Sheffield

a manufacturing city of Yorkshire, England. It was noted in the time of Chaucer for the manufacture of edged tools. It is still the center of the British cutlery trade. The Bessemer process of making steel was put into practical operation first at Sheffield. The manufactures embrace almost every sort of implement, instrument, and edged tool known, including knives, razors, scissors, surgical instruments, mechanical instruments, carpenters' tools, saws, scythes, sickles, spades, shovels, hammers, and vises. There are also enormous manufactures of stoves, grates, engines, steel rails, tires, axles, and ship armor. In 1901 Sheffield had a population of 408,994. The city has no buildings of historical importance comparable to Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London, but it is a city in which municipal problems can be studied to great advantage. Millions of dollars have been expended in straightening and widening streets and in erecting modern homes for workmen. Public parks, schools, colleges, sewerage, lighting, water supply, and tramways have been managed with a degree of honesty and efficiency that shame the average American city. See also CUTLERY.