Robert Poole.

About Robert Poole

Robert Poole (1818-1903) was an Irish-born engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and benefactor. In 1843 he founded an ironworks in Baltimore, Maryland. For his workforce he hired members of what would become the first generation of modern metalworkers —an emerging trade whose numbers would swell to 250,000 nationally by the end of the 19th century. His enterprise became the largest of its kind in Maryland, with 800–850 employees, and, from the 1850s on, played a central role in the manufacture of iron-based infrastructure essential for private enterprise and public works in America.