Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-01-15

cannon in the Middle Ages, cast from
iron forged with charcoal, and sold
arms to Queen Elizabeth, of England,
to use against Spain. The first Krupp,
Friedrich, at the beginning of last CEN
tury built the little house which still
stands in the midst of the oldest part
of the factory metropolis and bears the
inscription placed over the pinewood
mantlepiece by his son Alfred.
This little house was built by my
father in 1922. after he had lost COLI
siderable fortune in hopeless endeav-
ors to invent new process of steel
making. He lost his health as well as
his money, and his life was but
series of bitter disappointments."
The inscription goes on to say AL
fred lived in the house tw enty-five
years, full of misery and chagrin, and
ceaseless labor. until at last his fond
est expectations were realized. Never
despise the poor mans hut" and Es-
sen workman still reads. while
sheltering great cares, it may be the
cradle of still greater successes"
Alfred Krupp's first success came
with silver spoon. He sold in Eng
land the patent of an invention for
manufacturing silver and silver plated
spoons, the outcome of six years ex-
periments, and then set to work with
the proceeds on the line of creating a
Bessemer steel of his own invention.
When he had accumulated sufficient
capital from the product of another in
vention for coming dies and mint ma
chinery he turned to gun-making, Ess-
ems old trade. and produced rifle of
Bessemer steel. He sent it to the
Prussian war Office. The package
came back unopened, with the min
ister's remark: ''The Prussian rife is
so perfect as to make Improvement
unnecessary"
Not a whit daunted, the inventor
went on, showed an improved rife at
Berlin's first industrial exposition, in
1874, and was rewarded by getting it
tried and approved in Paris. Later on
it was the Paris exposition of 1857
which established the fame of his
heavy ordnance. The Krupp cannon
dominated the Franco-German war.
Two thousand of his weapons forced
Napoleon to surrender at Sedan, and
the French could only console them
selves with declaring they had ac
knowledged and rewarded his suprem-
acy three years before.
At the great international exposi-
ton in London of 1857 it was the huge
steel Krupp ingot, by which stood the
prematurely white headed inventor,
which received the highest award
This great block opened a broad
avenue for a new industry. Krupp's
invention of the breech block for artil-
lery did not work so great change as
his invention of the seamless wheel
tire. This gave an impetus to railway
machinery which has never slackened.
The Krupp steel castings for all sorts
of railway plants are speciality of the
Essen establishment, while the Besse-
mer steel produced by the firm is the
foundation of the railway material Of
Germany.
Essen manufactures armor plates of
unexcelled quality It's process, dis
covered by the Krupp firm, is kept
secret, and America, England and
France use it under agreement with
Krupp.
Under the management of Fried
rich Alfred Krupp the scale of opera
tons in all directions was immensely
increased. Steel works in Westpha-
lis, near Magdeburg, and at Rhein-
hansen; four coal mines in Hanover
and other parts of the empire; iron
mines in Germany and Spain, and the
Germania Ship and Engine Building
company, of Berlin and Kiel, have all
been brought within it's organization.
But even more distinctive of the
head of the company who has just
died is the great number of philan-
thropic enterprises in connection
with the Krupp works which he de-