The herald., 1898-04-14

the founder of the great works bearing his
name, was born in 1857, and when crucible
cast steel was first being introduced in
into Germany had been made impossible
through the edict of Napoleon, called 1.-THE
continental sperre," f. Krupp began to pro-
duce crucible cast steel, first in small guam
titles for files, stamps, rolls for coins and
shears, but only slowly could he convince
and persuade German manufacturers to
use his cast steel, and after life full of dis
appointments and hardships he died in 1926,
after long and severe illness, leaving to
his son Alfred little else than the old home
stead, which still stands in the midst of the
great works, and the secret of his inven-
tion
Alfred Krupp's energy and enterprise
soon conquered. His first success was to
be able TO furnish cast steel of varying
degree of hardness thereby increasing is
adaptabllity for many new purposes, Next
came the invention of the weldless car
wheel tires. which were patented in 1853
in all countries, and furnished him capt. al
for enlarging his plant In 1865 he interest
ed himself in coal mines, iron ore mines
material for his own works, and IN 1867 he
began to reap the harvest from his expert
ments inaugurated long since with steel
cannons, and the great Franco-German
war Of 1901 proved beyond doubt their
superiority as against the old bronze can
mons. Since then the success Of these
works and their growth have been phe-
Eomenal, and when Alfred Krupp closed
the busy and successful philanthropic
work of his life in 1887 at Villa Huegel, his
princely home ON the side hills Of the val
ley of the Ruhe. the city Of Essen. in rec
ognition of his great work, erected In his
memory beautiful monument on the most
prominent square of the city, and deputa-
tions from many nations mourned at his
grave.
Essen is city Of &C, 900 nl1abitants and
over 10000 of this population are employed
in the works of the able and energetic son
of Alfred Krupp-Friedrich Alfred. Over
1900 acres of ground are covered with build
ings and machinery. Many coal mines
furnish fuel for the works, over 400 iron ore
mines furnish the metal and large iron Oh e
deposits in Spain, near Bilbao. have been
purchased in addition, and a special feet
of steamers has been built which brings
over 100000 tons of this Spanish ore from
Spain to the German coast and up the
Rhine. Twenty furnaces at Dulsburg and
Neuwied- on Ithe-Rhine are reducing this
ore for the Krupp works and are owned or
controlled by them.
The main street Of Essen divides the,
Krupp works into two parts, connected
overhead with innumerable mammoth
steam pipes and bridges, and parallel with
it, running east and west, the tracks Of the
RIhenish railway pass the works In the
north, while in the south the railroad lead
ing from Duss eldorf to Bremen, Hamburg
anil Berlin skirts the mills. Innumerable
tracks connect these two main lines of
railroad, surrounding in an inextricable
network the buildings and crossing the
street leading to Mulheim below it's Level.
Powerful locomotives bring train loads of
raw material into the yards and leave the
works with valuable products, finished
and ready for shipment to all parts of the
globe Miniature engines and cars move
about between the buildings on narrow
gauge tracks, bringing material Of smaller
size from one building to another until 1t is
finished and ready for the market.-lron
Age.