Page "Mass production" Paragraph 17

Electrification enabled modern mass production, as with Thomas Edison ’ s iron ore processing plant ( about 1893 ) that could process 20, 000 tons of ore per day with two shifts of five men each.

At that time it was still common to handle bulk materials with shovels, wheelbarrows and small narrow gauge rail cars, and for comparison, a canal digger in previous decades typically handled 5 tons per 12 hour day.