CARNEGIE, kii r-i)gti, A N DREW — ) . An American manufacturer and philanthropist, born in Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland. lie came to the United States in 1848. and began his career as a weaver's assistant in a cotton-factory at Allegheny. Pa. Here his weekly earnings at first amounted to little more than one dollar. At the age of fourteen he became a telegraph mes senger by in the Pittsburg. ( Pa.) office of the Ohio 'Telegraph Company. Ile improved his spare time in learning to telegraph. and a few years later he entered the service of the Pennsyl vania l'atilroad, and soon received a position as a telegraph operator. From this position he ad vanced by successive promotions to that of super intendent of the Pittsburg division of the system. It was during this period that he became inter ested in the organization of the Woodruff Sleep ing Car Company. the success of wide!' laid the foundation of his fortune, while careful invest ments in oil lands near Oil City, Pa.. increased his means. During the Civil War lie rendered valuable servives to the War Department as superintendent of military railroads and Govern ment telegraph lines in the East. After the war he entered actively into the development of iron-works of various kinds, and established at Pittsburg such important industries as the Key stone 13ridge Works and the I'D ion Iron Works. It was in 1•08 that he introduced into this coun try the Bessemer process of making steel. in
1385 he was the principal owner of the Home stead Steel Works, and had a •ontrdling interest in seven other large steel plants. His interests were consolidated in 1499 in the Carnegie Steel Company. which in 1901 was merged into the 'United States Steel Corporation. In this year he retired from business.
Mr. Carnegie's. benefactions have exceeded in amount those of any other American. In 1901 it Was estimated that he had .given away $40, 000,000. Among his donations may he men tioned: to the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, $10,000,000; to New York City, for the estab lishment of branch libraries in the development of the public-library system, $5,200,000; to the Carnegie Institution, Washington, 1). C., $10, 000.000 ; to universities of Scotland, $10,000,000; to the fund for the benefit of the employOs of the Carnegie Steel Company. *5.000.000; to the public library of Saint Louis. Mo., $1,000.000. A large number of libraries in the United States, Canada, and England owe their existence or their improvement to him. His publications include Ai/American •our-in-Hand in Britain ( 1883) ; Round the World (1884) ; Triumphant Democ racy (1SS6); The Gospel of Wealth (1900); and Empire of Business (1902).