Publisher's Synopsis
"In the mid-1850s, architect Thomas U. Walter made history when he chose iron instead of traditional marble as the material for the thirty-six columns that would encircle the dome of the newly-enlarged United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Forty miles away, engineer and machinist Robert Poole set precedent, too, when he cast those columns in deep pits at his ironworks in the small village of Woodberry, outside Baltimore. Molding iron in this form and for this purpose had never before been attempted and was a triumph of ingenuity and craftsmanship. It was the age of iron and Poole had made himself master of the metal. For over sixty years, he and his men turned out machinery that ran cable cars; powered flour, textile and paper mills; dredged rivers; and drove electricity-producing generators. Poole played a major role in the building out of America during the 19th century, but the breadth and depth of what he did -- and, particularl
