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This paper examines the transformation of the Toronto metal trades in the period from the 1890s through to World War I, a period which is characterized as a "second industrial revolution." The second industrial revolution dramatically intensified and expanded the processes unleashed during the first industrial revolution, which situated production in factories, harnessed mechanical power to production, and subjected labour power to capitalist discipline. The second industrial revolution, particularly because it was identified with the rise of integrated monopoly corporations, reduced the power and status of skilled tradesmen. Nevertheless, in the period before World War I, neither managerial nor technical innovations were able to obliterate the artisanal heritage of the metal industry. This uneven development of the industry accounted for the unstable and contradictory patterns of work organization, skill preservation, industrial conflict, worker militance, and radicalism that prevailed in the industry.