprotected



steel framing, which allowed the steel to morph

The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906

rendered a very different image of steel as rubble,

more rapidly in intense heat; poorly secured lath,

not so much the image of a body dismembered

which contributed to the rapid morphing; and all

but a picture of cataclysmic contortions that even

manner of poor designs of tiling and columnar

industry experts could not have imagined. It was

footings. Himmelwright’s frank analyses were sup-

for precisely this reason that executives at the

plemented with the photographs of R. J. Waters &

Roebling Construction Company of Trenton, New

Co., also commissioned by Roebling as part of the

Jersey, commissioned the civil engineer Abraham

report.

Lincoln Artman Himmelwright to travel to San



Francisco not long after the earthquake and the

populate the report is an image of a pristine steel

massive fire that ensued, which leveled most of the

frame, rising eight stories above the rubble around

city. Himmelwright’s task, in the descriptively titled

it on a triangular parcel of land (fig. 78a). Him-

report The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire: A

melwright informs us that this is the Ruef Building

Brief History of the Disaster; A Presentation of Facts

(today known as the Sentinel Building) by Salfield

and Resulting Phenomena, with Special Reference

& Kohlberg, which was under construction at the

to the Efficiency of Building Materials Lessons of the

time of the earthquake. The frame survived largely

Disaster, was to assess every ostensibly fireproof

because there was no combustible material on or

building in the burned-out district and to report

around it, which allowed it to withstand the less

on all of the critical lessons that could be learned

intense heat occasioned by the burning buildings

from the buildings’ responses to both the earth-

that surrounded it.29

quake and the fire, a magnitude of trauma that



steel-framed buildings had not endured before. The

Aronson Building by Hemenway & Miller, shows

report was a watershed study for the fields of both

the dramatic result of the failure of a hollow

seismic engineering and fireproofing and proved

tile column sheathing a riveted steel column

influential both domestically and abroad, partic-

(fig. 78b).30 The inner part of the column appears

ularly in Italy, the Ottoman empire, and Japan, all

to have torqued and split as a result of the heat to

Interspersed among the disastrous images that

Another image, from the basement of the

seismically active places that were beginning to

which it was exposed by the failed tiling, remain-

build with steel.28

ing only loosely connected by the riveted outer



Himmelwright traversed an apocalyptic

layer and splaying in either direction in a Y-shaped

scene in San Francisco, and he reported on each

formation that essentially diagrams the geological

and every building with a familiar formula, first

phenomenon known as coseismic displacement.31

describing the construction methods employed,

This buckling caused the parts of the frame directly

then describing and analyzing how (and very occa-

above the column to plummet two feet. Himmel-

sionally whether) a given structure had failed and

wright proudly noted that the Roebling-brand

played a cumulative part in the loss of more than

flooring across the nine-story loft building

three thousand lives. Himmelwright’s assessments

remained in excellent condition. The failure of the

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167

column tiles at the nearby Mills Building (fig. 78c)

of structural affairs in the wake of the earthquake’s

was perhaps the most potently symbolic of all

devastation. Much like Himmelwright’s work, the

because of its architect: Daniel Burnham, director

album projects an odd juxtaposition of corporate

of the World’s Columbian Exposition and designer

boosterism and a dispassionate documentary

of what were arguably the world’s first skyscrapers.

tone.35 The album’s authors strategically empha-

Here too the basement column tiles failed, peeling

sized views of the city’s rubble, including a view

off in the intense heat of the fire and leaving the

of Golden Gate Avenue, where the photographer

beam to cook until it bowed. In this case, the

highlighted a row of charming “painted ladies”

damage is a plastic deflection to one side rather

made of redwood facing rubble across the street

than a drastic shear, with the beam still recogniz-

as if in victory (fig. 78d). This vigorous promotion

able despite its cartoonish appearance.

of redwoods worked: construction companies that



vowed not to make the same mistake again had cli-

32

The preoccupation with steel’s ability to endure

earthquakes and fires makes it easy to overlook

ents who were willing to pay a small premium for

another material—wood—that had laid the

a higher grade of wood. This in turn placed a huge

proverbial groundwork for San Francisco’s rise in

burden on northern California’s limited redwood

the first place and continued to play a role even in

forests, with many vast areas of redwood forest

steel construction, as scaffolding and as a second-

being all but stripped within a matter of months

ary material. Officials from President Theodore

after the earthquake.36

Roosevelt on down had vowed to rebuild San



Francisco quickly, and they did just that. Prior to

the Franco-Prussian War and their natural destruc-

the earthquake, loggers of the local redwood forests

tion in San Francisco through rupture and fire

had promoted the species as the most fire-resistant

fundamentally differed from the unthinkably vast,

wood on the market, a result of the absence of resin

multinodal destruction witnessed across Europe

in its chemical composition. The authors of a

during the Great War. The fundamental difference

photo album assembled by the Redwood Car Ship-

lay in the scale of deliberate mass destruction that

pers Bureau, based in San Francisco, took to the

was, for the first time in human history, carried out

streets as Himmelwright did to document the state

by air, thanks to major advances in the zeppelin

33

34

The tactical destruction of steel structures in

and other aircraft technology.37 By the end of the war, the Entente and Central powers had collecFigure 78. Clockwise from top left: (a) steel frame of the Ruef Building, (b) destroyed Aronson Building, (c) destroyed Mills Building, and (d) intact “painted ladies” after the San

tively executed at least one strategic bombing of almost every capital city in Europe, except for

Francisco earthquake of 1906. Photos a–c commissioned

Rome and Lisbon. Yarmouth, Saint Petersburg,

by R. J. Waters & Co. and excerpted from Abraham Lincoln

Cologne, Düsseldorf, Freiberg, Innsbruck, Bolzano,

Artman Himmelwright, The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire: A Brief History of the Disaster; A Presentation of Facts

and Venice, among others, all sustained significant

and Resulting Phenomena, with Special Reference to the

damage as well. In these locales, it was typically the

Efficiency of Building Materials Lessons of the Disaster (New

state-of-the-art facilities—train lines and stations,

York: Roebling Construction, 1906). Digitization Lab, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. Photo (d) courtesy

shipbuilding centers, military depots, and other

of Forest History Society, Durham, North Carolina.

critical infrastructure—that drew the enemy’s

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169

attention, and these were the shiny new structures

form of subsistence for the poor since at least the

made of the iron and steel being produced in

early modern period, with scrap peddlers from

Essen, Manchester, Luxembourg, and beyond.

38

China, to India, to the Mediterranean, to colonial America helping blacksmiths and other metal tradesmen supplement their stocks with bits of

Scrap

iron, silver, copper, and gold that could be melted and reshaped.39 In the nineteenth century, the

While walking by the main train station in the

170

scrap trade evolved rapidly, transitioning from an

city of Konya, in central Anatolia, one notices a

informal economy that relied on itinerant scrap-

curious fence. Adjacent to the station are a series

pers who were often plagued by tetanus infections

of modest and now abandoned homes. Separating

to a business model with a centralized repository

them from the street is a wobbly picket fence that is

for scrap seekers, a place known as the scrapyard.

periodically reinforced by scrap fragments of rail-

Hailing scrap’s ecological function in 1918, two

way gauges embossed with the notation “KRUPP

observers noted how the employment of scrap in

1896.” These makeshift fence stanchions are scraps

the production of new steel was the ultimate act

from the days of the German construction of the

of conservation: “It reduces the drain that other-

Ottoman railway network, within which Konya

wise would be made on the mineral wealth in the

was a major hub. The houses were domiciles for the

ground and staves off the day when this will be

German officials living on the site, and the fences,

exhausted. Probably in no other line of conserva-

a completely uncommon way of demarcating

tion is the reclamation so complete. Coal burned

property divisions in Ottoman culture, were the

is lost as coal and continues to exist only as gas,

quasi-colonial distinction between German and

ash and powder. Wood is burned or rots away

Ottoman domains. Yet the fence stanchions, rough

and cannot be reclaimed. But metals continue as

and rusty pieces of industrial detritus, are likely to

metals and do not lose their identity as such, no

tell the modern viewer more about the precarity

matter how many times they are used or even how

of that distinction than about the assertive force it

corroded they may become.”40

intended to articulate. It is, after all, just scrap, and



although it was made for railways, it looks like it

imate work, the scrapyard single-handedly created

could be used for just about anything, including a

a reputable profession: the scrap trade in metals.

fence stanchion.

In 1918, the journalist George Manlove exclaimed



that the iron and steel scrap industry “has risen

The practice of finding and reusing salvage and

Now operating just inside the margins of legit-

scrap material is a practice as old as civilization.

from nothing to a position of full dignity and is just

Rags, paper, and most metals have proved their

now coming into its own, a recognized member of

value as recyclable commodities for millennia.

the iron and steel family.”41 Carl Zimring notes that

Biblical verses refer to the conversion of unused

the scrap trade had even become a transatlantic

iron plowshares into swords (Joel 3:10) and swords

venture by the 1890s, with valuable scrap moving

into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3). The prac-

regularly across the Atlantic.42 Less well known

tice of scrapping materials has been a veritable

is the instrumental role of metals in the rise and

Precious Metal

professionalization of the global scrap economy and

or so, the success of the Martin process necessi-

the institutionalization of the scrapyard as a venue

tated a steady supply of scrap and cemented its

in both the industrial and postindustrial eras.

reputation not as a waste product but rather as an



ingredient in a state-of-the-art rolling process.

The return of steel to nature and its transfor-

mation into new incarnations in architecture is a



course that runs directly through the scrapyard

of the scrap trade’s total land use, Schrottplätze,

and its role in promoting the recycling of structural

Schrotthandellagern, and Schrottstahlzentren

steel in the nineteenth century. As has already

(various words for the English term “scrapyard”)

been noted, prior to World War I, steel-framed or

affirmed the scrap trade’s status as part and parcel

reinforced buildings—few and far between to begin

of the vertical company. Archival records indicate

with—seldom came down, but even then, nones-

that throughout the 1880s, lands apportioned as

sential steel parts were often scrapped as updates

scrapyards were found in interstitial areas between

to buildings were made. Metallurgical research,

foundries in which items were often grouped

particularly in Germany, promoted a new recycling

together by their shape or the metal they were made

system that mixed scrap steel with iron and oxygen

of. Their location meant that they were accessible

and burned off carbon for purification, rendering

only to those who already had access to the plant’s

scrap metal a material with intrinsic value. The

grounds, and that the management of scrap, which

advancement of alloy technology, which often

often included test pieces or defective products, was

employed scrap, also did much to alter the nature

handled (and that scrap was recycled) internally.

of the steel industry.

Panoramic photographs of the grounds inadver-



tently reveal some of the activity that occurred

43

We do know some key facts about scrap and its

Although they accounted for a small amount

ecology at Krupp. The company was an essential

in these spaces (fig. 79). The photographs of the

partner in one of the single greatest innovations in

day suggest that by about 1880, these spaces were

steelmaking in the 1860s: the use of regenerative

moved into larger dedicated lots at the perimeter

heat in what would become known as the Sie-

of the grounds, which allowed dedicated scrapyard

mens-Martin process, which entailed employing

managers to provide access to the area to scrap-

gases to heat fuel in a brick honeycomb structure

pers and peddlers who were not affiliated with the

at the base of the furnace. Alfred Krupp experi-

company. It is relatively certain that all the material

mented with the process in laboratories in Essen,

in the yard was waste from Krupp, but opening the

and in 1864 he discovered that the addition of scrap

yard to the public allowed Krupp’s metals to circu-

metal to the molten metal mix aided in burning

late in the second-hand market. Anecdotal evidence

off carbon from the mixture, which in turn made

reveals that scraps that were not melted down often

the steel significantly stronger. Krupp, ever the

found their way into existing homes and businesses

ambitious businessman, said of the discovery,

in ad hoc ways: a metal wheel as a dining table,

“This news is most interesting—this can lead to a

an I-beam as a bench, an assemblage of scraps to

tremendous revolution in fabrication. . . . We must

make a swing set for children.45 Scrapyards, unlike

follow this chance and not let it escape—we must

slag heaps, were not burial grounds for the material

be the first if it is good.”44 For another twenty years

output related to the process of steelmaking but

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171

Figure 79. Detail view of the Krupp cast-steel factory at Essen showing scrapyard at bottom left, 1897. Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen.

served as a staging ground for reincarnation, a kind

scrap into account, the Martinwerke took greater care in

of material purgatory.

its new facilities at the scrapyard, the facility where the



scrap is stacked, and let it benefit from the advantages of

There is a conspicuous absence of literature

on the subject of scrap before World War I. Emil

the advanced technology. In order to gain space for the

Künzer’s 1913 Die Entwicklung der deutschen

extensive scrap mass, the aim is to lay the rails high and,

Stahlindustrie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung

with the help of modern hoists and magnetic cranes,

der Martinstahlerzeugung und der Bedeutung des

to allow direct loading from the wagon to the scrap

Schrottes für dieselbe (The Development of the

hoppers, since of course the double reloading of the

German Steel Industry with Special Consider-

incoming scrap incurs high costs.47

ation of the Martin Process and the Importance of Scrap for It) is a notable exception. Künzer’s

As the British metallurgists George Henry Manlove

book, which went largely unheralded, contrib-

and Charles Vickers put it a few years later, “There

uted a great deal to outlining how scrap metal was

is no romance in scrap. The ancient alchemist

classified, valued, sorted, and ultimately used in

sought to turn the baser metals into gold, not

the all-important Siemens-Martin process. Künzer

understanding as we do now that transmutation is

outlined six types of scrap: old welding-iron scrap

chemically impossible. But the scrap industry has

(Schweißeisenaltschrott), new welding-iron scrap

solved the problem from another direction, and

(Schweißeisenneuschrott), old cast iron (Altguß),

scrap is [now] transmuted into the gold that indus-

break iron and washing iron (Bruch- und Wasche-

try is willing to pay for . . . presenting the scrap in a

isen), old steel scrap (Stahlaltschrott), and new steel

form and condition to be used again.”48

scrap (Stahlneuschrott, Hüttenschrott). Using both



statistical data and technical evidence, Künzer

not able to predict just how dramatically war would

demonstrated how the Siemens-Martin process

change the nature and organization of the scrap

almost quadrupled the need for scrap in iron and

industry.49 During the war, citizens were encour-

steel in the twenty-five-year period preceding 1910.46

aged to contribute to the war effort by rationing

He also described how the employment of scrap

things like bread and oil and contributing reusable

helped preserve untapped ore reserves for longer

materials such as metals to newly established local

periods of time, effectively strengthening steel’s

scrapyards, where household appliances, grates,

overall quality and slowing down the industry’s

banisters, screens, gates, fences, cans, and other

ecological impact, even if this was not explicitly

metallic bric-a-brac were collected, sorted, and

Künzer’s concern. Citing the practices of a scrap

shipped off to be recycled into guns, tanks, shells,

collection facility called the Martinwerke, he wrote:

and so forth. Such efforts were associated even

Writing on the eve of the Great War, Künzer was

more closely with World War II, when scrap drives The scrap therefore has an extremely favorable effect

became known as “industrial conservation.” During

on the sustainability of the ore deposits and is a very

both world wars, dismantling metals from one’s

desirable factor for all industrial countries producing

home for donation to the scrapyard, and hence to

steel in that it postpones the point in time at which the

the war effort, signaled a form of patriotism, and

ore reserves are exhausted. Taking this importance of

families proudly deaccessioned the appliances and

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173

Germany.50 A series of events, including the specter of famine in Norway and the country’s inability to operate its largest industry, shipping, and its merchant fleet, led to the Entente takeover of Norwegian steamer ships. In the summer of 1916, the Norwegian newspaper Tidens Tegn reported on the illicit deconstruction of Norwegian steamers, whose iron parts were forwarded to Krupp as scrap.51 At the same time, German agents traveled to Bergen, Norway’s main Atlantic port, to recover iron scrap from a massive fire that had leveled the city center earlier that year (fig. 80).52 The German daily Berliner Tageblatt reported on a similar situation in Austria, where the Central powers were shipping scrap from throughout Europe to assist in the production of Siemens-Martin steel in Austria-Hungary.53

As a result, more people became familiar with

scrapyards and began to patronize them. Manlove and Vickers hint at how scrap peddling had become naturalized across the Atlantic in the Figure 80. Unknown, view of ruins from the Bergen fire of

American cultural landscape:

1916, Bergen, Norway. Photo: Atelier KK. The Picture Collection, University Library in Bergen.

Probably every boy who ever was a real boy has been engaged at some time and in some degree in assisting this industry by gathering old iron [for] the visit of the

architectural metals that constituted their homes,

“rags and old iron” collector who traverses country road

leaving curious voids in the architectural fabric:

and city alley. The iron and steel thus collected brought

stairways without banisters, windows stripped of

and does bring only a tither [sic] of the price for which it

grilles, and fenceless properties.

sells to its consumer; but the successive steps of handling



Industrial conservation was by no means lim-

or marketing add to its price steadily. The boy gathering

ited to the domestic realm during war. The drama

it from out-of-the-way places and offering a small hoard

surrounding scrap even played out in countries

to the peddler, performs his task without knowing that

that had declared neutrality. Norway, for example,

no one else can do it so well because to him the value of

went into economic limbo during the so-called

time does not exist.54

Anglo-Norwegian conflict of 1916–17, in which the

174

resource-rich country was found to have breached

Manlove and Vickers’s assertion that boys were

the Entente’s wishes to halt the export of pyrite to

only “real” if they had been involved in the scrap

Precious Metal

trade is of course both hyperbolic and chauvinistic,

material more valuable than mere scrap and places

but more significantly it belies the reality that by

the latter in its proper bins so that shipments meet

the first decade of the twentieth century, the scrap

specifications. . . . Even unskilled labor becomes

trade had actually become semiprofessionalized

somewhat skilled in handling the accumulation as

and increasingly complex, diminishing the oppor-

experience in a short time shows exactly where the

tunity for street urchins and casual peddlers to

great majority of the pieces should be disposed.”

trade in scrap. Railway companies in the United

Indeed, the sorting and classification process had

States, as in Europe, were the largest producers of

become complex enough to warrant a minimum

the ferrous scrap eligible for reuse in the steelmak-

of sixty or so categories at a typical scrapyard

ing process and, as a result, the scrap trade tended

on both sides of the Atlantic, and upward of one

to be at its most sophisticated in the Midwest,

hundred at a plant with a network of scrap sources

where many American railway companies had

like Corwith’s. The official “Railways Storekeepers’

their headquarters. The Corwith Scrap Yard in

Classification of Scrap” had five classifications

Chicago had become the world’s largest free-

related to structural metals: cut-up structural and

standing metal scrap repository by 1918, its twenty

shaped iron, uncut structural and shaped iron,

acres and 650 employees making it vast enough

cut-up structural and shaped steel, uncut structural

to rival the famous Union Stock Yards to its east.

and shaped steel, and uncut mixed structural and

Adjacent to the railheads of three major railroads

shaped iron and steel.57

extending from Chicago to the Pacific coast—the



Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe—the Corwith

panied by the standardization of scrap sizes, a set

plant represented the pinnacle of scrap classifi-

of limitations that were particularly germane to the

cation and reclamation. Clerical workers were

reuse of elements of structural metals. In Chicago,

particularly well trained owing to the necessity of

for example, pieces could not be more than six feet

double accounting. The Santa Fe line was intent on

in length or twenty inches in width and thickness,

keeping its railbeds and rolling stock in absolute

with no piece exceeding half a ton. This was because

top-notch condition, which meant a fairly regular

pieces larger than that could not fit in most hearths,

replacement of materials. Because of the efficiency

and scrapyards and those working in them could

of the scrapyards at Corwith, which never brought

simply not manage (or carry) pieces that were larger.

in less than one million dollars in profit per year

This did not mean, however, that a massive I-beam,

beginning around 1915, the maintenance of a state-

for example, could not be recycled as scrap. It would

of-the-art railroad was in large part supported by

first need to be disconnected at its welding points

collaboration with an efficient scrap operation.

and then split further until it met the size restric-



tions, a process that could be quite labor intensive,

55

56

Manlove and Vickers, writing in 1918, described

The standardization of scrap types was accom-

the scene at Corwith when a load of scrap arrived

depending on the original size of the beam. The lim-

at the scrapyard. “Once unloaded, the scrap is

itations on scrap sizes did not stop there; there were

attacked by the sorters and classified. This is one of

also limits on the minimum size of scrap: pieces

the most important operations in the series for a

could not be less than a quarter inch thick or weigh

number of reasons. If properly done, it picks out all

less than five pounds per linear foot, nor could they

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175

176

be overly dirty pieces or otherwise deformed.58 In

while invigorating those of central and south-

these cases, the problem was not the cumbersome

ern Europe, and fundamentally changing the

nature of the scrap piece but that the effort spent cat-

capacity of both regions to make the alloyed steel

aloging and transporting it outweighed its ultimate

that German metallurgists and manufacturers

value in the production of alloys.

were pioneering. The vast majority of this scrap



switched hands in the Ruhrgebiet. The quantity

In Europe, the scrap trade was more exclusively

circumscribed within the scrapyards of actual iron

of scrap metal that could be absorbed by that

and steel manufacturers like Krupp, and thus there

region’s plants was three to ten times the orig-

was no equivalent to the scale of an operation like

inal quantity of pig iron from which the scrap

Corwith. But there were more modest scrapyards

originated.62 The vast majority of this scrap came

that, in strong partnership with railways and other

from worn out or otherwise outmoded industrial

industries, were able to offer competition in the

equipment.63

ferrous scrap trade. In Germany, these included



Schrotthandel GmbH and the Süddeutscher

among other newspapers, reported regularly on the

Schrottverbraucher.59 In France, where the scrapy-

rising value of scrap and the stipulations placed on

ard was known as the parc à ferrailles, the industry

neutral countries that purchased rolled goods from

was less consolidated, with small operations

Germany through the spring of 1916, including a

throughout the country.60

stipulation that the purchaser must return in the



Whereas prior to the Great War, steel pro-

form of scrap metal 10 percent of the value of new

ducers had become increasingly focused on steel

goods bought, so that production could continue.64

for the building industries, during the war they

By 1917, when there were far fewer neutral parties

were almost exclusively focused on its production

with whom such commercial trade deals could

for armaments and other military equipment.

be cut, the dearth of scrap negatively affected the

This not only accelerated the urgent need for the

quality of alloys being produced and accelerated

During wartime, the Frankfurter Zeitung,

creation of alloys; it also upended the patterns

domestic efforts to collect scrap through “indus-

of scrap collection across Europe. In 1913, the

trial conservation.” By the war’s end, nations across

year before war erupted, Germany imported a

Europe had drafted new rules about the trans-

whopping 314 thousand tons of scrap metal, with

national scrap trade, under which they generally

Britain, France, and the Netherlands being the

could not export more than they imported, which

largest sources. Germany exported far less than

indicated a recognition of the intrinsic value of

it imported, only 196 thousand tons, most of it

the scrap market for the health of a national steel

to Austria-Hungary and Italy, powers the kaiser

economy. Some countries went a step further to

had long been grooming as military allies.

target the power of the German steel industry. The

61

In addition to being Europe’s most important

Netherlands, for example, stipulated that “not more

steel producer by this time, Germany had also

than 5% of the weight of iron or steel imported

positioned itself as the fulcrum of the all-import-

from Germany into the Netherlands shall be

ant but far less studied European scrap trade,

returned to Germany in the form of scrap iron or

depleting the scrap reserves of western Europe

scrap steel.”65

Precious Metal



The continental geography of the scrap trade

directly to France for that country’s own postwar

was not the only geography affected; the urban

reconstruction.

geography of where and how scrap was collected,



traded, and dispersed also came into play. Unable

only a very small proportion of the reparations

to acquire or afford more valuable real estate within

payments, German scrap, often emblazoned with

city centers, scrapyards were typically located in

the Krupp and Thyssen logos, was soon to be found

vacant lots in industrial zones on a city’s fringes

throughout France, particularly in neighboring

or in its suburbs. The destruction of World War I

Alsace and Lorraine, and was melted down for new

Although scrap building materials made up

and the poverty that followed, particularly in the

materials or recycled and reintegrated into dam-

Ruhr Valley, only enhanced the importance of the

aged buildings.68 Shipments of scrap, coal, and iron

scrapyard, which was now increasingly collecting

ore were chaperoned by soldiers as they crossed

scrapped metal from bric-a-brac and ruined build-

the border into France. Scrap then made its way to

ings constructed with iron and steel and outfitted

any number of state-approved scrapyards, where

with more modern appliances and plumbing.66

it would be further disseminated for industrial or



private purposes.69

Architectural fragments, including many from

Krupp’s own damaged facilities, could be found in



these yards and were, during the interwar period,

steel plants, including one rehabilitated Krupp

viewed as some of the more valuable scrap around.

plant, that could still produce high-end steel, which

During the Weimar period, Germany regularly

had far greater value for paying down reparation

defaulted on the £6.6 billion reparation payments

debts. So, while much scrap moved from Germany

to the Allied forces, especially France, that were

to France, select nonferrous scrap was also moving

dictated by the Treaty of Versailles. Germany,

in the other direction, and for this we have better

desperate to monetize the raw materials it still

records. According to figures published by the

had, said that it repaid as much as it could with

Union of Scrap Iron Users in West Germany, an

raw materials like timber and iron ore. Yet the

organization that was amalgamated with other

payments still regularly fell short of what was

important scrap traders’ associations for better

owed, and so France, along with Belgium, entered

control of the market, purchases of scrap iron for

the Ruhr in January 1923 and forced the Weimar

the two-month period following the French and

government to hand over even more materials and

Belgian occupation averaged 10,250 metric tons

reparations to keep up with payments, and did

weekly. German scrapyard owners complained that

not leave until 1925. This transformed scrapyards

their reserves of scrap iron were almost entirely

from marginal places in the informal economy

depleted, and manufacturers imported 124,800

into sources of essential geopolitical exchange.

metric tons of scrap during the first quarter of

The Ruhr Valley, Germany’s industrial backbone

1923 from—in order of volume—France, the

and Krupp territory, was consequently expected

Netherlands, Belgium, and Great Britain.70 On

to shoulder an outsized economic burden for

both sides of the French-German border, women

the entire Weimar Republic, funneling a vast

in particular were recruited to work in the scrap-

majority of its coal, iron ore, and scrap metal

yards, and, equipped with immunizations against

67

Ironically, Germany also needed scrap for its

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177

tetanus provided by both the French and German

industrial building materials were entirely reus-

governments, they were set to work sorting and

able and adaptable for new uses—in this, the very

processing scrap metals.71

antithesis of steel’s main commercial competitor,



concrete. It also demonstrates how ecological

That the recycling of scrap and the advance-

ment of alloy technology came to fruition

ingenuity can arise from science and philosophy in

independently of any ecological considerations

equal measure. For all of its damage, and the hubris

hints at the fact that the life cycle of steel, here

of its boosters, steel also exhibits a distinctive—and

in its closing chapter, is not marked solely by a

timely—reflexive ecology that renders the art of

lamentable ecological obliviousness. The rise in

renewal something intrinsically profitable to our

the valuation of iron and steel refuse is in itself a

built world.

proto-green event, one that, even if not expressly ecological in nature, suggested that at least some

178

Precious Metal

Conclusion

The period following the one studied in this book,

a broader artistic and cultural modernity. In earlier

roughly from 1920 onward, bears witness to a

times, metals in the buildings and other infrastruc-

dizzying pinnacle of building in iron and steel. As

ture of everyday life were more a technological

a technical phenomenon, this is plainly evident

fixation than a cultural one, which may explain

in the skyscrapers that continue to rely on these

how a material could make such remarkable strides

materials for their impossible, vertiginous skele-

into the bones of our environment with such little

tons, and the bridges that stretch ever more widely

critical or artistic scrutiny. That I end this book

with less and less need to even touch the ground.

where I do, chronologically, reflects my attempt to

Yet it is also a cultural phenomenon, in at least two

wrestle with this intellectual dissymmetry between

ways. First, while industrial production incorpo-

the past two centuries. My focus on Germany’s

rates far more than iron and steel, these industries

place in the world during the first of these cen-

came to be saddled with the representational onus

turies is also an effort to move the story of these

of industrialism at large. The closing of steel mills

materials away from a teleology that ends with

in Pittsburgh, Manchester, and the Ruhrgebiet in

the primacy of the United States or China, World

the latter part of the twentieth century symbolized

War II, the Bauhaus, or the skyscraper. In rejecting

the overall reorganization of global trade and the

these predictable destinations, and instead offering

rise of the “postindustrial” condition, even though

a narrative about the materials and their life cycles,

we are more reliant on industrially produced

I hope to have presented an ethically pertinent

commodities today than ever before. Second,

alternative view of material ecology, rooted in time

iron and steel emerged from the long nineteenth

and place, while it is still relevant for our pursuit of

century ready to be figured as the material muse of

better options today.



This is not to say, however, that the twentieth



Renger-Patzsch’s photograph typifies the quali-

century does not offer important lessons, even

ties of New Objectivity in its exceptional technical

as we temporarily remove it from our cone of

precision, rejection of clear pictorial stylization

vision in order to see something else more clearly.

or expressionism, keen attention to detail, and

Together, the trauma of the Great War and the

commitment to structure and form.2 Yet, in what

shadow of the long nineteenth century conjured a

seems to be irony about its own logic, the pho-

radically new Germany in the 1920s, characterized

tograph renders steel more abstractly than ever

by, among other things, the rise of a new move-

before. In cropping out the structure and giving

ment in German art and culture known as the

us this abstract and yet vivid vignette of one of the

Neue Sachlichkeit, or “New Objectivity.” Debates

Ruhrgebiet’s bridges (something we know only

about the degree of its actual “newness” aside, this

from the photograph’s title), the photographer

movement was characterized by an intense and

abruptly severs the bridge from the entire body

rather sudden rejection of Romantic idealist ideas

of knowledge of physics and mathematics, and of

about the world in favor of rationalism, function-

parts and wholes, that characterized steel’s cultural

alism, and practical engagement, and it pervaded

figuration in the nineteenth century. Steel in all its

fields ranging from philosophy and literature to

exactitude is depicted as an abstraction of modern

music and architecture. Steel and iron were rapidly

society.

transformed from a subject of avid technologi-



cal interest into the object of an intense cultural

these themes of metal architecture decades later,

fetish. Albert Renger-Patzsch’s well-known 1928

stepping back to offer us total compositions, the

photograph Ein Knotenpunkt der Fachwerkbrücke

rigor of their work lay not in any kind of illustrative

Duisburg-Hochfeld (A Node from the Latticework

or archaeological understanding, as it would have

Bridge in Duisburg-Hochfeld) is a case in point

in the nineteenth century. Bernd and Hilla Becher,

(fig. 81). In this gelatin print we see several steel

pioneers of a second wave of the New Objectivity

beams interconnecting in ways that seem prac-

in the 1970s, were interested instead in supplying

tically arbitrary in the absence of context. There

a grammar of modern metal form through the

are what appear to be two types of beams, thicker

production of series of typological ensembles

(primary) and thinner (secondary), as well as

(fig. 82).3 Theirs is not the “syrupy universalism”

girders and what appears to be a cage for a ladder.

of Caspar David Friedrich or Adolph Menzel but

All of the beams, some of which reveal their partial

rather the creation of a morphological family, a

hollowness from below, are riveted in ways that

kind of nineteenth-century ethnography of twenti-

seem at once patterned and indiscriminate.

eth-century form. The idea, the Bechers explained,

1

Even as a new wave of German artists revisited

was “to create families of motifs” that “become humanized and destroy one another, as in Nature Figure 81. Albert Renger-Patzsch, Ein Knotenpunkt der Fach-

where the older is devoured by the newer.”4 Blake

werkbrücke Duisburg-Hochfeld, 1928. Albert Renger-Patzsch

Stimson characterizes the pattern in the Bechers’

Archiv / Stiftung Ann und Jürgen Wilde, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Photo © Albert Renger-Patzsch Archiv / Ann

work as a process that connects one image to the

und Jürgen Wilde / DACS 2021.

next and the next and the next rather than using

Conclusion

181

Figure 82. Bernd and Hilla Becher, Winding Towers, 1967–88.

instead do their work as photography “by means of

Photo © Estate Bernd and Hilla Becher, represented by

a network of photographs.”5

Max Becher; courtesy Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur—Bernd and Hilla Becher Archive, Cologne.



The Ruhrgebiet, the region at the center of this

book and the subject of much of the Bechers’ work, seems to function as a perennial reminder of their

182

photography to exercise the analytical powers of

view of a “Nature” in which the new devours the

isolation, definition, and classification (beyond,

old. In the nineteenth century, Krupp, Thyssen, and

that is, their minimalist typological schemata of

many others began their accelerated exploitation

water towers versus mine heads, round buildings

of nature by plundering the earth’s interior for its

versus square), or even detailed description and

coal, iron ore, manganese, and silica, swallow-

cognitive understanding. The Becher photographs

ing and tearing up land, rerouting and polluting

are “not illustrations,” as Stimson puts it flatly, but

rivers, and belching smoke and acid rain back onto

Precious Metal

the very people charged with carrying out this

resources and materials we are relying upon in the

work. With the apparatuses of modernity—from

first place. It is my sincere wish that this book will

shipping by sea, to railways, to world’s fairs—that

help lessen this anxiety about closing a two-hun-

made it possible to extend the reach of industry

dred-year-old chapter of human history by shining

elsewhere, we can easily see how this crude version

a light on one corner of that industrial past: iron

of modernity, with its irresponsible cosmopoli-

and steel. There is much to learn from the stories of

tanism, was so readily exported and reproduced

these materials. The massive environmental crisis

as well, from Istanbul, to Jamshedpur, to Caracas.

we face comprises a mire of interrelated issues and

To see the monuments of this process as part of a

culprits, and understanding it through history is a

greater schema of nature, human or otherwise, as

formidable task that no single study can achieve.

the Bechers do, is to beckon us back to a moment



in which interrelationships regain the ethical

for more than their economic significance. They

imperative they ought to have. It is to bring us to a

are, after all, also at the root of a unified Europe,

reckoning with ecology.

the global region that is now making the single



greatest effort to wean society off fossil fuels and

On December 21, 2018, the last black coal mine

Coal and steel are relevant to modern history

in Germany—the Prosper-Haniel mine in the

unsustainable construction and development

city of Bottrop—shuttered its doors. In an elab-

practices. Europe faced a political reckoning after

orate ceremony, a delegation of miners handed a

World War II that is not unlike the environmental

football-sized lump of coal to German president

reckoning confronting us today. It could have tried

Frank-Walter Steinmeier with the words Glück auf,

to hold on to its ancient borders and provincialism,

the ancient miner’s greeting that means “good luck”

or it could make the bold attempt—as it did—to

to those who face the risks of working under-

unify and steer away from the paths that led to the

ground. Steinmeier, hailing the future possibilities

trauma of the two world wars, which had caused

of clean energy, noted the grand possibilities on

incalculable damage to the continent, and beyond,

the horizon for Germany’s energy industry, while

in the course of just three short decades. Against

acknowledging that an era was over. “A piece of

ultranationalist sentiments, the French statesman

German history is coming to an end here,” he said.

Robert Schuman, a son of France’s steel country,

“Without it, our entire country and its develop-

promoted Germany’s integration into continen-

ment over the past 200 years would have been

tal affairs.7 Schuman and his colleagues took a

unthinkable.”

bold step toward creating a European community



that would pool its coal and steel production in a

6

The optimism that Steinmeier and others have

projected over the transition from fossil fuels to

common market, proposing that “Franco-German

clean energy belies a corresponding anxiety about

production of coal and steel as a whole be placed

the radical changes that accompany abandon-

under a common High Authority, within the

ing fossil fuels and heavy industry, the engine of

framework of an organization open to the partici-

industrial modernity. A new future in which we

pation of the other countries of Europe.”8 The hope

build our planet with renewable resources is far

was that the creation of this body would foster the

less daunting when we understand more fully the

economic health of both Germany and France and

Conclusion

183

the basis for the creation of the European Union, in which war between member states would effectively be impossible and the economic health of one nation-state would rely at least partly on that of its neighbors.

The world has benefited tremendously from this

community forged through steel. But today, several decades later, that same material could be one of the reasons for its undoing. We have built this global community—along with several others—at the expense of our planet. With sea level, temperature, and nationalism on the rise, the “carboniferous” product that forged both a political and an architectural community may also symbolize what may tear it apart. This anxiety about the future, and our melancholia about the exuberant but deeply problematic industrial past, is a leitmotif of contemporary thought that is increasingly hard to escape. “The earth is not our prisoner, our patient, our machine, or, indeed, our monster,” Naomi Klein has said.9 The protagonists of the events described in this book and those of the present time seem to share this sentiment. We must first fix our ways before we can fix our material world. Figure 83. Poster celebrating the “Day of Free Europe” and the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), 1952. The image depicts a factory, smokestack, and minehead, along with the flags of the six original countries—France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg—and the phrase “First Step: Coal and Steel.” Photo: interfoto / Alamy Stock Photo.

in turn foster peace between the longtime enemies. In this declaration, France made the remarkable move of becoming the first government to agree to surrender sovereignty in a supranational community (fig. 83). Thus was born the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which would become

184

Precious Metal

Notes

Introduction

1. Latour, Down to Earth, 9. 2. See, for example, Jones, “Delusion and Danger.” On the enough movement, see Dietz and O’Neill, Enough Is Enough; Naish, Enough; Princen, Logic of Sufficiency. 3. Chakrabarty, “Climate of History,” 218. See also Emmett and Lekan, “Whose Anthropocene,” 8. 4. Chakrabarty, “Climate of History,” 208. 5. On the historical conventions of authorship in architectural history and its development in the discipline, see Leach, What Is Architectural History? 6. Jefferson, Genius in France, 3. 7. Latour, Down to Earth, 60–61. 8. Wall-Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 152–53. 9. Latour, Down to Earth, 4, 5. 10. Ibid., 13. 11. On the periodization of human history through metals and the “three-age system,” see Heizer, “Thomsen’s Three-Age System.” 12. Johnson et al., “Prehistoric Egyptian Iron Bead.” 13. Latour, Down to Earth, 43. 14. Goody, Metals, Culture, and Capitalism, 273, 253. 15. See Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel. 16. Goody, Metals, Culture, and Capitalism, 251. 17. Demos, Against the Anthropocene, 8. 18. Markham, Brief History of Pollution, 35. 19. Ibid., xiii; Latour, Down to Earth, 1; Goody, Metals, Culture, and Capitalism, 299. See also Engels, Lage der arbeitenden Klasse; Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population; Marx, Produktionsprocess des Kapitals; Weber, Protestantische Ethik. 20. Demos, Against the Anthropocene, 54. 21. Briggs, Iron Bridge to Crystal Palace; Charlton, History of the Theory of Structures; Petroski, Invention by Design. 22. Mott, Henry Cort, the Great Finer, esp. 37–40. 23. Fanning, Sir Henry Bessemer. 24. Carnegie, “Review of the Century,” Evening Post, January 12, 1901, quoted in Wall, Andrew Carnegie, 307.



25. Goodman, Republic of Letters; Hyam, Britain’s Imperial Century; Luce, “American Century”; Brahm, China’s Century. 26. It is also worth noting that Krupp’s heroic history is not without vicissitudes. At one point, the company was saved from financial ruin by the Prussian state bank. See Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 76. 27. Ibid., 1; Bögenhold, Gründerboom. 28. See Andrews, Killing for Coal; LeCain, Mass Destruction; LeCain, Matter of History; McNeill and Vrtis, Mining North America.

Chapter 1

1. At the time of this writing, the earliest evidence of copper smelting, the first human metallurgical activity, is located in Pločnik and Belovode, Serbia. On the copper revolution, see Harrison, Beaker Folk. 2. As with many fields of science, the science of geology was christened in Enlightenment Europe, but it has clear formative roots elsewhere. Medieval scientific traditions in Persia (Ibn Sina) and China (Shen Kuo) yielded wide-ranging and influential treatises on the nature of mountains, earthquakes, fossils, and erosion. See Adams, Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences. 3. See Jackson, Chronologers’ Quest; Winchester, Map That Changed the World; Encyclopedia.com, s.v. “Desmarest, Nicolas,” http://​www​.encyclopedia​ .com​/science​/dictionaries​-thesauruses​-pictures​-and​ -press​-releases​/desmarest​-nicolas​-0. 4. Winchester, Map That Changed the World. On Maclure, see Maclure, “Geology of the United States.” 5. Guntau, “Rise of Geology.” 6. On Werner, see Guntau, Abraham Gottlob Werner. 7. On Humboldt’s contributions to the field of geology and his relationship to the mining academy at Freiberg, see Bergakademie Freiberg, Alexander von



Humboldt. On Buch, see Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. “Leopold, Baron von Buch,” http://​www​.britan nica​.com​/biography​/Christian​-Leopold​-Freiherr​ -von​-Buch. 8. Early syllabi for the École des Beaux-Arts are located in AN AJ/52/488. 9. See Berghaus, Was Mann von der Erde weiß; Berghaus and Humboldt, Briefwechsel Alexander von Humboldt’s. 10. Ursula von den Driesch, “Petermann, August,” Neue Deutsche Biographie 20 (2001), http://​www​.deutsche​ -biographie​.de​/pnd119408953​.html​#ndbcontent. 11. See the extensive letters between the two men in Berghaus and Humboldt, Briefwechsel Alexander von Humboldt’s. 12. HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 2C/21. 13. On energy prospecting and empire, see Bigelow, Mining Language; Frank, Oil Empire; Shulman, Coal and Empire; Wrigley, Energy and the English Industrial Revolution. 14. On Rio Tinto, see Ezquerra del Bayo, Memorias sobre las minas; Harvey, Rio Tinto Company. 15. Christensen, Germany and the Ottoman Railways; Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia. 16. On the expedition, see Veltzke, Unter Wüstensohnen. 17. On mining in the Ottoman empire, see Quateart, Miners and the State. 18. On the Ottoman land code and usufruct, see Ongley, Ottoman Land Code. 19. Ba R901 (Auswärtiges Amt) 81193. On several occasions, the report describes the local Kurdish population as being unlikely to succeed at this work and expresses a preference for Turkish and Arab laborers. The report is thus careful to note the relative numbers of each group in any given location. 20. Ibid. 21. On Oberhausen and the Concordiasee, see Reif, Verspätete Stadt; Dellwig, “Gemeindegründung und Stadtwerdung.” 22. Reif, Verspätete Stadt, 181. 23. On mine subsidence in nineteenth-century Germany, see Arndt, Bergbau und Bergbaupolitik; Daubenspeck, Schiedsgerichte für Regulierung. 24. See LANRW BR 0021, no. 146, pp. 17–21, 211, 236–52. 25. Ibid., 211–15, 252, 234. 26. Ibid., 252 (quotation), 242, 246.

186

Notes to Pages 14–29

27. Meinhold, 125 Jahre Preussische Geologische Landesanstalt. 28. Birch, Economic History. 29. See, for example, the process dictated in AN IND/82/10/1. 30. KAT, August Thyssen-Hütte/thyssenkrupp AG 688/3. On Thyssen abroad, and specifically in Algeria, see the primary documents in Schmidt, Rasch, and Feldman, August Thyssen und Hugo Stinnes, esp. 58. 31. KAT, August Thyssen-Hütte/thyssenkrupp AG 688/3. 32. See Herrmann, Arming of Europe. 33. KAT, August Thyssen-Hütte/thyssenkrupp AG 162913. 34. On Germany’s iron ore imports, including those from Sweden, see Spaltowski, Versorgung der deutschen Hochofen-Industrie. 35. On the Rio Tinto mines in Huelva and the Rio Tinto Corporation generally, see Salkield, Technical History of the Rio Tinto Mines. 36. Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry”; McCreary, “Essen, 1860–1914”; Fischer, Herz des Reviers; Wiel, Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Ruhrgebiets. 37. Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 36; Crew, Town in the Ruhr; Reif, “Landwirtschaft im industriellen Ballungsraum”; Vonde, Revier der großen Dorfer. 38. Several primary sources produced by Deidesheimer and relating to him are held at the University of California Libraries, Berkeley. See, for example, Philip Deidesheimer, Alfred Bates, and Hubert Howe Bancroft, “Philip Deidesheimer Dictation and Biographical Sketch: San Francisco, California, Dec. 8 1886,” manuscript. 39. Young, “Philipp Deidesheimer,” 362. 40. Ibid., 363. 41. See Küstel, “Correspondenz.” 42. Archival sources seem to suggest that this practice was most common first in France. See public announcements for a mine in Ardèche in AN F/14/8053. 43. Oxford Reference, s.v. “lode mining,” https://​www​ .oxfordreference​.com​/view​/10​.1093​/oi​/authority​ .20110803100112336. 44. Agricola, De re metallica, 8. 45. Markham, Brief History of Pollution, 38.

46. Evans, One Saturday Afternoon; Vouters, Courrières, 10 mars 1906. 47. Holland, History and Description of Fossil Fuels, 288. See also Freese, Coal: A Human History, 47. “Scriptural geologists,” who were roundly rejected by the scientific community, were a loose band of nineteenth-century literalistic biblical scholars who believed in the “Young Earth” time scale. Gisborne wrote two books criticizing modern geology’s abandonment of the biblical understanding of geology, Testimony of Natural Theology to Christianity and Considerations on Modern Theories of Geology. 48. On the history of canaries in mining, see Eschner, “Story of the Real Canary.” 49. LANRW BR 0021, no. 146, pp. 42–44. 50. See Lynch, Mining in World History. 51. LANRW BR 0021, no. 146, pp. 36–42. 52. Ibid., 36–37. 53. Ibid., 37. 54. On Riis and photography, see Jackson, “Cultivating Spiritual Sight”; Yochelson and Czitrom, Rediscovering Jacob Riis. 55. On a few popular reform movements, see Mills, “Emergence of Statutory Hygiene Precautions”; Zientara, “Restructuring the Coal Mining Industry.” 56. See Kirby, Child Labour in Britain, 101–10. 57. NA HO 45/9974/X44615. 58. Eberhart, Heilige Barbara; Gregory, Legend of St. Barbara; Kirsch, “St. Barbara.” 59. Ross, “Fourteen Holy Helpers.” 60. On the “Barbarafest,” see Tenfelde, “Mining Festivals.” 61. Sperber, Popular Catholicism. See also Waddy, “St. Anthony’s Bread.” Following the Reformation, the Ruhr was an unusually diverse part of Germany in terms of religious denominations. Protestantism was the dominant religion in many individual cities, though Essen remained predominantly Catholic. 62. Tenfelde, “Mining Festivals,” 380. On the history of the Knappschaft, see Jopp, “Hazard of Merger by Absorption”; Kroker and Kroker, Solidarität aus Tradition; Lauf, Knappschaft. 63. See Sperber, Popular Catholicism, esp. 30–36, 84–85, 278. 64. See Tenfelde, “Mining Festivals,” esp. 389–400. 65. Braudel, Wheels of Commerce, 2:321. 66. Goody, Metals, Culture, and Capitalism, 251. For earlier geological studies of the region, see also

Murchison, Verneuil, and Keyserling, Geology of Russia in Europe. 67. On the contemporaneous geology of the Ottoman empire, see Frech, Geologie Kleinasiens im Bereich der Bagdadbahn. 68. On John & James White, see Crooks, Factory Inspector, 124. 69. NA MUN 4/2136, p. 35. 70. NA FO 368/53. 71. On Kiruna, see Daly, Iron Ores at Kiruna; Granås, “Ambiguous Place Meanings.” In 2004, the Swedish government announced that the town of Kiruna, the population of which was about twenty thousand in 2018, would need to be relocated over the course of a decade owing to gradual subsidence that had started at the beginning of the twentieth century. Michael, “‘Will I Have Existed?’” 72. NA MUN 4/2136. 73. NA FO 368/53. 74. Ibid. 75. Pounds and Parker, Coal and Steel in Western Europe, 244. On the Dortmund-Ems canal, see Albrink and Veltmann, 100 Jahre Dortmund-Ems Kanal. 76. HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3B/198. On the Orconera Iron Ore Company, see Harvey and Taylor, “Mineral Wealth and Economic Development.” On Laujar de Andarax, see NA MUN 4/2136. 77. NA MUN 4/2136. 78. Lynch, Mining in World History, 270–71. 79. Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. “Bessemer Process,” https://​www​.britannica​.com​/technology​/Bessemer​ -process. 80. Lynch, Mining in World History, 270–71. 81. NA MUN 4/2136.

Chapter 2

1. For a partial list of VIPs who visited the Krupp factories, see HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 48/133. 2. The foundry has since been demolished, while the Stammhaus remains. 3. HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3A/10. On the Uhlenhaut legacy, see Scheller and Pollak, Rudolf Uhlenhaut.



Notes to Pages 29–40

187

4. HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 2B/363D, HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 4/460. See also Lavelle, Profits of Nature. 5. Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 71, 86. 6. NA MUN 4/2136. 7. On various visual and cultural aspects of smokestacks, see Paenhuysen, “Berlin in Pictures”; Strangleman, “‘Smokestack Nostalgia’”; Ward, “James Benning”; Weiss, “Specters of Industry.” 8. Markham, Brief History of Pollution, 9. 9. Thomas E. Lloyd, “History of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation,” December 1, 1938, typescript, Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh. See also Perelman, Steel, 24. 10. Lloyd, “Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.” 11. Elwin, Story of Tata Steel; Harris, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata; Glover, “Troubled Passage”; Mukherjee, Century of Trust; Tappin, “Early Use of Reinforced Concrete”; Tuckwell, “Tata Iron and Steel Works.” 12. “Nerves of Steel,” Tata.com, https://​www​.tata​.com ​/newsroom​/nerves​-of​-steel. 13. Ibid. 14. See Mukherjee, Century of Trust, 60–66. 15. On Thyssen, see Fear, Organizing Control; Lesczenski, August Thyssen, 1842–1926; Rasch, “Internationalization of the Thyssen Group”; Schmidt, Rasch, and Feldman, August Thyssen und Hugo Stinnes; Wegener, August und Joseph Thyssen. 16. Thyssen-Foussol & Co. is extensively addressed in Baumann, Von der Stahlhütte zum Verarbitungskonzern, a brochure in the Konzernarchiv Thyssen in Duisburg. 17. Fear, Organizing Control, 74. On Thyssen’s management style, see ibid., esp. 104–49. 18. ThyssenKrupp, “History,” https://​www​.thyssenk rupp​.com​/en​/company​/history. See also Wagner and Ritter, Zur Stadtgeographie von Duisburg, esp. 27–32; NA MUN 4/2136. 19. Todd, “Industry, State, and Electrical Technology.” 20. Uebbing, Wege und Wegmarken. 21. Rommel, Alsum und Schwelgern. 22. On Krupp, Thyssen, corporate culture, and photography, see Berdrow, Letters of Alfred Krupp; Bolz, “Constructing ‘Heimat’”; Epkenhans and Stremmel, Friedrich Alfred Krupp; Honhart, “Company Housing as Urban Planning”; James, Krupp: Deutsche Legende; Gussstahlfabrik Friedrich Krupp,

188

Notes to Pages 40–52

Century’s History of the Krupp Works; Lüdtke, “Writing Time—Using Space”; Manchester, Arms of Krupp; Tenfelde, Pictures of Krupp. See also Poos, “Photography as a Space.” 23. See Barthes, Camera Lucida. 24. See Costas and Grey, Secrecy at Work. 25. See James, Krupp: A History, esp. 55–65. 26. Krupp’s research was published in the Technische Mitteilungen Krupp. See also James, Krupp: A History, 49. 27. This would eventually change with the founding of several universities in the Ruhrgebiet, including the Ruhr Universität Bochum (founded in 1965), the University of Dusiburg-Essen (reestablished in 2003 after closing in 1818), the Technische Universität Dortmund (1968), and the Bochum University of Applied Sciences (founded in 1971), among others. 28. On the history of photomicrography, see Bracegirdle, History of Photography. 29. Tenfelde, “History and Photography at Krupp,” 315. 30. See Seidler, Frauen zu den Waffen. 31. “Auszug,” Essener Anzeiger, January 24, 1863, GSPK HA I Rep. 120 EXVI, no. 469. 32. “Auszug,” Essener Anzeiger, January 24, 1863. 33. Perelman, Steel, 12. 34. On general reform in the steel and iron industries, see Daley, Steel, State, and Labor, esp. 3–49; Eggert, Steelmasters and Labor Reform; Engels, Lage der arbeitenden Klasse; Luxemburg, Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften; Murphy, “Polish Trade Union”; Saros, Labor, Industry, and Regulation; Shearer, “Shelter from the Storm”; Spencer, “Employer Response to Unionism”; Steinmetz, “Workers and the Welfare State”; Tenfelde, Sozialgeeschichte der Bergarbeiterschaft; Tenfelde et al., Geschichte der deutschen Gewerkschaften; Tribo-Laspière, Industrie de l’acier en France; Holthoon and van der Linden, Internationalism in the Labour Movement. 35. McIvor, “Employers, the Government, and Industrial Fatigue.” 36. Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management. 37. Turner, Concrete Steel Construction, 276. On Turner, see also Gasparini, “Contributions of C. A. P. Turner”; Kierdorf, “Early Mushroom Slab Construction.” 38. On some of the problems associated with the early application of reinforced concrete, see Cusack, “Architects and the Reinforced Concrete

Specialist”; Penttala, “Causes and Mechanisms of Deterioration”; Trout, “Deutscher Ausschuß für Eisenbeton.” 39. See Tenfelde, “Krupp bleibt doch Krupp.” 40. AA R138.434. The theme was revisited on the 150th anniversary; see Schröter, “Firma Friedrich Krupp.” 41. See Christensen, “Eurasian Hour.” 42. Robert Schmidt, “A Modern Urban Structure: The Industrial and Residential City,” AA R138.434, 34–35. 43. Buddensieg, Villa Hügel; Hasselhorst, Park der Villa Hügel; Köhne-Lindenlaub, Villa Hügel; Pielhoff and Murauer-Ziebach, Im Hause Krupp. 44. Föhl, “Internal Life of German Factories,” 163. 45. See Sander, “Rekonstruktion des Architekten-Nachlasses.” 46. AA R138.434, 34. 47. Stephan-Maaser, Zeitreise Hellweg; Wehling, “Revising the Urban Structure.” 48. See Jackson, Migration and Urbanization. 49. Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 36–37. 50. Schmidt, “Modern Urban Structure,” AA R138.434, 38. 51. Ibid., 42. 52. On company towns, see Borges and Torres, Company Towns; Crawford, Building the Workingman’s Paradise; Dorel-Ferré, Patrimoine industriel; Garner, Company Town; Kil and Zwickert, Werksiedlungen; Shiflett, Coal Towns; Walkowitz, Worker City, Company Town. 53. The literature on Krupp’s Siedlungen is vast. See Dösseler, “Entwicklung des sozialen Wohnungsbaus,” esp. 136; Grütter, Gartenstadt Margarethenhöhe; Helfrich, Margarethenhöhe Essen; Honhart, “Company Housing as Urban Planning,” esp. 17–19; Kösters, Große Wurf; Metzendorf, Kleinwohnungsbauten und Siedlungen; Metzendorf, Georg Metzendorf; Rieth, Margarethenhöhe in alten Ansichten; Rieth, Essen-Margarethenhöhe. 54. See Gurganus’s biography, Kurt Eisner: A Modern Life. 55. Eisner, “Friedhof der Lebenden.” See also Bolz, “From ‘Garden City Precursors,’” 104. 56. Bolz, “From ‘Garden City Precursors,’” 104. 57. Eisner, “Friedhof der Lebenden.” 58. HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3B/152, p. 51.

59. See Brinckmann et al., Margarethen-Höhe bei Essen. On the Deutscher Werkbund, see Burckhardt, Werkbund. 60. See Crettaz-Stürzel, Heimatstil; Rudorff, Heimatschutz; Umbach and Hüppauf, Vernacular Modernism. 61. On Theodor Fischer, see Keyssner, Theodor Fischer; Nerdinger, Theodor Fischer. On Hermann Muthesius, see Muthesius, Englische Haus; Muthesius and Anderson, Style-Architecture and Building-Art. On Paul Schultze-Naumburg, see Meier and Spiegel, Kulturreformer, Rassenideologe, Hochschuldirektor; Schultze-Naumburg, Hausbau. On Heinrich Tessenow, see Tessenow, Wohnhausbau mit 21 Abbildungen; Tessenow, Geschriebenes. 62. See discussions of this dynamic in Blackbourn, Conquest of Nature; Lekan and Zeller, Germany’s Nature; Rollins, Greener Vision of Home. 63. Honhart, “Company Housing as Urban Planning,” 17. Schultze-Naumburg, in particular, had a strong relationship with the Krupp family. See correspondence in HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3M/267. 64. NA MUN 4/2136, p. 76. 65. See Krooth, Century Passing; Serrin, Homestead. 66. Quoted in Foner, Eve of America’s Entrance, 28. 67. See Greenwald and Anderson, Pittsburgh Surveyed. 68. Crawford, Building the Workingman’s Paradise, 68. 69. Schneider, Mathieu, and Clément, Les Schneider, Le Creusot. 70. Creusot Montceau Tourisme, “Preserved Industrial Heritage,” http://​www​.creusotmontceautourisme​.fr​ /en​/discover​/le​-creusot​/a​-rich​-industrial​-past​ /preserved​-industrial​-heritage. 71. See Gaskell, “Model Industrial Villages.” 72. On Houfton, see Creese, Search for Environment; Holliday, “Site Planning of Housing Schemes.” 73. On the English garden city, see Howard, Garden Cities of To-Morrow; Meachem, Regaining Paradise; Unwin, Town Planning. 74. Hudson, Industrial History from the Air. 75. Richter, “Friedrich Alfred Krupp auf Capri.” 76. On Capri’s homosexual and expatriate history, see Perrottet, “Lure of Capri.” 77. Richter, “Friedrich Alfred Krupp auf Capri.” 78. Giucat, “Via Krupp.” 79. Richter, “Friedrich Alfred Krupp auf Capri,” 163. 80. Ibid., 166–67.

Notes to Pages 53–64

189

81. These were the ages of the two young men when Krupp met them. Dieter Richter has shown that Krupp provided a business subsidy of eight thousand marks to Adolfo Schiano and his brother Francesco. In addition, Krupp provided Adolfo with a year’s stipend of twenty-four hundred lire. He gave the same amount to another man by the name of Antonio Arcucci. See ibid., 161, and, regarding Sangiorgio, 164–70. Sangiorgio was born on December 27, 1871, according to the records of the Comune di Capri, Schedario Anagrafe. 82. Aldrich, Seduction of the Mediterranean, 127–28. 83. Richter, “Friedrich Alfred Krupp auf Capri,” 164; and, all in HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3E/39, Giovanni Sangiorgio to Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbacch, May 12, 1923; Luigi Sangiorgio to Friedrich Alfred Krupp, May 16, 1892, December 25, 1892, January 14, 1893, September 14, 1893, and July 14, 1894; August Reichwald to Friedrich Alfred Krupp, July 30, 1894; and Giovanni Sangiorgio to Friedrich Alfred Krupp, August 14, 1894. 84. Richter, “Friedrich Alfred Krupp auf Capri,” 164–65. 85. Giovanni Dall’Orto, “Friedrich (‘Fritz’) Alfred Krupp (1854–1902) a Capri,” http://​www​.giovanni dallorto​.com​/krupp​/krupp​.html. On Margarethe Krupp, see also Friz, Margarethe Krupp; Schaser, “Margarethe Krupp.” Isabel Hull has offered a revisionist interpretation of the events leading to Margarethe’s institutionalization; see Hull, Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 171–72. 86. Dall’Orto, “Friedrich (‘Fritz’) Alfred Krupp.” 87. Wilhelm’s speech is reprinted in Boelcke, Krupp und die Hohenzollern, 164–66. Some found the speech excessive. See Bülow, Denkwürdigkeiten, 1:568. 88. See James, Krupp: A History, 123–44. 89. Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 37. See also Brüggemeier and Rommelspacher, Blauer Himmel über der Ruhr. 90. Bach, Gewerbliche Abwasser. 91. Emmerich and Wolter, Gelsenkirchener Typhusepidemie von 1901, 145. 92. Freese, Coal: A Human History, 35. 93. Emmerich and Wolter, Gelsenkirchener Typhusepidemie von 1901, 145, 168. See also Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 38n7. 94. Bergerhoff, Untersuchungen, 72–76. See also Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 41n18.

190

Notes to Pages 64–77

95. See Klein, “Gewässerverschmutzung.” See also Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 38n7. 96. Stradling and Thorsheim, “Smoke of Great Cities,” 8. 97. Markham, Brief History of Pollution, 3. 98. On scientists at Krupp, see, for example, James, Krupp: A History, 129–31. 99. Klose, Westfälische Industriegebiet, quoted in Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 45n34. 100. Rohe, Jäger, and Dorow, “Politische Gesellschaft”; Reulecke, “Stadtischer Lebensraum.” 101. DHHU 978, Konzessionsurkunde, November 17, 1848, Hoesch Archiv, Dortmund. See also Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 46n36. 102. See Rohrscheidt, Gewerbeordnung für das deutsche Reich. 103. Brüggemeier, “Nature Fit for Industry,” 47. 104. Bergerhoff, Untersuchungen, 107–9. 105. See Derickson, Black Lung. 106. Kershaw, “Smoke Abatement”; Stradling and Thorsheim, “Smoke of Great Cities.” 107. Stradling and Thorsheim, “Smoke of Great Cities.” 108. Ibid., 10–11. On the exhibition, see “Smoke Abatement Exhibition”; Ranlett, “Smoke Abatement Exhibition of 1881.” 109. Thorsheim, Inventing Pollution, 10–18. 110. Uekoetter, “Strange Career.” 111. The best study on the multiple uses that have been found for slag is Lee, Blast Furnace and Steel Slag. On the impossibility of removing some slag in the crucible process, see Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 17. 112. This figure varies widely and depends on a number of factors. See Wang, Utilization of Slag. 113. On the reuse of manganese, in particular, in slag, see NA MUN 4/2136. 114. For a short biography of Guttmann, see the University of Aachen website, “Arthur Guttmann (1881–1948),” http://​www​.archiv​.rwth​-aachen​.de​ /web​/rea​/Seite​/biographien​_vert​_gut​.htm. 115. Guttmann, Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke, 142–45. 116. See Brenk, St. Karl Borromäus, 139. 117. Guttmann, Verwendung der Hochofenschlacke, 142. 118. For a synoptic history of asphalt, see National Asphalt Pavement Association, “History of Asphalt,” https://​pavementinteractive​.org​/reference​-desk​

/pavement​-types​-and​-history​/pavement​-history/; O’Reilly, Asphalt. 119. Devereux, John Loudon McAdam; West, Technical Development of Roads, 73–74. 120. Herbert, Engineer’s and Mechanic’s Encyclopaedia, 1:611. 121. BBC Nottingham, “Man Who Invented Tarmac.” 122. See McNichol, Paving the Way. 123. NA MT 9/426. 124. UNESCO, “Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin,” http://​whc​.unesco​.org​/en​/list​/1360. 125. I want to thank Till Kasielke (Universität Bochum) and Michael Dohlen (ThyssenKrupp) for generously sharing their specialized knowledge of Ruhr spoil tips with me. Email correspondence with the author, October 24, 25, 27, and November 2, 2020. 126. See, for example, Rostański and Trueman, “Comparison of the Spontaneous Floras”; Woźniak and Kompala, “Ecology of Spontaneous Vegetation.” 127. Richards, Palmer, and Barratt, Reclamation of Former Coal Mines, 214. 128. Nasmyth, “Nasmyth at Coalbrookdale,” 154.

Chapter 3

1. See, for example, Rankin, Czechoslovak Iron and Steel Industry, 1; Swank, Statistics of the Iron and Steel Production, 71. 2. Freese, Coal: A Human History, 65–66. 3. Headrick, Humans Versus Nature, 203. See also Goody, Metals, Culture, and Capitalism, 261. 4. Mooney, Inside the Steel Industry, 25. 5. Williams, Deforesting the Earth, 231, 265–66. 6. Ibid., 268–71. 7. See Löffelholz von Colberg, Bedeutung und Wichtigkeit des Waldes; Kožeśnik, Ästhetik im Walde; Marchand, Über die Entwaldung der Gebirge; Schleiden, Für Baum und Wald. 8. Schleiden, Für Baum und Wald, 6–7. 9. Ibid., 58–62. See also Lehmann, “Changing Climates.” 10. Schleiden, Für Baum und Wald, 52–53. 11. Kožeśnik, Ästhetik im Walde, 6–7. 12. Goodbody, Nature, Technology, and Cultural Change, 4. See also Geismeier, “Staffage bei Caspar David Friedrich”; Kohlenbach, “Transformations of



German Romanticism,” esp. 264; Stöhr, Das Sehbare und das Unsehbare, 266–69. 13. See Bramwell, Ecology in the 20th Century; Brüggemeier, Cioc, and Zeller, How Green Were the Nazis; Radkau and Uekötter, Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus; Uekötter, Green and the Brown. 14. HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3C/222. 15. See Hyde, Technological Change, 146–65. 16. On the history of the blast furnace, see Pavlov et al., Konstruktion und Berechnung; Rasch, Kokschochofen von 1709. On the more general history of patents, see Bugbee, American Patent and Copyright Law; Galvez-Behar, République des inventeurs; Kurz, Weltgeschichte des Erfindungsschutzes; Macleod, Inventing the Industrial Revolution; Otto and Klippel, Geschichte des deutschen Patentrechts; Seckelmann, Industrialisierung, Internationalisierung und Patentrecht. 17. On the Bessemer process, see Bessemer, Sir Henry Bessemer F.R.S.; Lord, “Development of the Bessemer Process”; Mushet, On the BessemerMushet Process; Wedding, Prochaska, and Phillips, Wedding’s Basic Bessemer Process. 18. Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 44, 36. 19. Quoted in ibid., 57. See also Jeans, Steel, ix. 20. Beck, Geschichte des Eisens, 4:901–43, 928–29. 21. On the importance of ingot molds, see Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 18. 22. Brearley and Brearley, Ingots and Ingot Moulds, 36. 23. Smith, Cast Steel, 5–6. 24. See Ginzburg, Steel-Rolling Technology. 25. On the history of the rolling mill, see MackintoshHemphill Co., Rolling Mills, Rolls, and Roll Making; Morgan, “Some Landmarks”; Swank, Manufacture of Iron. On Leonardo as the founder of the rolling mill, see Lawton, Early History of Mechanical Engineering, 936–37; Smith, “Architectural Shapes of Hot-Rolled Iron.” 26. Lindenlaub, Finanzierung des Aufstiegs, 438. 27. See Facos, Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Art, 242; Hoffman, “Menzel’s Universality,” 97–98. See also Busch, Adolph Menzel; Grebe, Menzel. 28. For the full catalog entry from the Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, see https://​artsandculture​.google​.com​/asset​/the​-iron​ -rolling​-mill​-modern​-cyclopes​-adolph​-menzel​ /pgFVPI1J1YGXZA. 29. Ibid.

Notes to Pages 77–95

191

30. Beck, Geschichte des Eisens, 4:789–822. 31. Ibid., 4:795–99. 32. See Turneaure, Steel Construction. 33. See Hodges, Ormiston, and Peters, Nonlinear Deformation Geometry; Todhunter, Galilei to SaintVenant, esp. 25–56, 94–100. 34. Peters, Building the Nineteenth Century, 264–66. See also Allen, How Mechanics Shaped the Modern World, 240. 35. See Weingardt, Circles in the Sky, esp. 86–101. 36. See the discussion in Dreicer, “Building Bridges and Boundaries.” 37. Peterson, “Inventing the I-Beam.” 38. See Jewett, “Structural Antecedents of the I-Beam.” 39. Giedion, Space, Time, and Architecture, 191. 40. Ibid. 41. Ballestrem, Es begann im Dreiländereck; Joest, Pionier im Ruhrrevier. 42. Beck, Geschichte des Eisens, 5:801. 43. Ramm, Zeugin der Geschichte; Mehrtens, “Zur Baugeschichte der alten Eisenbahnbrücken.”

Chapter 4

1. International Steel & Iron, International Service, 4, 10, 13. 2. Trussed Concrete Steel Co. advertisement in the American Exporter, July 1908, 43. 3. Hoerder Bergwerks- und Hütten-Vereins, Profil-Zeichnungen. 4. Barth, Maschinenelemente, 7–8. 5. Ibid., 25. 6. Durum et. al., Handbuch der Architektur, 137. 7. Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. “Charles Benjamin Dudley,” https://​www​.britannica​.com​/biography​ /Charles​-Benjamin​-Dudley. On Dudley and the founding of the ASTM, see ASTM, Lifework of Charles Benjamin Dudley. 8. These concerns and some specifications were initially outlined in Dudley, “Chemical Composition and Physical Properties.” 9. On Martens, see Pfender, “Martens, Adolf.” On the history of the KMA, see Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, Gründung des Königlichen Materialprüfungsamtes durch Adolf Martens (1904–1936), https://​www​.bam​.de​/Content​ /DE​/Standardartikel​/Ueber​-die​-BAM​/BAM​-erleben​



192

Notes to Pages 95–110

/Geschichte​-der​-BAM​/geschichte​-der​-bam​-1904​ -1936​.html. 10. Technische Hochschule Berlin, Mitteilungen aus dem Materialprüfungsamt, 7. 11. On Chile, see Ba R901(Auswärtiges Amt) 8460 and HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 7F/798. On Thailand, see Ba R901(Auswärtiges Amt) 8475. On Morocco, see Ba R901 (Auswärtiges Amt) 8476. On Egypt, see HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 14/1222. On Japan, which limited steel imports from abroad to only four firms in 1906, one of which was Krupp, see HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 4/1153. On the 130-year trade history with Brazil, see HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 7F/1612. On the Dutch colonial administration, see LANRW BR 0021, no. 146, p. 26. On the German colonies of southwestern Africa, see HaK, Werksarchiv/ Unternehmensarchiv 70/497–99. 12. Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 44. 13. On Germany and Venezuela, see Herwig, Germany’s Vision of Empire. 14. British High Commision at Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to Foreign Office, December 24, 1914, NA CCO 295/494. 15. Cited in corporate memo, HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3B/244. 16. Document reporting on the decree, September 28, 1916, NA MUN 4/2136. 17. KAT, August Thyssen-Hütte/thyssenkrupp AG 640. A record of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ trip to Germany to visit manufacturers appears in Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, Deutschlandreise. 18. On Krupp’s participation in world’s fairs and other major exhibitions, see Bonnell, “‘Cheap and Nasty’”; Dewitz, “‘Pictures Aren’t Dear’”; Michael Epkenhans, “Friedrich Alfred Krupp: Ein Großindustrieller im Spannungsfeld von Firmeninteresse und Politik,” in Epkenhans and Stremmel, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, 78, 98; Manchester, Arms of Krupp, 219–20; Plessen, “Selbstdarstellung und betriebliche Sozialpolitik.” 19. GSPK HA I Rep. 120 EXVI, no. 333. 20. Ibid., nos. 351, 338, 351. 21. Ibid., no. 352, pp. 107–31. 22. Semper, Wissenschaft, Industrie und Kunst, 3–4.

23. Ruskin, Opening of the Crystal Palace, 3–4. On other critical aspects of the exhibition, see Dutta, Bureaucracy of Beauty. 24. Krupp produced its own catalog for the exhibition. See Krupp, Ausstellungs-Katalog der Gussstahlfabrik. 25. See HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3B/253. 26. Shepp and Shepp, Shepp’s World’s Fair, 310, 312. 27. On Bodenhausen, see Salzmann, “Bodenhausen, Eberhard von.” 28. HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 4/1524; American Iron and Steel, Address of the President. 29. GSPK HA I Rep. 120 EXVI, no. 469; Heine, Professor Reuleaux und die deutsche Industrie. 30. Heine, Professor Reuleaux und die deutsche Industrie, 4. 31. Ibid., 8. 32. On the origins of the Werkbund, see Schwartz, Werkbund. 33. See Lessing, Kunstgewerbe. 34. Julius Lessing, “Ein Wort gegen das Projekt der Pariser Ausstellung 1878,” editorial, Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, September 9, 1876, GSPK HA I Rep. 120 EXVI, no. 387. 35. Lessing, Berichte von der Pariser Weltausstellung. 36. GSPK HA I Rep. 120 EXVI, no. 351. 37. On this exhibition, see Braun, “EisenbahnFahrbetriebsmittel”; Deutsche-Nationale KunstAusstellung, Katalog der deutsch-nationalen Kunst-Ausstellung; Stoffers, Industrie-, Gewerbe- und Kunst-Ausstellung. 38. The architects of the exhibition included Josef Kleesattel, Adolf Schill, and Georg Thielen. See Fils, “Kleine Weltausstellung” in Düsseldorf. 39. Liebetanz, “Industrie- und Kunstausstellung in Düsseldorf.” 40. LANRW RW 1237, no. 58. 41. See Offizieler Katalog der Deutschen Werkbundausstellung; Kuenzli, “Architecture, Individualism, and Nation”; Metzendorf, Neue niederrheinische Dorf; Röder and Elliott, “‘Moderne Baukunst,’ 1900–14”; Stratigakos, “Women and the Werkbund.” 42. For a discussion of this point, see Behrendt, “Deutsche Werkbundausstellung.” 43. For the story of this memorable quotation, see Arnold, Vom Sofakissen zum Städtebau. 44. See Bletter, “Interpretation of the Glass Dream”; Breitschmid, “Glass House at Cologne.”

45. Heiser, “‘Originale Leistung, deutscher Stil.’” 46. HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 14/1222, 4/1541. 47. Perelman, Steel, 19. 48. On the Rhine, see Banken and Wubs, Rhine; Cioc, “Impact of the Coal Age”; Cioc, Rhine; Todd, “Coordinating the Local.” 49. For nationalism and the Rhine, see Beller and Leerssen, Rhine; Cepl-Kaufmann and JohanningRadžienė, Mythos Rhein. 50. On the history of the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine and several related primary documents, see the CCNR’s website at https://​www​ .ccr​-zkr​.org​/11010100​-en​.html. 51. Cioc, Rhine, 78. Cioc adopts the term “carboniferous” as it was used by Mumford in Technics and Civilization. 52. Hoffmann-Martinot and Sadran, “Local Implementation,” 536. 53. On the French steel industry, see Mill, “French Steel.” 54. On the Esch-sur-Alzette and Moselle steel production regions, see Leboutte, Puissant, and Scuto, Siècle d’histoire industrielle; Schmit, “Richesses d’une région.” 55. On the bridge, see “Rhein-Brücke bei Cöln”; Breuer, Ersten preußischen Eisenbahnbrücken. 56. This was particularly true during the period of the French Revolution. See Recueil des règlements; Rowe, From Reich to State. 57. Kurze, Deutsche Bundesbahn, 34. 58. Desai, “Isochrones,” 26. 59. See Galton, “Construction of Isochronic Passage-Charts.” 60. See GND 118739883, Zentralbibliothek Wien, Vienna. 61. The original map is at the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Geo.u 376 u-9. See also Arnberger, Handbuch der thematischen Kartographie, 133. 62. See Christensen, “Eurasian Hour.” 63. See Smith, Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism. 64. Schultz, “Albrecht Penck.” 65. Quoted in Schultz, “Uferloses Sehnen nach Macht.” 66. On Argentina, and specifically on the role played by the American engineer George Earl Church, see various files in HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 3C/223. On Venezuela, see Herwig, Germany’s Vision of

Notes to Pages 110–122

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Empire. In addition, Spain sought some assistance from Krupp in the 1870s. See various letters to Krupp, HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 4/584, esp. those of Carlo Morillo of Madrid dated 1878–89. 67. On Austria-Hungary, see Bründlsberg, Weg von und zu den österreichischen Staatsbahnen. On the Ottoman empire, see Christensen, Germany and the Ottoman Railways. On the Italian railways, see Schram, Railways and the Formation. 68. For a selection of such maps, see Baynton-Williams, Curious Map Book. 69. The original map is at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 11hc 1915p, Yale University Libraries. 70. On German unification, see Wehler and Traynor, German Empire.

Chapter 5

1. On prefabrication, see Bergdoll and Christensen, Home Delivery; Davies, Prefabricated Home; Herbert, Dream of the Factory-Made House; Herbert, Pioneers of Prefabrication. On pattern language, see Alexander et al., Production of Houses; Alexander et al., Pattern Language; Grabow, Christopher Alexander. On mass customization, see Kolarevic and Duarte, Mass Customization and Design Democratization. 2. Alexander et al., Pattern Language; Alexander et al., Production of Houses; Kieran and Timberlake, Refabricating Architecture; Rogers, Place for All People; Wachsmann, Auf dem Weg zur Industrialisierung. 3. See, for example, the work of Vedat Tek in Turkey. Batur and Eminoğlu, Bir usta bir dünya. 4. Syllabus from the École des Beaux-Arts, Cours de Construction, 1928. AN AJ/52/976. This course had been developed some years prior to this syllabus. 5. See Kilham, Raymond Hood, Architect; Laloux and Leconte, Victor Laloux; Pennoyer et al., New York Transformed; Sky and Stone, Unbuilt America. 6. Pieper, “‘White Metals’”; Solomonson, Chicago Tribune Tower Competition. 7. Herbert, “Portable Colonial Cottage,” 261. 8. Davies, Prefabricated Home, 49. 9. Ibid.



194

Notes to Pages 122–133

10. Dobraszczyk, Iron, Ornament, and Architecture, 65–66. 11. Davies, Prefabricated Home, 49. 12. On nineteenth-century patent culture and architecture, see Pretel, Institutionalising Patents. 13. On German colonialism, see Berman, Enlightenment or Empire; Conrad, German Colonialism; Conrad, Globalisation and the Nation; Short, Magic Lantern Empire; Steinmetz, Devil’s Handwriting; Zantop, Colonial Fantasies. 14. See Hofmann, Deutsche Kolonialarchitektur und Siedlungen; Osayimwese, Colonialism and Modern Architecture; Schröter, “Essen und die Kolonialfrage.” 15. See Kaisin, Villa Belgo-Romaine d’Aiseau. 16. “Häuser aus gepressten Flusseisenblecchen,” 103–5. 17. Ibid., 104–5. 18. See Maier, Zilt, and Rasch, 150 Jahre Stahlinstitut VDEh. 19. “Vorwort,” 1. 20. Ibid., 2. 21. See, for example, Forty, Concrete and Culture. 22. For a compendium of these methods, see Hool, Concrete Engineers’ Handbook, 57–60. 23. Martinez, Étude sur les constructions. 24. See Turner, Concrete Steel Construction, 110. See also Degenne and Marrey, Joseph Monier et la naissance. 25. See Association Eugène Freyssinet, Eugène Freyssinet. 26. See Zimmerman, “Building the World Capitalist System.” See also Melnikova-Raich, “Soviet Problem with Two ‘Unknowns,’” both parts. 27. On the system, see Stahlwerks-Verband A. G. Düsseldorf, Eisen im Hochbau, 183. 28. See Bletter, “Invention of the Skyscraper”; Condit, Chicago School of Architecture; Leslie, Chicago Skyscrapers. 29. See Ilkosz, Jahrhunderthalle. See also Schubert, “Berg, Max.” 30. On Poelzig, see Ilkosz, Hans Poelzig in Breslau; Posenser and Feireiss, Hans Poelzig. 31. See Thiersch and Lömpel, Ausstellungsgelände zu Frankfurt am Main; Nerdinger and Thiersch, Münchner Architekt des Späthistorismus. 32. See the discussion of precedents and form in Nachlass 050/10 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and also in Berg, “Jahrhunderthalle,” parts 1 and 2.

33. Berg, “Jahrhunderthalle,” part 2 (quotation on 462). 34. Ibid. On the comparison to Gothic architecture, see also Ilkosz, Jahrhunderthalle, 17. 35. See Nachlass 050/191, Deutsches Museum, Munich. The Leibniz-Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung in Erkner also holds a number of original documents, including sketches, by Berg. 36. See Anderson, Peter Behrens and a New Architecture. 37. Adams, “Rudolf Steiner’s First Goetheanum.” 38. See Kaufmann, “Three Revolutionary Architects.” 39. See Chojecka, “Sztuka ślaska około 1900,” esp. 116. See also Ilkosz, Jahrhunderthalle, 15. 40. Pevsner, Architektur und Design, 509. See also Ilkosz, Jahrhunderthalle, 11. I would also suggest adding Henry van de Velde’s Werkbund theater and William Lossow and Max Hans Kühne’s Leipzig Hauptbahnhof to this category of spectactular monumentality in pre-Weimar Germany. For further discussion, see James-Chakraborty, German Architecture for a Mass Audience. The work of the German engineering firm Wayss & Freytag is also notable for its use of massive reinforced concrete structures in the period. See Wayss & Freytag, 100 Jahre. 41. See Pehnt, “Reformille zur Macht.” 42. Bohle, “Peter Behrens und die Schnellbahnpläne,” 199. 43. See Bohle-Heintzenberg, Architektur der Berliner Hoch- und Untergrundbahn. The line was not entirely underground; several stations were in fact aboveground, much like an “S-Bahn.” 44. “Neu eröffneten Strecken.” On Holzmann, see Pohl, Philipp Holzmann; Meyer-Heinrich, Philipp Holzmann Aktiengesellschaft. On Siemens & Halske, see 20th Century Press Archives, Siemens & Halske, “Zweiter Geschäftsbericht für das Geschäftsjahr vom 1. August 1897 bis 31 Juli 1898,” Zentralbibliothek Wien, Vienna. 45. There is no specific data to corroborate this assertion, save for informed comparison with the contemporary projects under way at the time. 46. On New York City, see Cudahy, Under the Sidewalks of New York; Derrick, Tunneling to the Future; Hood, 722 Miles. On Vienna, see Gerlich, Wiener U-Bahn; Graf, Otto Wagner; Kurz, Städtebauliche Entwicklung. On London, see Darroch, “London’s Underground Railways”; Halliday, Underground to

Everywhere. On Paris, see Bindi and Lefeuvre, Métro de Paris; Demade, Embarras de Paris; Descouturelle and Mignard, Métropolitan d’Hector Guimard. On Chicago, see Cudahy, Destination Loop; Heilman, “Chicago Subway Problem.” 47. See, for example, the concept of alienation as outlined in Berman, All That Is Solid. 48. Bergdoll, Bélier, and Le Coeur, Henri Labrouste; Wintzweiller, Origines de la Bibliothèque. Neil Levine’s dissertation on the building remains the most exhaustive study of the structure; see Levine, “Architectural Reasoning.” 49. Giedion, Bauen in Frankreich, Eisen, Eisenbeton, 107. 50. See Blau, Ruskinian Gothic; O’Dwyer, Architecture of Deane and Woodward. 51. See Ruskin, Nature of Gothic Architecture. 52. Rank et al., Dresden Opera. 53. Mallgrave, Gottfried Semper, 211. 54. See Noever, Gottfried Semper, the Ideal Museum. 55. Semper, Keramik, Tektonik, Stereotomie, 467. 56. See Pruscha, Semper-Depot. 57. See Bohle-Heintzenberg, Architektur der Berliner Hoch- und Untergrundbahn, 17. 58. On Schinkel, see Bergdoll, Karl Friedrich Schinkel; Snodin, Karl Friedrich Schinkel. On Bötticher, see Steiter, Karl Böttichers Tektonik der Hellenen. 59. See Brachmann, Licht und Farber im Berliner Untergrund; Schützler, “Meisterlicher Modernist.” 60. Bohle-Heintzenberg, Architektur der Berliner Hochund Untergrundbahn, 37. 61. See Wagemann, Architekt Bruno Möhring. See also Bohle-Heintzenberg, Architektur der Berliner Hochund Untergrundbahn, 55–57. 62. Bohle-Heintzenberg, Architektur der Berliner Hochund Untergrundbahn, 176–86. 63. Ibid., 74–79. 64. See Seefeldt, U2. 65. Turner, Concrete Steel Construction, 218, 267–68. 66. “Neu eröffneten Strecken,” 306. 67. See Maciuika, Before the Bauhaus. 68. See the paginated letters in HaK, Familienarchiv Hügel 4E/336, 168–69. 69. Letters from the Kaiserlich Residentur in Rabat, Morocco, to Foreign Office, 1899, Ba R901 Auswärtiges Amt 8477. See also Girault and Bouvier, Impérialisme français d’avant 1914, 221–22.

Notes to Pages 135–146

195

70. See Öğrenci, “19. Yüzyıl Özgün Konut Tipleri.” For the history of steel production within the Ottoman empire, see Nerantzis, “Pillars of Power.” 71. See Ivanova-Tsotova, “Architectural Complex.” 72. See Öğrenci, “Sarıca Ailesi Yapıları.” Carel Bertram also makes brief mention of the Arif Paşa; see Bertram, Imagining the Turkish House, 175n72. Pappa (referred to as “Pappas”) is also mentioned in Barillari and Godoli, Istanbul 1900, 155, 162n17. Pappa’s name is also, per custom, inscribed on the building itself. 73. See Öğrenci, “19. Yüzyıl Özgün Konut Tipleri.” 74. Ekdal, Kadıköy. 75. See Öğrenci, “19. Yüzyıl Özgün Konut Tipleri.” 76. Kuruyazıcı, “İstanbul’ un Unutulmuş Mimarları.” 77. See Öğrenci, “19. Yüzyıl Özgün Konut Tipleri.” 78. Batur, “August Jasmund.” As I have noted elsewhere, there is an alternative and widely printed spelling of “Jachmund” as “Jasmund.” Neither is a common family name in German. I cannot say with certainty which spelling is correct, but I have stuck with “Jachmund” as it seems linguistically more probable. See Christensen, Germany and the Ottoman Railways, 98n11. 79. On Vallaury, see Akpolat, “Levanten Kökenli Fransız Mimar Aléxandre Vallaury.” 80. For a comprehensive study of the Balyans, including the impact of the École des Beaux-Arts on their architectural work, see Wharton, Architects of Ottoman Constantinople. See also Wharton, “Balyan Family.” 81. Wharton, Architects of Ottoman Constantinople, 92–93. 82. For a lavishly illustrated and informative account of Istanbul in that era, including diverse projects by Raimondo D’Aronco, Vedat Tek, and others, see Barillari and Godoli, Istanbul 1900. For more regarding D’Aronco, see İstanbul Araştırmaları Enstitüsü, Osmanlı Mimarı. On Tek, see Batur and Eminoğlu, Bir usta bir dünya. 83. See Ersoy, Late Ottoman Historical Imaginary. 84. See a discussion of the steel frame and fireproofing in Freitag, Fireproofing of Steel Buildings. See also Gartman, From Autos to Architecture, 201; Pousson, “Marlborough.” 85. For an incisive history of the Tanzimat reforms, see Philliou, Biography of an Empire.

196

Notes to Pages 147–156

86. Some key literature on this topic includes Clark, “Ottoman Industrial Revolution”; Grant, “Sword of the Sultan”; Pamuk, Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism. 87. See Clark, “Ottoman Industrial Revolution,” 67–68. 88. Ibid., 73–74. 89. See Christensen, Germany and the Ottoman Railways. See also Ambraseys, “Earthquake of 10 July 1894.” 90. Ambraseys, “Earthquake of 10 July 1894.” 91. Christensen, Germany and the Ottoman Railways, 114–17. 92. See report from Huber Frères to the Deutscher Wohltätigkeits Verein, October 5, 1915, HaK, Werksarchiv/Unternehmensarchiv 41/74–257. 93. For an analysis of how Ottoman housing typologies were adapted and historicized in the twentieth century, see Türeli, “Herigitisation of the ‘Ottoman/ Turkish House.’” 94. See Zwierlein, “Burning of a Modern City?” 95. See Fıçı, “Social-Political Context of City Fires.” 96. Christensen, Germany and the Ottoman Railways, 93–94. 97. Ibid. 98. See Frech, Geologie Kleinasiens im Bereich der Bagdadbahn. 99. Ibid., 36. See also Omori, “Note on the Seismic Stability.” 100. For a photographic album of the destruction, particularly of railway sites, see Milne and Burton, Great Earthquake of Japan. 101. Acciai, “Ottoman-Turkish House.” See also Bozdoğan, Sedad Hakki Eldem. 102. See Akcan, Architecture in Translation, 231; Tanju and Tanyi, Retrospektif.

Chapter 6

1. Picon, “Anxious Landscapes,” 79. 2. On the historical and technical understanding of corrosion and rust, see Howe, Metallurgy of Steel, 1:94–104. 3. Sang, Corrosion of Iron and Steel, 2. 4. Ibid., 38–39. 5. Ibid., 6.



6. See Kelley, Novesky, and Dowell, “Potential for Application”; Ortega, “Masonry Cladding”; Zahner, Architectural Metals, 184–85, 195. 7. Turner, Concrete Steel Construction, 17. 8. See Cobb, History of Stainless Steel; Zahner, Architectural Metals, 196–212. 9. Stodart and Faraday, “Experiments on the Alloys of Steel”; see also Stodart and Faraday, “On the Alloys of Steel”; Zahner, Architectural Metals, 184; Groysman, Corrosion for Everybody, 253. 10. Zahner, Architectural Metals, 184. 11. Ibid. 12. Cobb, History of Stainless Steel, 105; James, Krupp: A History, 129; Manchester, Arms of Krupp, 244, 249. See also Kingston, William Van Alen; Stranges, “Mr. Chrysler’s Building.” 13. Simmel, “Two Essays,” 382. 14. See, for example, Buck-Morss, Dialectics of Seeing, esp. 159–201; Ginsberg, Aesthetics of Ruins; Kubler, Shape of Time; Lowenthal, Past Is a Foreign Country, esp. 138–82; Mortier, Poétique des ruines en France; Orlando, Obsolete Objects; Zimmerman, Künstliche Ruinen. 15. On Ruskin, see Hunt, “Ut pictura poesis”; Macarthur, “Heartlessness of the Picturesque”; Ruskin, Seven Lamps of Architecture. On Kant, see Burke, Sublime and the Beautiful; Kant, “Analytic of the Sublime.” See also Daemmrich, “Ruins Motif as Artistic Device”; Haferkorn, Gotik und Ruine. 16. On technopessimism, see Fuchs, Foundations of Critical Media, 112–13. Pamela Lee has discussed chronophobia as a phenomenon in the visual production of the 1960s, which resonates with my own understanding of the concept a few decades earlier. See Lee, Chronophobia. 17. On the battles of Ypres, see Buffetaut, Batailles de Flandres et d’Artois; Connelly and Goebel, Ypres. 18. German General Staff, Ypres 1914, 68, 51 (quotation). 19. Reprinted in Englund, Beauty and the Sorrow, 298. 20. Ford, Out of the Ruins, 24–25. 21. Ibid., 25. 22. See Fox, Image of the Soldier in German Culture; McWilliam, Nationalism and French Visual Culture. 23. Luxenberg, “Creating Désastres,” 125. 24. See Le Mée, “Collard”; McCauley, Industrial Madness, 195–232. 25. Luxenberg, “Creating Désastres,” 125.

26. Ibid., 113–37. 27. Turner, Concrete Steel Construction, esp. 44, 67, 117–20. 28. See, for example, Omori, “Note on the Seismic Stability.” Japan provided more financial aid to San Francisco than any other nation. 29. Himmelwright, San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, 205. 30. Ibid., 103, 105. 31. See Zoback, “1906 Earthquake,” 7. 32. Himmelwright, San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, 107, 72. 33. See W. J. Bartnett to Hon. Eugene E. Schmitz, April 29, 1906, Museum of the City of San Francisco, http://​www​.sfmuseum​.org​/1906​/rebuild​.html. 34. Hull, “Redwood in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.” 35. Davenport and Peter Auxiliary Photo Collection, Forest History Society Archives, Durham, NC. 36. Hull, “Redwood in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake,” 37. 37. See Buckley, Air Power in the Age of Total War; Groehler, Geschichte des Luftkriegs; Vidler, “Air War in Architecture.” 38. For some of the new building typologies, see Hawranek, Stahlskelettbau; Höber and Ganser, IndustrieKultur; Meeks, Railway Station; Mislin, Industriearchitektur in Berlin. 39. See, for example, Dyer, Ancient Britain, 116. 40. Manlove and Vickers, Scrap Metals, 4. 41. Manlove, “Junk Pile Transformed into Gold,” 1176, also cited in Zimring, Cash for Your Trash, 60. 42. Zimring, Cash for Your Trash, 13–14. 43. On alloy technology, see Mills, Materials of Construction. 44. James, Krupp: A History, 36–37 (quotation on 37n2). 45. This statement is based on my discussions with local historians in the Ruhrgebiet and observations of sites connected to this period. 46. Künzer, Entwicklung der deutschen Stahlindustrie, 46–47, 53. 47. Ibid., 56. 48. Manlove and Vickers, Scrap Metals, 2. 49. On the scrap trade during World War I, see Carlson and Gow, “Scrap Iron and Steel Industry”; Zimring, “Dirty Work”; Goebel, Deutsche Rohstoffwirtschaft im Weltkrieg, esp. 37; US Senate, Committee on Military Affairs, Scrap Iron and Steel. On the scrap drives of

Notes to Pages 157–173

197

World War II, see Kimble, Prairie Forge; Thorsheim, Waste into Weapons; Zimring, Cash for Your Trash. 50. Haug, “Norway.” 51. Translation of article in the August 21, 1916, issue of Tidens Tegn, NA MUN 4/2136. 52. Ibid. On the Bergen fire, see New York Times, “Bergen, Norway.” 53. Translation of article in the December 21, 1915, issue of Berliner Tageblatt, NA MUN 4/2136. 54. Manlove and Vickers, Scrap Metals, 1. 55. On how the formalization of the scrapyard made scrap itself more valuable, see ibid., 38. 56. Ibid., 18, 40, 41–43. 57. Ibid., 44, 24. 58. Ibid., 28. 59. On Schrotthandel GmbH, see “Auflösung der westlichen Schrottorganisationen,” 922. On Süddeutscher Schrottverbraucher, see Hildebrand et al., Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, 414. 60. See Pawlowski, Métallurgie Lorraine, 62. 61. NA MUN 4/2136, pp. 30–31. 62. Wengenroth, Enterprise and Technology, 28. 63. Manlove and Vickers, Scrap Metals, 6. 64. NA MUN 4/2136, p. 31. 65. NA FO 93/46/88. 66. This is readily evident in reports on what was scrapped, such as those published in the Zeitschrift des Vereines deutscher Ingenieure. 67. See Depportere, Question des reparations allemandes; Fischer, Ruhr Crisis; Jeannesson, Poincaré, la France et la Ruhr; Krumeich and Schröder, Schatten des Weltkriegs; O’Riordan, Britain and the Ruhr Crisis. 68. See Clout, Restoring the Countryside; Gomes, German Reparations. 69. On French scrapyards and the scrap trade, see Risacher and Stoskopf, “Industrie alsacienne dans la Grande Guerre.”

198

Notes to Pages 174–184

70. Phoebus, “German Foreign Steel Trade.” 71. Risacher and Stoskopf, “Industrie alsacienne dans la Grande Guerre.”

Conclusion

1. On the “New Objectivity,” see Becker, Neue Sachlichkeit; Stamm, Zweite Aufbruch in die Moderne. 2. See Grebe and Grütter, Albert Renger-Patzsch; Kuspit, Albert Renger-Patzsch; Renger-Patzsch et al., Blick der Sachlichkeit. 3. On Bernd and Hilla Becher, see Andre, “Note on Bernd and Hilla Becher”; Glasenapp, “Familie der Fördertürme”; Lange, Vergleichende Konzeptionen; Lange, Was wir tun; Stimson, Pivot of the World. 4. Bernd Becher in conversation with Jean-François Chevrier, James Lingwood, and Thomas Struth, in Another Objectivity, 57; Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher quoted in an exhibition statement for “Distance and Proximity (Germany), Bernd & Hilla Becher / Andreas Gursky / Candida Hofer / Axel Hutte / Simone Nieweg / Thomas Ruff / Jörg Sasse / Thomas Struth / Petra Wunderlich,” https://​www​ .tate​.org​.uk​/research​/publications​/tate​-papers​/01​ /photographic​-comportment​-of​-bernd​-and​-hilla​ -becher. See also Stimson, Pivot of the World, 137. 5. Stimson, Pivot of the World, 139. 6. Jordans, “End of an Era.” 7. Dedman, Origins and Development of the European Union. 8. The Schuman Declaration, May 9, 1950, available online at https://​europa​.eu​/european​-union​/about​ -eu​/symbols​/europe​-day​/schuman​-declaration​_en. 9. Klein, This Changes Everything, 279. See also Demos, Against the Anthropocene, 27.



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Index

Page reference in italics indicate an illustration. Abdülhamid II, Sultan of the Turks, 149 AEG Factory (Berlin), 135 AG der Dillinger Huttenwerke, 117 age of discovery, 5, 6 Agricola, Georgius, 29 air pollution impact on human health, 70, 72 measurement of, 72, 72–73 photographic studies of, 66–67 regulations of, 65–66, 69, 70 airship hangar, 132 Albion Colliery explosion, 29 Alexander, Christopher, 126 Algeria iron ore deposits in, 22–23 Allgemeine Deutsche Industrie Ausstellung in Munich (1854), 109 Alsace-Lorraine German annexation of, 38, 124 iron ore mining in, 38 American Iron Works Company, 41 American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 107 Andrieu, Jean, 163 Anglo-Norwegian conflict of 1916–17, 174 Anthropocene, 1–2, 4, 6 architecture building safety and, 151–52 colonial projects, 127–28 ecological context of, 2, 3–4 education in, 14 history of, 2–3, 6 ideology and, 151 intellectual property, 128, 130, 131 iron and steel in, 8, 11–12, 128, 135, 181 prefabricated metal units and, 97–99, 127, 128, 130, 146 reinforced concrete and, 131–33, 135, 137 schools of, 126 styles, 58, 148 systems design in, 125–26, 127–28, 130–31 Tiefbau and Hochbau approach, 137–38, 139, 144 See also columns

Arcucci, Antonio, 190n81 Arif Paşa Apartments (Istanbul) building safety, 151 decorations, 151, 152 design systems, 12, 147, 149, 150–51, 152–53 façades of, 147, 149, 152 iron and steel construction, 146–47 location of, 147 modernism of, 153 structural system, 149, 149 style and typology, 151, 152–53 view of, 147 armaments export regulations, 108 at industrial exhibition, 111 metal scraps and, 173–74, 176 Aronson Building (San Francisco), 167, 168 art nouveau style, 148 Austria-Hungary expansionism of, 122–23, 124 railway transportation, 120–21, 121 scrap trade in, 174, 176 avant-garde style, 146 Baghdad Railway, 18, 19, 152 Baker, Benjamin, 7 Balyan family, 148 Barbara, Saint depictions of, 31, 32 patronage, 32–33 Barth, Friedrich, 104–5 Barthes, Roland, 46 beams as building units, 97 C-beam, 105 H-beam, 52 mass production of, 99 O-beam, 143 strength of, 98 theory of, 97–98 timber vs. iron, 97, 98 U-beam, 52, 130, 143 See also I-beam

Beaux-Arts style, 148, 149, 152 Becher, Bernd, 181–82, 182 Becher, Hilla, 181–82, 182 Beck, Ludwig, 91, 95, 97, 99 Behrens, Peter, 115, 135, 138, 144 Bellhouse, Edward, 127, 128 Berg, Max, 11, 133, 135, 136, 137 Bergen fire of 1916, 174 Berghaus, Heinrich Karl Wilhelm, 14, 16 Bergwerks, Hoerder, 104 Berlin building code, 55 Spree River, 145 suspension railway, 144 transit network, 138–39, 143 Berlin-Stettin canal overpass, 79 Berlin U-Bahn, 11, 138–39, 144, 145, 145 Bernoulli, Daniel, 97, 100 Berthier, Pierre, 158 Bessemer, Henry, 7, 22, 89, 91 Bessemer converter, 89–90, 90, 91, 101 Bessemer Gold Medal, 22 Bessemer process, 7, 38, 75, 89, 93, 99 Bibliotheque nationale (Paris), 139 Bismarck, Otto von, 130 Bixby Hotel (Los Angeles), 166 Blair, Andrew Alexander, 35 blast furnace, 43, 89 Bleicher, Gustave, 35 Blier, Suzanne Preston, 10 Bochumer Verein, 40 Bocoum, Hamady, 10 Bode Museum (Berlin), 146 Bodenhausen, Hans Eberhard von, 111–12 Bolsover Colliery Company, 62 Bolz, Cedric, 57 Borsig, Albert, 95 Bötticher, Karl, 143 Boullée, Étienne-Louis, 137 Braudel, Fernand, 35 Brearley, Arthur W., 92 Brearley, Harry, 92, 159 brick buildings, 75 bridges, 7, 75, 77, 99–100, 100, 117, 119, 180, 181 British Fog and Smoke Committee, 70 bronze, 5, 92 Brüggemeier, Franz-Josef, 55, 69

226

Index

Brussels International Exposition (1910), 133, 134 Buch, Leopold von, 14 “Geognostic Map of Germany,” 16 building practices evolution of, 108–9 Burnham, Daniel, 127, 133, 169 Burnham and Root company, 133 Byington, Margaret, 61 “canary in the coal mine,” 29 Capri, island of gay community of, 63, 64 Grotta di Fra Felice, 64 Krupp’s life on, 62–63, 64 location of, 62 Via Krupp, 63–64, 64 Carlyle, Thomas, 42 Carnegie, Andrew, 7, 60 Carnegie Steel Company location of plants, 61 strike at, 60–61 working conditions at, 51, 60 cartography, 16, 119–22 See also geological cartography; isochronic maps Cassell, John Henry, 77 cenotaph for Isaac Newton, 137 Centennial Hall (Wrocław), 133, 136, 137 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia (1876), 109, 112 Central Commission for Navigation of the Rhine, 117 Chakrabarty, Dipesh, 1, 2 Chevaillier, E., 120 Chicago scrap yards, 175 skyscrapers, 133 subway, 145 Christian Miners of Germany, 29, 30 chromolithography, 47 chronophobia, 160, 162, 197n16 Chrysler Building (New York City), 159, 159 Cioc, Mark, 117 climate crisis, 1, 8 coal calorific value of, 19 deposits of, 18–19 ecological impact of, 65, 88 as fuel, 83, 88

iron production and, 18–19 prospecting of, 17, 19 Collard, Auguste Hippolyte, 163 Cologne-Minden Railway Company of Prussia, 119 colonialism, 17–18 columns aesthetic values of, 140 architectural treatment of, 138–39, 143–44 Blütenkapitel-style of, 143, 144 capital designs, 142, 144 reinforced concrete, 144 in underground stations, 144 Y-shape, 144 commercial navigation, 116–17 Comptoir Metallurgique de Longwy, 117 Comstock, Henry, 24 Concordia disaster, 19–20 Concrete Steel Construction (Turner), 157, 166 Conti, Elisabetta, 10 Copernican revolution, 6 copper, 92, 170, 185n1 corporations research and development, 47 secrecy culture of, 46–47 corrosion, 155–56 Corrosion of Iron and Steel, The (Sang), 156 Corr system, 131 Cort, Henry, 7 Corwith Scrap Yard in Chicago, 175 Courrières mine disaster, 29 Crawford, Margaret, 61 Creswell Model Village, 62–63, 63 Cross, John Walter, 126–27 crucibles, 88, 91 Crystal House (Chicago), 127 Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851), 11, 101, 107, 109, 110, 160 Cummings system, 131 Dahl, Franz, 108 Danube River, 116 Darwin, Charles, 5 Davies, Colin, 127 Dawes, T. L. Mining on the Comstock, 26–27 “Day of Free Europe” poster, 184 Deane, Thomas Newenham, 139 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 8

deforestation industrialization and, 84–85 public concern over, 86–87, 88 schematic representation of, 84 Deidesheimer, Philip, 24, 27–28 Demos, T. J., 6 Desmarest, Nicolas, 13 Despradelle, Constant-Desire, 126 Deutscher Werkbund Ausstellung in Cologne (1914), 109, 112, 115–16 Glass Pavilion, 115 Deutscher Werkbund movement, 146 Diamond, Jared, 6 diamonds, 17 Dirksen, Friedrich, 119 Dirschau railway bridge, 99–100, 100 Dohrn, Felix Anton, 62 Dombrücke (Cathedral Bridge) of Cologne, 117, 119 Dorilton Apartments (New York City), 149 Dortmund (Germany) air pollution in, 66 industrial development of, 54 population of, 23, 55 Douglas, Norman, 63 Dudley, Charles, 107 Duisburg (Germany), 43, 44, 54 earthquakes, 152, 167–69 Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 11, 14, 126, 127, 128 ecology, 3, 4, 5, 6–7, 9 Eiffel, Gustave, 98, 99 Eiffel Tower, 98, 160 Eisner, Kurt, 56, 57 elasticity theory of, 97 Engels, Friedrich, 6 Enlightenment science, 6 enough movement, 1, 2 Erbbereiten tradition, 33 Erdmann, Conrad, 95, 97 Ersoy, Ahmet, 148 Essen (Germany) centennial celebration, 53 during the Great War, 60 industrial zoning, 55 Krupp company in, 24, 39–40, 43–45, 53 population of, 23, 24, 54–55

Index

227

Essen (Germany) (continued) traffic routes, 54 Villa Hügel, 53–54, 54 welfare urbanism, 56–58 Euler, Leonard, 97, 100 Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, 97–98, 99 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), 184 factories, 39, 40–41 factory workers conditions of, 51 financial investments in, 56 housing of, 56–58, 61–62, 62, 63, 78, 114 injuries and deaths, 49–50, 51 photographs of, 49, 50, 51 safety practices, 50–51 welfare, 52–53 Fairbairn, William, 98 Faraday, Michael, 158 Farmborough, Florence, 162 Faroqhi, Suraiya, 10 female workers photographs of, 49–50, 50 Ferris, George Washington Gale, Jr., 98, 99 Ferris wheel, 98 Festhalle (Frankfurt), 133, 134, 137 First National Style, 148, 149 Fischer, Theodor, 58 Fıçı, Burak, 151 Flatiron Building (New York City), 133 flat-slab support system, 157 Ford, George, 162 forest aesthetic of, 86–87 preservation of, 86, 88 Romanticism and, 85 symbolic importance of, 85–86 Forges d’Aiseau firm, 130, 131 Forth Bridge, 7 Forty, Adrian, 10 Four Domes Pavilion (Wrocław), 135 Fowler, John, 7 France iron and steel factories in, 61–62, 117 isochronic map of, 120 metallurgical science in, 35, 36 railway transportation, 120

228

Index

scrap trade in, 176 timber consumption, 84–85 Franco-Prussian War, 38, 163, 166, 169 fraternities (Knappschaften), 33–34 Frech, Fritz, 152 Frederick William III, King of Prussia, 133 Freyssinet, Eugène, 132 Friedrich, Caspar David, 86–87, 87, 88, 181 Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, 150 Fry, Tony, 10 furnaces, 88, 89 furtive photography, 46, 49 Galerie des Machines pavilion, 160 Galilei, Galileo, 97 Gelsenkirchen (Germany), 67 genius definition of, 3 geological cartography, 13, 21–22 geological science, 13, 14, 185n2, 187n47 geopolitics, 17 Germany air pollution regulations in, 65–66 armaments production, 146 art and culture, 181 closure of coal mines, 183 colonialism, 128 deforestation, 85, 86 expansionism, 38, 122–23, 124 first geological museum, 22 foreign relations, 23 geological map of, 14, 16 iron and steel production in, 9, 12, 23, 89–90, 117 March Revolution of 1848, 24 metallurgical science in, 35, 36, 47 mining academies in, 14 overproduction crisis, 90 railway transportation, 119–20, 121–22 reparation payments, 177 scrap trade in, 170–71, 173–74, 176, 177 transition to clean energy, 183 Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser, 43–44, 44, 117 Giedion, Sigfried, 10, 99, 139 Gilchrist, Percy, 38 Gilchrist-Thomas process, 38, 100 Gisborne, Thomas, 29, 187n47 globalization ecological impact of, 4–5

gold, 17, 92, 170 Gothic Revival architecture, 139 Great Britain geological map of, 13–14, 15, 21 iron and steel production in, 23, 90 metallurgical science in, 35, 36 scrap trade in, 177 smoke-abatement movement, 70 workers welfare in, 51–52 Great Chicago Fire of 1871, 7 Grenander, Alfred Frederik Elias, 143, 144 Gropius, Walter, 56, 115 Gründerboom (age of steel), 9 Gutehoffnungshütte of Oberhausen, 99 Guttmann, Arthur, 74–75 Haeckel, Ernst, 5 Hart, Ernest, 70 Hauptmann, Gerhart, 85 Heakley, James, 41 Heckmann Brassworks in Berlin, 95 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 85 Heimatschutzstil architecture, 75 Heine, H., 112, 113 Hemenway & Miller, 167 Hemming, Samuel, 127, 128 Hennebique, Francois, 131, 132 Hennebique system, 131 Herbert, Gilbert, 127 Hermannshütte ironworks, 69 Heuchler, Eduard, 33, 34 Hill, Octavia, 70 Himmelwright, Abraham Lincoln Artman, 167, 169 Hobsbawm, Eric, 137 Hoesch AG, 117 Hoffmann, Josef, 115 Holabird & Roche firm, 133 Holzmann, Philipp, 150 Home Insurance Building (Chicago), 133 Homestead, PA housing prices, 61 strike in, 60–61 view of, 60–61 Hood, Raymond, 126–27 Hooley, Edgar Purnell, 80 Hotel-de-Ville’s Galerie des Fetes, 165, 166 Houfton, Percy B., 62

Humboldt, Alexander von, 5, 14, 16–17 Hunt, Robert W., 97 Huntsman process, 89 I-beam in architecture, adoption of, 98–99, 100, 104, 105, 106, 144, 146–47, 150, 152, 153 certification of, 107 deformations of, 100 design of, 98, 99–100 earthquakes and, 152 mass production of, 52, 93, 99, 125 properties of, 104 in railway construction, 150, 152 recycling of, 175 testing of, 100 Ihne, Ernst von, 54 industrial cities, 52–53, 55 industrial exhibitions architecture of, 113, 115 authorship of artifacts, 113 corporate narratives of, 109, 110, 116 craftmanship at, 112–13 criticism of, 110, 112–13 didactic strategies of, 109–10 displays of, 109, 110 stakeholders, 114 weaponry at, 111, 112 workers’ welfare theme, 114–15 industrial fatigue, 52 Industrial Fatigue Research Board, 52 industrialization environmental impact of, 9, 65–66, 69 local governments and, 69 optimism about, 110 reform movements and, 70 Industrial Revolution, 6, 7 Industriedunst (industrial haze). See smog Industry, trade and art exhibition in Düsseldorf (1902), 109, 113–14, 114 infrastructure networks, 116, 137–38 ingots, 92, 92 Ingots and Ingot Moulds (Brearley and Brearley), 92 International Conference of Steel Producers in New York City (1914), 111 International Smoke Abatement Exhibition in London, 70 plate from the catalog of, 71

Index

229

International Steel & Iron Company sales catalogs, 102, 103 iron as cultural fetish, 181 impact on architecture, 8 life cycle, 179 manufacture of, 11, 18–19, 73, 73–74 melting point of, 6 meteorite, 5 vs. steel, 156 technological value of, 5 iron and steel industry as cultural phenomenon, 179 European unification and, 183–84 international markets for, 11 metal scrap and, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178 Iron and Steel Institute, 22 Iron Bathing Kiosk for the Viceroy of Egypt, 127–28, 128 Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale, 7 iron-chrome alloys, 158 iron ore, 6, 35, 36–38 isochronic maps, 120, 120, 121, 124 Istanbul earthquake (1894), 152 Jachmund, August, 148 Jacobsthal, Johann Eduard, 99 James, Harold, 10 Jeans, J. S., 91 Jefferson, Ann, 3 Jenney, William Le Baron, 133 John & James White mining firm, 122 Johnson, Samuel, 67 Kahn, Albert, 104, 157 Kahn system, 104, 131, 132 Kant, Immanuel, 160, 162 Keck, George Fred, 127 Kennedy, Julian, 42 Kieran Timberlake firm, 126 Kimmerer, Robin Wall, 3 Kirunavaara mine (Sweden), 36, 37, 187n71 Kılıç, Zülal, 10 Kjellén, Rudolf, 37 Klein, Fritz, 18, 19 Klein, Naomi, 184 Kleist, Heinrich von, 85 Koenen’sche Voutenplatte system, 131, 133

230

Index

Koniglichen Materialprufungsamt (Royal Material Testing Agency, or KMA), 107 Kožeśnik, Moritz, 85, 86, 88 Krupp, Alfred Bessemer and, 90 government officials and, 107 Humboldt and, 17 patents of, 93 residence of, 53–54, 54 sketch of workers with hammers, 93, 95 Krupp, Bertha, 54, 57, 65 Krupp, Friedrich Alfred business venture of, 37, 39 Capri estate of, 62–63 death of, 65 government officials and, 107 homosexuality of, 64–65, 190n81 interest in oceanography, 62 legacy of, 56, 62, 63 lifestyle, 62–63, 64 publicity, 56, 65 Krupp, Hermann, 93 Krupp, Margarethe, 57, 62, 65 Krupp austenitic steel, 159 Krupp company architectural projects, 53, 146 arms and munition production, 40, 128, 146 branches of, 40, 88 competitors of, 42 Dombrücke construction, 119 employees of, 9, 49 Essen facilities, 39–40, 44–45, 45, 47, 53, 68, 172 exhibitions of, 109, 110–12, 111, 113–16 growth of, 62 guest tours, 39 history of, 9, 40 inside secrecy, 46, 47 international connections, 107–8, 111–12, 122 Ottoman railway project, 150 photographic archives of, 45–46, 47, 48, 49 promotional publications, 50 recycling of metal scrap, 171, 172, 176 research facilities at, 47, 49, 66–67, 92, 171 Ruhrgebiet campuses, 45 scholarly literature on, 10 steelmaking, 11, 117 stone foundry, 40, 45 workers’ housing, 56–57, 67–68, 114

Krupp Eisen und Stahl, Essen: Schutzvorrichtungen (photobook), 50, 51 Krupp Germaniawerft, 62 Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Gustav, 57, 65, 107, 146 Kuhne, Max Hans, 195n40 Künzer, Emil, 172 Kyrle Society, 70 labor standards regulations of, 51–52 Labrouste, Henri, 139 Laloux, Victor, 126–27 Latour, Bruno, 3, 4 Latticework Bridge in Duisburg-Hochfeld, 180, 181 Lebensraum (living space), 121–22 Le Corbusier, 137 Le Creusot commune (Burgundy), 61–62 Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, 195n40 Leonardo da Vinci sketch of rolling mill, 93, 94 theory of beams, 97 Lessing, Julius, 112, 113, 115 Li Hongzhang, 40 Linnaeus, Carl, 5 Llanelli Copperworks smokestack at, 41, 41 Lobanov-Rostovsky, Andrei, 162 lode mining, 28 Loeffelholz von Colberg, Sigmund Friedrich, 85 Lohse, Hermann, 117, 119 London International Exhibition (1874), 110 Lossow, William, 195n40 Luten Truss system, 131 Luxenberg, Alisa, 163 Lynch, Martin, 38 macadamization, 77 Maclure, William, 13, 14 McAdam, John Loudon, 77 magnetite, 17, 35 Mainz, Convention of, 117 Malte-Brun, Victor Adolphe, 68 Malthus, Thomas Robert, 6 Manby, Edward, 23 Maneuvrier, Georges, 14 manganese, 36, 38, 182 Manlove, George Henry, 170, 173, 174–75

Mannheim, Convention of, 117 Manning, Henry, 127, 128 mapmaking. See cartography Margarethe Krupp Stiftung, 57 Margarethenhöhe, 56, 57–58, 59, 68 marketing of steel products in engineering handbooks, 104, 108 in sales catalogs, 103, 104, 108 targeted audience, 101, 103 in trade publications, 104 Markham, Adam, 67 Marlborough Apartments (Baltimore), 149 Martens, Adolf, 107 Martin, E., 120 Martin furnace, 43, 116 Marx, Karl, 6 materiality, 3, 4 Mayer, Emilio, 63 Meißen ceramic, 32 Menzel, Adolph, 103, 181 The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes), 93, 96 Mercedes-Benz, 40 metallurgy architecture and, 126 Bessemer process, 7, 38, 75, 89, 93, 99 development of, 35–36, 47 Gilchrist-Thomas process, 38 puddling process, 7 recycling system, 12 refinement processes, 35, 38 Spiegeleisen process, 75 metals, 13, 127, 139, 140 Metzendorf, Georg, 58 Meyer, Hannes, 56 Meyerheim, Paul, 95 Miliana (Algerian commune) geological analysis of, 22–23 Mills Building (San Francisco), 168, 169 miners book illustrations, 33, 34 children, 31 health issues, 30 labor conditions, 30 pension payments, 30 photographs of, 31 professional diseases of, 69–70 religious affiliations of, 34–35

Index

231

miners (continued) solidarity of, 33, 34 traditions of, 31–35 veneration of Saint Barbara, 31–34 women, 30, 31 mines drawings of, 26–27, 28, 29 engineering, 19–20, 22, 24, 27–28 productivity, 28 Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, 30 mine subsidence, 19–20, 21, 36, 187n71 mining industry accidents and disasters, 19–20, 21, 29 environmental hazards, 29 history of, 10–11 international corporations, 17, 28 legal issues, 20–21 property rights and, 20 safety regulations, 20–21 studies of, 14 technological development of, 13 Mining on the Comstock (Dawes), 26–27 Mino-Owari earthquake (1891), 152 Miodownik, Mark, 10 modernism, 4, 5 Möhring, Bruno, 144 molds, 89, 91, 92 Monadnock Building (Chicago), 133 Monier, Joseph, 131 Morris, James, 10 mortar technology, 75 Moselle River, 117, 118 Museum of Natural History (Oxford), 139 Muthesius, Hermann, 58, 115 Nasmyth, James, 82 natural resources colonialism and, 17–18 neptunism theory, 14 Netherlands natural resources of, 17 scrap trade in, 177 New Objectivity movement, 181 Newton, Isaac, 5 Oberhausen, 53 Concordia Lake in, 19, 20

232

Index

Omori, Fusakichi, 152 Ore Science Society, 38 ore washing environmental impact of, 29 Orientalism style, 148 Ottoman empire architectural traditions, 148–49, 152–53 building safety standards, 151–52 Department of Mines, 18 foreign concessions in, 17 geological surveys of, 17, 18 industrial development of, 149–50 laborers in, 186n19 natural resources of, 18–19, 36 protectionist policies, 36 railway construction, 138, 149, 150, 152 Tanzimat reforms, 149, 152 Otto Wolff AG, 117 Palace of St. Cloud ruins of, 166, 166 Pappa, Constantin P., 147–48, 149, 150–51, 152 Passchendaele aerial view of, 161 patents, 93, 128, 130, 131 Pehnt, Wolfgang, 133, 137 Penck, Albrecht, 120–21, 122 Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 116 Perin, Charles, 42 Persia industrial development, 17 Perthes, Justus, 16, 22 Petermann, August Heinrich, 16 Peterson, Charles, 98 Pevsner, Nikolaus, 137 Philipp Holzmann GmbH, 138 photographs of metal structures, 181–82, 182 as organizational medium, 46 of workers, 49 photomicrography, 47 Physikalischer Atlas, 16 Picon, Antoine, 155 Plüschow, Wilhelm, 63 Poelzig, Hans, 133, 135 Pohl, Karl, 75 Pont d’Argenteuil (Paris), 163, 165, 166

Pont St.-Louis (Paris), 163, 164, 166 portable cottages, 127, 128 Portland cement, 74 Preusische Geologische Landesanstalt, 22 Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls, 7 production of iron and steel ecological impact of, 65, 85 equipment for, 88–89, 91 fuel for, 83–85 methods of, 89–90, 92–93, 101 overproduction crisis, 90–91 rolling process, 93, 95, 97 prospecting, 17, 18, 19 The Prussian Octopus caricature, 123, 123–24 punctum, studium, and spectrum conception, 46 Railway Exhibition in Buenos Aires (1907), 109 railway gauges, 93, 98, 107 railway transportation, 116, 119 elevated trains, 143 maps of, 119–22, 120, 121, 124 Ratzel, Friedrich, 121 recycling, 170, 171 reinforced concrete buildings and structures, 7, 131–32, 133, 135 corrosion of, 157 early projects in, 52 fire safety and, 167, 169 ornamental adaptations, 144 steel in, 11 structural failures of, 166–67 system designs, 131–33 wooden formwork on, 135 Reliance Building (Chicago), 127 Renger-Patzsch, Albert, 181 “Report on Some Deposits in Asian Turkey,” 18 Reuleaux, Franz, 112 Rhine basin commercial navigation, 116, 117, 119 geographical boundaries, 23, 116–17 as German symbol, 117 iron and steel factories in, 117 map of, 118 railway transportation in, 119 Richter, Dieter, 190n81 Riis, Jacob, 30, 56 Ringelmann, Maximilien, 72–73

Ringelmann smoke charts, 72, 73 Rinke, Mario, 10 Rio Tinto, 17, 23 R. J. Waters & Co., 167 road construction macadam system of, 77 in Oxford, England, 80 tarmac system of, 80 use of slag in, 77, 79, 80 Roberts-Austen, W. C., 35 Rodin, Auguste, 43 Roebling Construction Company, 167 Rogers, Richard, 126 rolling mill, 93, 95, 96 rolling process, 93, 95, 97 Roosevelt, Theodore, 169 rubble, 162–63, 166–67 Ruef Building (San Francisco), 167, 168 Ruhr Basin (Ruhrgebiet) climate, 23 coal and mineral deposits, 23, 24, 54, 55 environmental pollution, 65–66, 69 geographical boundaries, 23 industrial development of, 24, 54–55, 68–69, 182–83 maps of, 25 as metallurgical research hub, 47 population growth, 24 religious denominations in, 187n61 Saint Barbara veneration in, 33 soil, 23 universities, 188n27 urban centers of, 54–55 war impact on, 177 ruin of Franco-Prussian War, 163, 166, 166, 169 of the Great War, 160–62 philosophical reflections on, 160 vs. rubble, 162 rust and, 155, 159–60, 162 of San Francisco earthquake, 163, 167, 168, 169 Ruins of the Palace of St. Cloud (lithograph), 166 Ruskin, John, 110, 139, 160, 162 rust chemical composition of, 156 of iron vs. steel, 156 protective coating, 157 ruin and, 155, 159–60, 162

Index

233

Sack, Hugo, 99 Sainte-Geneviève Library (Paris), 139 Salfield & Kohlberg, 167 San Francisco earthquake (1906), 152, 163, 167, 168, 169 Sang, Alfred, 156 Sangiorgio, Giovanni, 64, 190n81 Sargent, G. F., 128 Sarıca family, 147, 148 Sarıcazade Abdullah & Osman Bey Apartments. See Arif Paşa Apartments, Istanbul Şarköy-Mürefte earthquake (1912), 152 Schiano, Adolfo, 64, 190n81 Schiano, Francesco, 190n81 Schinkel, Karl Friedrich, 16, 139, 143 Schlegel, Friedrich, 85 Schleiden, Matthias Jakob, 85–86, 88 Schleswig-Holstein, 124 Schmidt, Robert, 53, 54, 55, 56 Schneider, Adolphe, 61 Schneider, Eugène, 61 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 85 Schrotthandel GmbH, 176 Schultz, Hans-Dietrich, 122 Schultze-Naumburg, Paul, 58 Schuman, Robert, 183 Schwartz, Joseph, 10 scientific discoveries, 2, 6 scrap materials collection of, 170, 173–74, 176, 177 ecological function of, 170, 178 recycling of, 171, 178 sources of, 173–74, 175, 176 in steelmaking, use of, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 studies of, 173 trade, 170–71, 174–77 types of, 173, 175–76 value of, 176 scrapyards, 12, 170–71, 172, 174, 175, 176–78 seams, 22 second Industrial Revolution, 7 Semper, Gottfried, 110, 139, 140, 143 Semperdepot (Vienna), 140, 141 Semperoper (Dresden), 143 Shadwell, Arthur, 55 Shepp, Daniel, 111 Shepp, James, 111 Short Textbook on Machine Elements, with Examples for Self-Study and Practical Use, A (Barth), 104–5

234

Index

Siemens & Halske, 138, 143 Siemens-Martin process, 89, 101, 171, 173, 174 silica, 17, 74, 182 silver, 17, 24, 27, 92, 170 Simmel, Georg, 160 skyscrapers, 133, 157, 169, 179 slag (scoria) as agricultural fertilizer, 80, 82 basic, 74 chemical and physical properties of, 74, 75 as construction material, 74–75, 77, 80 deposit methods, 80–81, 81, 82 environmental impact of, 82 microscopic formation of, 76 moving of, 73, 73–74 in road construction, 77, 79, 80, 80 in smelting process, 74 spontaneous subterranean combustion, 82 study of, 74–75 slag-based mortars, 75, 77 Smith, George Hand, 92–93 Smith, William “A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland,” 13, 15 geological maps of, 13–14, 21 smog definition of, 66–67 in industrial centers, 65–66, 72 as political issue, 69 study of, 67 See also air pollution smokestacks, 40–41 soil, 4 soot, 9, 66, 67 Spain iron ore mining in, 23, 37–38 phosphoric ores in, 23 Spiegeleisen process, 75 spiral mushroom system, 157 Spreetunnel, 145 stainless steel, 158–59 Stazione Zoologica in Naples, 62 steam engine locomotives, 65, 66 steel acid-resistant, 158 in architecture, 8, 10, 52 carbonization of, 92–93 chemical and physical properties of, 101

corrosion of, 159 as cultural fetish, 4, 181 international market, 9, 11 vs. iron, 156 life cycle, 179 production of, 7, 10, 11 recycling, 12 technological value of, 5, 6 steel church, 129, 130 steel columns, 141, 142 steel factory typology, 41–42 Steel Trust, 108 Steiner, Rudolf, 137 Steinmeier, Frank-Walter, 183 stewardship concept of, 85–86 Stimson, Blake, 181, 182 Stodart, James, 158 Strack, Johann Henrich, 117, 119 structural steel units certification and standardization of, 105, 107 damages of, 163, 167, 168 double-layered panels, 130 fabrication of, 7, 11, 93 handbooks on, 104–5, 106, 108 impact on building practices, 93, 97–99, 105, 106, 125–26, 146 prefabricated units, 97–99, 103, 127, 128, 130, 146 sales catalogs, 102, 103, 104, 108 steel frame, 156–57 trusses, 104 subways, 138 Süddeutscher Schrottverbraucher, 176 Sveti Stefan Kilisesi (Istanbul), 147 Sweden iron ore mining in, 36–37 mine subsidence in, 187n71 railway construction, 37 systems design, 11, 125–26, 127, 128, 133 Tacoma Building (Chicago), 133 tarmac system, 80 Tata, Dorabji, 42 Tata, Jamsetji, 42 Tata, R. D., 42 Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), 42 Tata plant, 42 Taunt, Henry, 80

Taut, Bruno, 135, 137 Glass Pavilion, 115, 115 Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 52 Technical Society of Iron and Steelworkers, 130 Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola, 47 techno-optimism, 10, 110 techno-pessimism, 160 Tenfelde, Klaus, 33, 53 Tessenow, Heinrich, 58, 115 The Manufacture of Iron—Carting Away the Scoriae (illustration), 73, 73–74 Thiersch, Friedrich von, 133, 135 Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist, 38 Thyssen, August, 42–43, 155 Thyssen, Fritz, 108 Thyssen & Company architectural projects, 146 arms and munition production, 128 Bessemer process, 90 branch offices, 43 competitors of, 42 employees of, 43 facilities of, 43, 45 foundation of, 42–43 international connection of, 22–23, 108 metallurgical research at, 47 operation model of, 43–44 plants, 43 in Rhine watershed, 117 Thyssen-Foussol & Co. ironworks, 43 timber, 84, 87–88 transportation networks, 116–17, 138 Troska, Richard, 89 Trussed Concrete Steel Company, 104 Tunner, Peter, 91 Turkish Mining Regulations Act of 1887, 36 Turner, Claude Allen Porter, 144 Concrete Steel Construction, 52, 157, 166 Turner, Thomas Henry, 35 Tutankhamun’s meteoric iron dagger, 5 Uhlenhaut, Karl, 40 Union of Scrap Iron Users, 177 Union Stock Yards, 175 United States scrap trade in, 175–76 steel manufacturing in, 51, 112 timber consumption, 84

Index

235

United States (continued) transportation routes, 116 workers welfare, 51, 52 United States Steel Company Gary Works, 112 Unit system, 131 Upper Mesopotamia geological survey of, 18, 19 Vallaury, Alexander, 148 vegetation, 84 Velde, Henry van de, 115, 195n40 Versailles, Treaty of, 177 Vickers, Charles, 173, 174–75 Vienna, Congress of, 117 Vienna’s S-Bahn, 143–44 Vikramaarca, King of India, 85 Wachsmann, Konrad, 126 Wagner, Otto, 143 Wagner Iron Mines, 23 Walker, John, 127 Wallbaum, Friedrich Wilhelm, 117 Walzwerk Thyssen & Co., 43 Warming, Eugenius, 5 waste products, 75 Wattenscheid, 54 Weber, Carl Maria von, 6 welfare of laborers, 52–53, 56, 57, 58 Werkbund Exhibition Theater (Cologne), 195n40

236

Index

Werner, Gottlob, 14, 24 Wharton, Alyson, 148 Wilde, Oscar, 63 Wilhelm I, German Emperor, 128 Wilhelm II, German Emperor, 53, 108, 122, 128, 133 Wilhelmism style, 137 Wilkinson, John, 7 Willis, Anne-Marie, 10 Wilmowsky, Tilo von, 65 wood fuel, 83, 84–85, 88 Woodward, Benjamin, 139 Workmen’s International Exhibition in London (1870), 113 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), 11, 98, 109, 110–11 Krupp pavilion, 110, 111 World’s Fair in Paris (1889), 98, 112 World’s Fair in Vienna (1873), 109, 112 World War I deliberate mass destruction, 169–70 ruins of, 160–62, 163, 164–65 World War II scrap trade, 173, 174 Young, Charles, 127 Ypres destruction of, 160–61 Zimring, Carl, 170