Pittsburgh District Research Articles

Discussion at Pacific Coast convention

C. E. Skinner: It is rather curious that this process, developed primarily to abate a nuisance should become so valuable economically. I have been familiar with some attempts in the Pittsburgh district to abate the smoke nuisance by the Mellen Institute of Industrial Research. They made a smoke survey of Pittsburgh, and a study of this survey shows how desirable it is to abate this nuisance in the Pittsburgh district. However, the values recovered are not such as to justify the cost from the commercial standpoint, and consequently very little has been done.

Pollution of River Water in the Pittsburgh District

The contamination of surface water with waste products of industrial activity is undoubtedly greater in the Pittsburgh industrial district than anywhere else in America. Probably there exists nowhere else in the world a region where so great an amount of waste material finds its way into streams. Some industrial waste is comparatively harmless, but that which appears in the streams of the Pittsburgh district is mostly harmful, mostly acid in character, and to be measured in terms of sulphuric acid. The condition of acidity of streams has been approached so gradually that it has commonly passed almost unnoticed except by those immediately concerned with the use of water for boiler purposes or the supply of water to towns and cities. At length the change in character of stream waters became so apparent that the United States Engineer Office of the Pittsburgh district decided upon an investigation, which was commenced in 1914. The Engineer Office is the local branch of the Corps of Engineers of the War Department, which has control of all navigable streams. As the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela are navigable, the War Department has control of them and of all their tributaries. The Pittsburgh district extends from Steubenville, Ohio, to the headwaters of all tributaries of the Ohio River which enter it above Steubenville, thus covering parts of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. This is the territory covered by the invesgation under discussion and designated as the Pittsburgh District.

Colfax Power Station of the Duquesne Light Company Pittsburgh

THE PITTSBURGH district is the foremost steel-producing and manufacturing centre in this country. Steel plants with their furnaces and mills line the river banks for miles from the center of the city. Associated industries, attracted by an abundance of natural resources, adequate transportation facilities, ample labor supply, and proximity to markets for their products, have rapidly come into the adjacent territory. Growth during the war period, was extensive, and the district as a whole has been busy since hostilities ended. Today, the Pittsburgh district may be fairly called the workshop of the world. By 1912, central station facilities in the Pittsburgh district had become inadequate to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing industrial demand. The Allegheny County Light Company and other companies, owning and operating a number of small properties, were consolidated with the Duquesne Light Company. A steam-generating station previously built on Brunot's Island in the Ohio River below the city was considerably enlarged and the foundation laid for a comprehensive distribution system.

The Pittsburgh District: Civic Frontage.Paul U. Kellogg

<i>The Pittsburgh District: Civic Frontage.</i>Paul U. Kellogg

Labor Conditions in the Mines of the Pittsburgh District

Labor Conditions in the Mines of the Pittsburgh District