American Prometheus: Captain Bill Jones

Winner of two Silver Medals from Independent Publishers, 2013:



A Silver for regional East for eBooks.



Silver for History for eLit Illuminating Digital Publishing Excellence: Civil War, Johnstown and Pittsburgh, fin-de-siècle Europe.



Captain Bill Jones superintended Pittsburgh’s Edgar Thomson Steel Mill (“ET”) from opening day in 1874 until his curious death in 1889. Using his fifty patents, he leveraged from Andrew Carnegie enlightened labor policies for workers, including the first 8-hour day.



Hero of the Civil War and Johnstown Flood, Jones was “hands-on all-over” and in the first five-years advanced ET to the rank of the world’s most productive and profitable steel mill. He solved production problems on the spot, enlisted baseball teams from the Works' departments to defuse ethnic strife, and patented inventions while turning down Carnegie’s offers of partnership.



He had just patented the “Cradle of Civilization,” which still rocks whereever steel is producted. Why was Jones bolting with patents from the Machiavellian Carnegie to start up an Ohio works, a resignation that would enable another to be crowned the World’s Czar of Steel?



Family Memoir: This folkloric hero is brought to life because the men and women of the Jones and Gage families are storytellers, and have been for generations. Captain Jones' daughter Cora, the author's grandmother, continued this tradition and shared memories. She accompanied her father when he closed ET to lead an army of workers to rescue victims from the flood of Carnegie and Frick’s derelict pleasure lake. 

Following Jones’ accident, she visited her father in Pittsburgh’s Homeopathic Hospital. His death, when it came just two days later, and the family's loss of patents were completely unexpected and never satisfactorily explained. Cora lived a quarter century in the Los Angeles home of John Potter, former Superintendent, who endured the Great Homestead Strike of 1892 but not of Carnegie’s humiliation. Readers can judge for themselves if Jones' death resulted from economic motives.





This Enhanced eBook includes a powerful array of text, photos, videos, widgets, and helpful reading groups discussion guide, all that bring to life the history of the U.S. steel industry and the role and fates of those who made American industry successful. This book is only available for download on iPad with iBooks 2.



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