toward the continuous system of production. Carnegie installed vastly improved systems of material-handling, like overhead cranes, hoists, charging machines, and buggies. All of this greatly sped the process of steelmaking and allowed the production of far vaster quantities of steel. As the mills expanded, the labor force grew rapidly, especially less skilled workers. The more skilled union members reacted with the unsuccessful 1892 Homestead Strike along with demands for reduced working hours and against pay cuts. After the unsuccessful strike the company continued to expand and profits grew year on year, with the company having earned net profits of $21 million in 1899. J&L Steel was the most important competitor to the Carnegie Steel Company (and later to U. S. Steel) in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. Sale Carnegie Steel Company was sold in 1901 to U.S. Steel, a newly formed organization set up by J. P. Morgan. It sold at roughly $492 million ($14.8 billion in 2019), of which $226 million went to Carnegie himself. U.S. Steel was a conglomerate with subsidiary companies. The name of the subsidiary company was changed to the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company in 1936. 20th-century steel production Changes in production processes to create steel had already appeared before the Carnegie Steel Company was sold. Steel manufacturers had begun to abandon the Bessemer converters and install open-hearth furnaces. Open-hearth furnaces were widely employed until the 1980s, when basic oxygen steelmaking, the electric arc furnace and continuous casting made them obsolete. The Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock is still active, producing steel slabs that are shipped upriver to the Irvin Works in West Mifflin to become finished coils. See also History of the steel industry (1850–1970) Illinois Steel Company References Further reading A standard scholarly biography, along with Nasaw and Wall. Major biography along with Krass and Wall. A standard biography along with Nasaw and Krass. External links Carnegie Steel Company Records, Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center. Andrew Carnegie Steel companies of the United States Metals monopolies Lauder Greenway Family Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pittsburgh Manufacturing companies established in 1892 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1901 1892 establishments in Pennsylvania 1901 disestablishments in Pennsylvania U.S. Steel 1901 mergers and acquisitions