Andrew Carnegie — Steel, Vertical Integration, "Gospel of Wealth"

**Andrew Carnegie** was the Scottish immigrant who became the richest man in the world by mastering one material — steel — and then gave almost all of it away. Born in 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland, to a handloom weaver whose livelihood was destroyed by the Industrial Revolution, Carnegie's family emigrated to Pittsburgh in 1848 with virtually nothing. He started as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory at age 13, earning $1.20 per week. By 65, he was worth approximately $310 billion in today's dollars — the second-largest fortune in American history (after Rockefeller, adjusted for inflation) — built entirely on steel.