Andrew Carnegie

Scottish-American industrialist and "self-made businessman" Andrew Carnegie (1825-1919) was on the original 1893 expedition to Mars, and one of the human settlers of Olympus.

As the founder and chief executive of Homestead Steel, Carnegie was placed in charge of milling enough steel to build a return-trip space cannon after the original head of the project, Percival Lowell, went apparently insane (in reality he was posessed by the martian, Tekapesh) and left for Elysium. Carnegie's "monopoly" of the space cannon project and the lens towers quickly earned him the animosity of activist Emma Goldman.

A mine near Olympus had originally proved a good supply of iron ore, but had become tapped several months prior to the arrival of the 1895 rescue expedition -- and all that was required to finish the cannon was a single cartful. Various search parties had been sent out to locate new sources of ore, including Jean Coulliard, but had hadn't returned successfully. Major Greg Duprey had sent a report of a site at Syrtis Major, but lacked a way to return the ore to Olympus. Once the martian canals had been restored, the Avatar was eventually able to use one of the abandoned barges to retrieve enough ore for Carnegie to finish constructing the new cannon.

When the supply of Phlogistonite was stolen from the 1893 landing site, the Avatar's group returned to Carnegie for advice, who suggested they make use of Theodore Roosevelt's criminology skills. Roosevelt organized some clue-gathering and eventually deduced that Rasputin (Raxachk in Rasputin's body) had stolen the fuel, and needed to be dealt with. Unfortunately, the mad martian's fortress in Argyre was protected by thick metal gates, too strong for conventional weaponry to overcome. Explorer Robert E. Peary believed the barge cannons could be used for this purpose; however, their cannonballs would be too soft to breach the gates. Again, Carnegie's steel expertise came into play, and he was able to fashion steel cannonballs to use in the cannons. These proved effective in blasting down the gates into Argyre, allowing the Avatar and company to eventually break through to Raxachk and recover the Phlogistonite for the return trip to Earth.