The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 91, July 1987 - April, 1988 Page: 13
619 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Energy and Urban Growth
of the city, the geologist calculated that the marginal fuel-cost advantages
of rivals like Pittsburg and Cleveland would be reversed in favor of
Chicago.19
Foster's predictions were'inore than fulfilled by 1880, when the city's
unparalleled transportation network poured a virtual glut of coal onto
local markets. Sharp competition between rail, lake, and canal shippers
kept price levels to a minimum. Strip-mining, which was inaugurated
in that year, had a recovery rate double that of shaft mining techniques
and added further downward pressure on coal prices in Chicago. As one
coal dealer complained, "severe and, in some respects, unreasonably bitter
competition, carried sometimes beyond the boundaries of wisdom, or the
simple rules governing supply and demand, ha[s] left quite a large supply
of eastern bituminous coal on hand. .. ."20
An abundance of coal meant that the growth of the transportation and
industrial sectors of Chicago marched hand in hand with the develop-
ment of the Chicago fuel business. The coal mines of the Midwest presented
substantial sources of wealth to the city's shippers, fuel dealers, coke
manufacturers, and gaslight companies. Ample supplies of bituminous
coal were also crucial to the establishment of industries that were big con-
sumers of energy in the form of heat. Chief among these in the Chicago
area were the iron and steel industries and a wide range of food-processing
activities, including brewing, baking, and the canning of such products
as meat and soup.21
In fact, according to Alfred Chandler, Jr., these particular heat-
dependent industries represented the vanguard of the industrial revolu-
tion. In a monumental work, The Visible Hand, Chandler shows that
"economies of speed," not scale, first triggered the rise of modern
manufacturing and its techniques of mass production. "It was not the
size of a manufacturing establishment ... ," he argues, "but the velocity
19J[ohn] W[ells] Foster, Report upon the Mineral Resources of the Illinois Central Railroad (New
York: G. S. Roe, Printer, 1856), 9 - 26, 27 (quotation), 28 - 30.
20Bischoff (comp.), Coal Trade at Chicago, 16 (quotation); A[lfred] T[heodore] Andreas,
History of Chicago (3 vols.; 1884 - 1886; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1975), II, 673 - 674;
Illinois, Department of Mines and Minerals, A Compilation of the Reports of the Mining In-
dustries of Illinois from the Earliest Records to the Year 1930 (Springfield: Illinois Department
of Mines and Minerals, 1930). For annual statistics on the amounts and the price of coal
consumed in Chicago, see the Annual Report of the Chicago Board of Trade for 1858 - 1900.
21Andreas, History of Chicago, II; Industrial Chicago (6 vols.; Chicago: Goodspeed
Publishing Co., 1891 - 1896); Pierce, History of Chicago, III. A major exception was meat
packing, which remained labor intensive until the 1920s, when artificial refrigeration and
mechanization added a significant energy component.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 91, July 1987 - April, 1988, periodical, 1987/1988; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101211/m1/39/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.