When I was twelve I hitchhiked from Boston to Birmingham.
The iron ore (found chiefly in the region of which Birmingham is the centre) is primarily red haematite and (much less important) brown haematite; though as regards the latter Alabama ranked first among the states of the Union in 1905 (with 781,561 tons).
In 1895 it was demonstrated that Alabama pig-iron could be sent to Liverpool and sold cheaper than the English product, and Birmingham (Alabama) came consequently to rank next to Middlesborough and Glasgow among the world centres of the pig-iron trade.
These three were Mobile (38,469), Birmingham (38,415), and Montgomery (30,346), the capital of the state.
Riley's Alabama As It Is (Montgomery, 1893), and Saffold Berney's Handbook of Alabama (2nd ed., Birmingham, 1892).
