It was during the first part of the nineteenth century that the industrial centers of Ohio and Pennsylvania were using up all of the available iron ore in rapidly increasing quantities. By 1850, with the never very extensive iron ore beds of the eastern United States nearly cleared out, our country was falling back to fourth and then fifth place among the iron producing nations of the world. It was around that time that the Fairbanks company of Vermont, manufacturers of industrial weighing scales, sent a young engineer to the pioneer outposts in northern Michigan to investigate new markets for their products. The young engineer's name was Charles T Harvey.