The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-01-26

SUITS, ElNlu- mere lHeOEltS Il Wlue bcIlll
But. work he might during the first ten
years OF his apprenticeship in fortunes
school he had the very hardest time to
make a bare living for himself and family,
their fare consisting day after day Of cof-
fee. potatoes and bread. Nothing more
luxurious ever graced our board"
THE OLD FAMILY HOMESTEAD.
IN the midst Of the oldest parts Of the
great factory metropolis with its 421 steam
engines and 100 furnaces. stands a poor
little house-stands there 'for all eternity
81 the viii Of Alfred Krupp is respected by
future generations. Here are the words Of
the memorial tablet erected over the pine
Woo mantelpiece, signed Alfred Krupp:
This little house was built by my father
in 1S2 after he lost a considerable fortune
In hopeless endeavOTs TO invent new pro-
cess Of steel-making- He lost his health
$ well $ his money, and his life was but
a series Of bitter disappOintments.
after him L lived here many years full
of misery and chagrin, spending hundreds
OF sleepless nights In feverish anxiety, re-
lieved only now and then by stray glimmers
OF hope. God forbid that the poorest Of my
workmen experience the suferings that fell
20 my lot, or the self-denials that had TO
. undergo
before success entered at the dOor-twenty
five years full Of storm and stress and
ceaseless labor, until at last my proudest
expectations were realized.
MAY my experience be source Of en-
couragement TO those in trouble. Never de-
spise the poor mans hut. While sheltering
great cares It may be the cradle OF still
greater successes"
After six years OF earnest endeavor Alfred
doubled the capacity Of the old workshop
and enlarged his forces Of employees to ten,
but five more years passed before he felt
at liberty TO speculate in a small way with
his time. Having sold his patent on a new
process for manufacturing silver spoons
and silver-plated spoons in England, he de-
voted the money TO practical tests on the
line Of creating bessemer steel Of his own
invention.
HIS BUSINESS RULE.
All the world knows that his experiments
were eventually crowned with the most
traordinary success but at the start his
progress was discouragingly slow. Yet at
the same time he laid down for himself a
business rule from which he never wavered
throughout his long career. 1t reads:
Never accept a penny OF outside capital.
but make invention. success, be
mother and paymaster OF all succeeding en-
deavors-"
Even then Alfred had his eye on Essens
old industry-arms making-but instead,
the moments requirements forced him to
devote his energies to the building UP Of
"a commercial article for which his firm
already noted, coin dies and other ma
chinery for the mint.
Out of their sale he made enough money
TO start, few years later, factory in
BendOrf, Austria, with his brother Herman
ss technical director
n tweIvemonth before he had submitted
20 the Prussian War Office rifle having a
but the minister sent the package back un-
opened with the naughty remark: 1.-The
Prussian rifle is so perfect as to make I'M
provements unnecessary" This act of
wanton discourtesy and short-sightedness
made Alfred only the more determined to
bring his invention to the front. When, in
1874. Berlin had it's first Industrial exposi-
ton, he hired the best obtainable space
for his steel rifle barrels, some OF which
bore the imprint Of the hammer, while 9TH
ers were bent into all sorts of shape to
show their tOughness. AS the exposition
was at its height news came from Paris
that the rifle barrel had been tried and
proved tremendous success. Then the
Prusslans, fearful of having made grave
mistake. also offered to give Krupp's rifle
a show, and after a thorough test declared
that nothing better or more perfect ex-
listed" AT that time Krupp employ ed
ninety-nine wOrkmen in Essen alone; a
year later he had ID Then came the year
ISIS; business went TO rags, the chiefs part
ners, his two younger brothers. lost conf
denee, and, to prove his own, Alfred, show
ing his mettle at the moment of greatest
despair, bought them out To do so he sold
everything he ossessed-furniture silver
ware, his watch and trinkets, and, after
paying his brothers, he had not ten thalers
cash money, while seventy-three workmen
were clamoring for pay.
HIS DARKEST HOURS.
One may believe Alfred when he says
'"They (tLe workmen) earned more and
lived better than T..
No money. no hope OF obtaining credit in
those revolutionary days, all markets
closed; when the crisis seemed about to en-
gulf him and the results OF previous efforts,
ne had but one thought: To put the matter
into execution which he had figured and
worked on for the last ten years-the max
ing of cast-steel guns by bessemsr process.
Up to then most governments used cast
iron guns, only the richest commanding a
few bronze cannon batteries. Cast iron
guns were in the habit Of exploding and
bronze guns-it was before the invention of
nard DrOnze-dld not last long because the
interior canal wore out. Therefore, IL he
was able to construct cast-steeI guns, his
fortune would be made.
AT the first London International Indus
trial Exhibition (held in 1S5D there ap-
peared a man of thirty-nine with snow
white hair-Alfred Krupp-and he stood be-
side a cast-steel block weighing two and a
half tons. the heaviest and most homo
geneous ever seen at that period OF the
worlds history. The work OF bringing the
process. his own invention, to successful
completion broke him down physically: 1t
made an old man out OF him; but what
was handful Of hair and an ounce of pig
ment TO the success instantaneously and
emphatically achieved?" English manu-
facturers who had wasted tens OF years of
fruitless effort on the problem realized by
an unknown, q pauper almost, nevertheless
hailed him as a benefactor OF industry. a
genius deserving the good will OF ALL
ONLY THE BEGINNING.
Still, after all. that tremendous steel
block was but the beginning OF the great
new Industry pictured before Krupp's
minds eye-the making of cast-steel guns.
On his return 10 Germany he approached
the Berlin War Office offering to place his