Andrew Carnegie is a great example of social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is basically the belief that hard work leads to success and that those who fail have only themselves to blame. Carnegie came from Scotland, where his father was a weaver. Carnegie and his father moved to western Pennsylvania in 1848. Carnegie started out relatively poor and worked his way up. He worked at several jobs, where he saved money and learned the techniques of running a business by observing how the companies he worked for ran. By 1873, Andrew Carnegie had opened his own steel company in Pittsburgh. He eventually dominated the steel industry and became one of the richest and most famous industrialists of this period. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the young age of thirteen, Carnegie worked in a textile factory. At this job he only earned about $1.20 a week. Until 1853 he also worked as a telegraph messenger. As a telegraph messenger he earned about $2.50 each week. In 1853 he decided to begin working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. In this work he exploited the resources at his disposal. He carefully observed management techniques and later used this knowledge and methods when creating his own business. Carnegie made progress in his work at the Pennsylvania Railroad due to his determination to learn how the business was run. After deciding he had earned and saved enough money, he quit his job at the Pennsylvania railroad and began managing his own investments. Carnegie had investments not only in railroads, but also in telegraphs and oil. He soon turned his interests to investing in iron and steel. He began first by building bridges, then turned his attention to the steel itself. Another method Carnegie used to transform his steel business into the large industry it became was technological innovation. This innovation was known as the Bessemer process or Bessemer converter. The Bessemer process was originally invented in England in 1856. It allowed the conversion of cast iron into steel. By using this process, some steps that previously had to be used to convert cast iron to steel have been eliminated. Therefore, by making steel much cheaper to produce, and since it was cheaper to produce it, more and more people began to use it. Carnegie benefited from the Bessemer trial. By 1880 the United States was capable of producing approximately 1.4 million tons of steel per year. This was a huge difference from the approximately thirteen thousand tons of steel that could be produced in 1860. Carnegie had noticed some of the methods Rockefeller used to gain his fortune and began using very similar tactics in his business. At this point Carnegie has saved quite a bit of his money. Similar to Rockefeller, he used the large amounts of money he had saved to take over other steel companies when the economy fell on hard times. Henry Clay Frick was Carnegie's partner. With Frick as a partner he purchased several coal mines along with railroads after leasing part of the Mesabi iron range in Minnesota and establishing a fleet of mining ships on the Great Lakes. Carnegie's steel industry flourished so well because he was always looking ahead. He preferred newer equipment and always talked to employees about the need for expansion and innovation. Since Carnegie was such a successful businessman, there were bound to be problems. In 1892, a strike occurred against Carnegie.