What dangers were there for the steel workers in Pittsburgh under Carnegie?
Same as other steel plants, getting crushed by falling steel, getting burned by hot metal etc
All manufacturing jobs of that era were incredibly dangerous, even textile work, but steel work was likely the worst. Men would fall into vats of molten metal, be crushed under huge metal bars, hit by cranes, burned by simple contact with any of the red hot pieces of metal flying all around, and most commonly, die from asphyxiation or lung ailments from the constantly burning fires. Heat stroke was a big killer, too. There was virtually no form of compensation, either for injured workers, or, in the case of death, for their families. The Bessemer method, which Carnegie introduced into the US, was hoped to improve conditions...instead, it merely improved output, and Carnegie's factories after 1900 worked 200,000 men, twelve hours a day, on wages that barely kept their families alive.
