Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), American industrialist and philanthropist, who, at the age of 33, when he had an annual income of $50,000, said, “Beyond this never earn, make no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes”.

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. He went to the United States in 1848 and soon began work as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, then became a messenger in a Pittsburgh telegraph office and learned telegraphy. He was then employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a private secretary and telegrapher. Carnegie advanced until he was superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the railway. His financial interest in what is now the Pullman Company laid the foundation of his fortune, and investments in oil lands increased his means. During the American Civil War he served in the War Department, working on military transport and the government telegraph service. After the war Carnegie formed a company to produce iron railway bridges, then a steel mill and was one of the earliest users of the Bessemer process in the United States. By 1899 he controlled about 25 per cent of the American iron and steel production. In 1901 he sold his company for $250 million and retired.

Carnegie did not have a formal education, but as a youth he developed a life-long interest in books and education. During his lifetime he gave more than $350 million to various educational, cultural, and peace institutions, many of which bear his name. He endowed 2,509 libraries throughout the English-speaking world, and he donated funds for the construction of the Peace Palace at The Hague, for what is now the International Court of Justice of the United Nations. Carnegie was honoured throughout the world during his lifetime.