A CITY OF STEEL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9450, 21 May 1909, Page 2

A CITY OF STEEL.

VISIT TO KRUPP’S GREAT WORKS.

The eyes of all Englishmen are today, remarked a writer In the London Daily Chronicle on 26th March, riveted upon Krapps, the great works where the new monster guns and the specially-hardened armour for the German Dreadnoughts are being turned ont with such unprecedented speed. In the last few years the expansion in the productive powers of this famous firm has been something extraordinary, and almost unintelligible to those who do not know bow fast Germany is* going ahead in every direction. According to Mr'A. Lee, M.P., during the last twelve months no fewer than 28,000 men have been added to the firm’s employees, and this at a time'when British artisans were being dismissed Wholesale from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Even those who challenge Mr Lee’s statement admit that the additions to the staff of Krupps have been at least 20,000 mon. The great Krnpp Company makes everything of steelj or metal, and owns enormous works in every part or Germany. At Kiel it has in the Germania Yard one of the best and most np-to-date shipbuilding estab Bailments. Here it can make engines, boilers, and all the component parts of a warship except the arxnonr and armament. It has eight slips, of Which four are large enough to accommodate vessels 500 ft. long, and it has declared its capacity to lay down two Dreadnoughts each year, to complete them forsea in from two to three years. The home and centre of the firm is at Essen, the grim industrial city of Westphalia. A HIVE OF INDUSTRY. As yon draw near the Olty of Steel a forest of tall chimneys shows, and a multitude of towering workshops which stand like giants ronnd the habitations of men. The dull boom of heavy guns fills the air with its concussion, for tests are always in progress, and the sound of the firing at times suggests that a veritable battle is in progress. In the town or round it stand some sixty factories or separate departments, linked together by fifty miles of standard railway, while there are forty miles of narrow gauge line ranging through the shops. The gates of the factories stand open. Bnt those fwho attempt to enter will find admission one of the most difficult things to obtain. The works and their many secrets are most jealously guarded. Double sentries are posted at each door, and relentlessly they turn back any person not provided with"Krup|ps’,passport. The gun factories dwarf everything at Woolwich by the vastness of their scale. Here guns are turned out at the rate of a thousand a year, from the largest weapon for the new Dreadnought to email field-pieces and naval quick-firing guns. In the last fifty years Krupps have produced no fewer than 50,000 cannons. The firm makes for the world aa well as lor Germany. The secret of its success lies in special quality of its steel. A century ago Peter Friedrich Kropp experimented, face to face with poverty and disappointment, in the casting of large blocks of steel. He found out how to make steel in small quantities with phe crucible. He never mastered the secret of casting large blocks. His son Alfred at his death took up the work with German patience and perseverance, and after many years solved the great problem. From the brains and energy of those two men has sprung the establishment which to-day employs at least 60,000 workmen and 6000 officials. BATTLE WITH FORTUNE. Herr Krnpp had to encounter many disappointments. So far back as the middle of last century, he was eager to make cunnon of cast steel, but could dicsover no one with faith enough in the new material —for 'steel was then new and untried —to provide the money. Incidentally he made great inventions which brought him a colossal fortune. He devised a’now iron roller; he invented a process for turning out weldlesa tyres for railway wheels. With the money thus secured he ooutinued his experiments, and in the ’seventies the German Government adopted his steel gun. Other Powers followed suit, and the prestige, of Krupp’s was established. The famous steel for the guns is cast as follows —and no sight makes more impression :—Round the foundry sare large crucibles of olay, heated in furnaces which melt the steel. In the centre of the foundry is the ingot mould set in the floor. When the metal has reached the right temperature a signal is given. Some fifty man marob in, with a greybeard at their head, and assemble round the mould. They are ail picked men, who have the secret of the peculiar manipulation. Another signal is given; the furnace doors fly open; the men (Imaroh in pairs to the doors, each pair with long steel tonga. With these they lift a crucible full of molten steel. Then, in steady procession, they arch to the mould, bearing the white hot olay vessels; pour into it, one after the other, their loads; retire, and retnrn with fresh ornoibles, while the greybeard directs them with a wand. The progress made in casting this steel in blocks can be understood When it is stated that an ingot of 40001 b weight, shown by Krupp’e at the London Exhibition of 1851, astonished the world, whereas »ow ingots of 100 tons weight ate made with certainty. It is from enoh ingots or smaller ones that the German naval guns are forged. Krnpp’a have never believed in the British system of wire-wound gnna, especially for the long weapons of the present day.

SIX THOUSAND SEPARATE MACHINES. The immensity of the Essen works can beat be understood from a few figures. There are sixty departments with 6000 separate machines, seventy hydraulic presses, 400 steam boilers, 500 electric motors, 650 cranes, fitfy locomotives, and 250 railway oars for the firm’s own railway system. For communication between the various departments tnere are, forty telegraph " stations, and fifty miles ot wire, and 400 telephone stations, with 250 miles of wire. The armour made by Krnpp bas long been famous. Fifteen . years ago the firm discovered the new process of hardening steel which is known by their name. Steel is hardened under royalty by the same process in England and in other countries, but until recently the results obtained were not equal to Krupp’s. The reason was finally discovered to lie in this—that the Krnpp

ores contained the rare metal vanadium, which imparts enormous strength and resisting power to armour. Impenetrable seoreoy is the dominant feature of this Oity of Steel. The workers who are engaged on Government orders do not talk, and few know outside the Krnpp works and the German Marine Department whether the new monster gnus being made for Germany’s new monster ships are of llln, I2in, or 13in calibre, for all three calibres are said to be under construction.