Editing Granite City, Illinois (section)

===Granite ware===
Granite City was founded in 1896 to be a planned company city similar to [[Pullman, Illinois]], by German immigrant brothers [[Frederick G. Niedringhaus]] and William Niedringhaus for their [[Granite ware]] kitchen supplies factory.

Since 1866, the Niedringhaus brothers had been operating the St. Louis Stamping Company, an iron works company, that made [[kitchen utensil]]s in [[St. Louis, Missouri]].<ref name="part2"/> In the 1870s, William discovered an [[enamelware]] process in Europe whereby metal utensils could be coated with enamel to make them lighter and more resistant to [[oxidation]].  At the time, most enamelware was usually just one color as the additions of any colors to the process was inefficient. On June 1, 1878, William applied for Patent 207543 to improve the efficiency whereby a pattern could be applied to enamelware while the enamel was still wet simply by placing a thin piece of paper with an oxidized pattern on top of it.  The paper would fall off in the drying process and the pattern would be embedded.  The brothers' pattern made the utensils resemble granite.<ref>{{cite web|title=Patent US207543 A|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US207543?oq=Niedringhaus+enamel|publisher=IFI CLAIMS Patent Services|access-date=3 June 2015|date=27 August 1878}}</ref> The resulting product was enormously popular.

The brothers opened the Granite Iron Rolling Mills in St. Louis to provide [[tin]] (imported from [[Wales]]) to its prospering kitchen supplies manufacturer.  The imported tin had a $22 per ton [[tariff]].

Frederick ran for Congress in Missouri in 1888.  During his one term in the [[51st United States Congress|51st Congress]], he successfully urged the passage of a new tariff of 50 percent of value on imported iron and tin.<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=eVVWdDcWkkwC&dq=Frederick+and+William+Niedringhaus+granite&pg=PA105 Made in USA: East St. Louis by Andrew J. Theising - Virginia Publishing (June 2003)] {{ISBN|1-891442-21-X}}</ref> With the increased tariff, the U.S. steel industry (including their iron plant) took off.

As they planned expansion of their [[Bessemer process]] steel works, they were blocked by the city of St. Louis which did not want the expansion. As well, the [[Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis]] planned to tax coal crossing the [[Mississippi River]] into Missouri.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Another large factory in the city was owned by the [[Commonwealth Steel Company]], a business founded on [[Commonwealth Steel Company#Company promotion of citizenship|philanthropic principles]] in 1901 and acquired by the [[General Steel Industries|General Steel Castings Corporation]] in 1929.