An anonymous poem from The California Star, January 16, 1847
The title announces the spirit of Progress: mastery over the elements for the improvement of the human race. The lines of the poem are spoken, not as a description, but a strong, first-person declaration of the power of technology.
There is no concern here for “environmental correctness.” The tress must burn so that the iron can be blasted out and melted. There is even the suggestion that the trees themselves are in shock, perhaps feeling (from the heat) that their own destruction is near.
The poet conjures the classical world by ascribing the ancient technolgy to mythic forces embodied in giants and gods (Cyclops and Jove). But the American tecnnolgy of the Iron Master’s era evokes new military weapons — bullets and sabre swords — plus the new tool of instantaneous communication, the telegraph, whuch transmits ideas with an electric “wing of fire
Classical iron working, an old telegraph machine, Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, 1850s (for semaphore signals)
The poet celebrates the harvesting of the environment for the sake of the new modes of transportation: the railroad and the steam-powered ocean liner.
“The Iron Matser” was published in 1849 — a full 20 years before the Southern Pacific Railroad would connect California to the East Coast. The first steam-powered ship to reach San Francisco, the California, left New York in February of 1849 and arrived four months, twenty-one days later.
Miners underground and an old drone (mining car)
Once again, the poet favorably contrasts the fruits of modern technology with the classical, mythological nature of wealth (see image of Danae below).
The iron brings wealth by railroad transportation, manufacturing printing presses (and thereby increasing knowledge), metal wheels for use in transportation and industry, agricultural tools — all latent potential in the raw iron embedded in the rock that the iron miners have retrieved from the mountain.
Left: Danae by Jan Gossaert (1527) Danae’s husband imprisoned her in a room to keep her away from Jove. The god, however, transformed himself into a golden rain that showered down through the ceiling bars of Danae’s prison.
Right: Iron ore
Though the different products made from iron may malfunction or fail, the spirit of Progress, as embodied by the Iron Master, will continue to forge into the future.
