Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/380

 368 STEELE STEEN ness and rigidity. The adoption of steel for any particular purpose must, therefore, be in- telligently based on its composition, structure, and treatment. Production of Steel in the United States. The following statistics are compiled from the report of the secretary of the American iron and steel association, of January, 1875 : PRODUCTION BY YEARS IN NET TONS. YEARS.

Bessemer steel. Other steel. 1865 15262 1866 18,973 1867 8,000 19,000 1868 8,500 21,500 1869 12000 23,000 1870 40000 85,000 1871 45,000 87,000 1872 110,500 88,000 1878 157 000 50000 1874 176 579 47,481 Of the Bessemer production there was made into rails: in 1872, 94,070 tons; 1873, 129,- 015; 1874,144,944. The importations of Bes- semer rails for three years were 149,786, 159,- 571, and 100,486 tons, valued at $8,207,013, $8,984,103, and $6,838,875, gold, respectively. The average price in currency at which Amer- ican steel rails have been sold at the works since the establishment of the industry is as follows: 1867, $160; 1868, $158; 1869, $132^; 1870, $106|; 1871, $102; 1872, $112 ; 1873, $120; 1874, $94; 1875, $75. Of the steel other than Bessemer produced in 1874, 34,128 tons was crucible steel, the remainder puddled, open hearth, and blister steel. STEELE, a S. E. county of Minnesota, drained by the Lester river and branches of Cannon river ; area, 432 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,271. The surface is undulating, diversified by prai- rie and strips of forest, and the soil fertile. There are three or four small lakes and sev- eral fine streams. The chief productions in 1870 were 385,214 bushels of wheat, 82,040 of Indian corn, 230,421 of oats, 12,709 of barley, 36,025 of potatoes, 19,928 tons of hay, 7,172 Ibs. of wool, 208,249 of butter, and 8,700 of hops. There were 1,971 horses, 2,846 milch cows, 3,794 other cattle, 2,785 sheep, and 2,006 swine. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, and the Chicago and Northwestern railroads pass through the capital, Owatonna. STEELE, Sir Richard, a British author, born in Dublin in 1671, died at Llangunnor, near Carmarthen, Wales, Sept. 1, 1729. He received his early education at the Charterhouse, where his intimacy with Addison was formed. In 1691 he entered Merton college, Oxford, but left at the expiration of three years without taking a degree, enlisted as a private in the horse guards, and reached the rank of captain in Lucas's fusileers, an appointment due to his colonel, Lord Cutts, to whom he had dedicated "The Christian Hero" (1701). In odd con- trast with this work was his comedy of " The Funeral, or Grief a la Mode" (1702), which was followed by "The Tender Husband" (1703), and "The Lying Lover" (1704). He was appointed " gazetteer " and gentleman usher to Prince George of Denmark, and de- rived ample means from two wealthy mar- riages (the last in 1707), but was always in pe- cuniary trouble through reckless expenditure and dissipation, his life being passed, as he says, in "sinning and repenting." In 1709 he commenced the " Tatler," for which Addison furnished many of the leading papers, though by no means so many as Steele, whom he now assisted to the appointment of a commissioner of the stamp office. With the overthrow of the whigs in 1710 he lost his office of gazet- teer, and with it the means of supplying the items of official news which at first formed an important feature in the " Tatler." This pa- per was accordingly succeeded in 1711 by the " Spectator," written chiefly by Steele and Ad- dison, and subsequently by the " Guardian," begun and ended in 1713, and the " Lover," the " Reader," and other periodicals which had but a brief existence. In 1713 Steele resigned his office, and was returned to parliament from Stockbridge in Hampshire ; but for writing articles in the " Crisis " and the " Englishman," adjudged to have been libels against her majes- ty's administration, he was expelled by a vote of 245 to 152. His pen, however, continued to be actively employed in the whig interest, and on the accession of George I. he received sev- eral profitable appointments, was knighted, and elected to parliament from Boroughbridge. In 1722 he produced his last and best comedy, " The Conscious Lovers," which proved com- pletely successful, and brought him in ample receipts ; but he was soon reduced to straits again. A paralytic attack rendered him inca- pable of further literary labor, and he retired to a small estate near Carmarthen left him by his second wife, where he died almost forgot- ten by his contemporaries. He first conceived the characters of Sir Eoger de Coverley, Will Honeycomb, and others of the Spectator club, which received their finishing touches from the hand of Addison. His letters to his wife, about 400 in number, form one of the most singular correspondences ever published. There is an elaborate treatise on the character and genius of Steele in Forster's " Historical and Biographical Essays" (2 vols., London, 1858); and Thackeray, in his "Lectures on the English Humorists," has treated the same subject at length. See also " Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Eichard Steele," with his correspondence, by II. R. Montgomery (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1865). STEEL ENGRAVING. See ENGRAVING. STEELYARD. See BALANCE. STEEN, Jan, a Dutch painter, born in Ley den in 1636, died in Delft in 1689. He studied under Brouwer and Van Goyen, whose daugh- ter he married. According to Kugler, he brought into full play all the elements of genu- ine low comedy. In the museum at the Hague