The Indianapolis journal., 1904-02-06
KRUPP'S LARGE FACTORY
MAKES ARMS FOR WORLD
Great international Arsenal Where
Representatives of All Ma
tiOns Meet.
HOTEL IN CONNECTION

IlOl FL IN NO-N 4NEO IO-N
ESSEN, Feb. 5.-Essen is the army and
navy stores Of the nations. Essen is
Krupps; Krupps is Essen. War is its pri-
mary business. and il may be busy ere
long: but to think Of Essen merely
cannon and armOr factory is to misun-
derstand the genius of the Krupp family.
Looking down on the town from one OF
the pleasant wooded heights on which AL
fred Krupp planted the colonies for aged
or disabled veterans of industry, one sees
n forest of tall chimneys and dozens of
huge. lofty workshops marshaled like forts
all round the habtations Of men. On
nearer approach one discovers that some
sixty factories or departments make up
this gigantic organization. Forty miles of
standard railway link them together, and
carry their products abroad to the great
world. and thirty miles of narrow lines are
required as auxiliary for the shops.
In the narrow, dingy streets between the
factories the workmen live and the shop
keepers flourish-each of them as do not
move out to the colonies beyond the town.
Boom! boom! Ever and anon one hears the
roar of a great gun or the bark of field ar
tillery close at hand 1t is the artillery
men OF Krupps trying new weapons or
testing a piece of plate for the satisfaction
OF q buyer or for the credit of the firm
There is as much firing of artillery here
just outside the workshops as on many a
training ground. When one goes in Essen
a Krupp factory is the feature of the
street. The gates are open. but double SEN
tries guard them, and no one may pass
without credentials.
WORLDS FIGHTING MACHINES.
In the private hotel at the works you
may meet any day representatives of half
the armies and navies Of the world, come
TO see their fighting machines being made
| and tested. Here are Japanese sitting at
dinner near Russians, Chinese and South
| Americans, Italians and Austrians For
| this is the international arsenal where all
may furnish themselves in whatever is es-
sential to the art of war. Krupps make the
great guns and the little guns for the war
| ships, they make the armor to defend
| the ships, and the projectiles to pierce the
armOr. AT Kiel they make the ships them
selves and the engines to drive them. They
make at Buckau the plates for forts, and at
Essen they make the field guns and the
Of every description they will make for you.
Any new republic or kingdom can be fur
nished with an army and navy complete
| by Krupps IL ii can only find the men.
The cannon factories obliterate ones I'M
| pressions of Woolrich. In half a century
| the Krupps have turned out 10000 cannon,
which would give them a rate Of produc-
| tion In the busiest periods of something ap-
preaching a thousand year.
Peace is almost as great an interest of
Krupps as war. Half the factories which
| bear the name at Essen are devoted to the
peaceful work of commerce. They make all
that can be made of steel for railways
| wheels, axles and engine parts. At Essen
| the Atlantic liners receive the huge castings
CfprnTOSf N lxah ma ftS
and are furnished with plates and frames.
| Fine steel for tools and a dozen other var
| rieties proceed from Essen. One of the
| features is 1.-The American Department -
| which is employed in making railway
wheels and axles for American ORDERS and
especially for Pullman cars. 1t is quality
that does il, they tell you. The Americans,
with their rapid, wholesale methods, cam
not reach the standard of Krupp crucible
steel, which is, of course, the basis of the
firms success
1t was to make a finer steel that Peter
Friedrich Krupp experimental amid pover-
" and disappointment century ago. He
discovered the secret of the crucible, but
could not nnd how TO cast steel into large
blocks At his death his boy, Alfred, then
| fourteen years of age, took UP the work
with faith and pertlnacity, and on the de-
velopment of the principle built up or
ganization which now employs 10000 work.
men and 1900 officials
CASTING CRUCIBLE STEEL
Luck never smiled on him till he had
| finally succeeded. 1t was intellect and sci
ence applied to business that won the vic
tory. When all the money was being swal-
| lowed up in the experiments with crucible
steel he hit on a new principle for roller.
1t brought in money which was devoted to
the experiments; and after long and weary
years the secret was discovered. In the
4Os he wanted to make cannon of cast steel,
hf1f nd ha he m
vented another money-making process
which turns out weldless railway tires. 1t
made the millions which were spent in de-
veloping the works and in making cannon
which eventually came to be recognized as
the best in the world. Experiment, expert
ment, the law of Alfred Krupp, and
his efforts were at last awarded, when in
the '70s he rearmed the Germans with guns
of his own invention from Essen.
The most striking sight in the Krupp fac
tory at Essen is the casting of crucible steel
according to the principle Of old Peter
First the raw ore from the Krupp mines is
converted into pig-iron with coal from the
Krupp mines at the KTupp blast furnaces.
At Essen il is turned into puddled iron or
steel, then the bars are broken into small
pieces which are placed in little crucibles
according to the composition desired
Large furnaces all around the foundry
blaze away for many hours, melting the
steel in these crucibles of clay, and in the
central space is the ingot method set in
the UOOr. A DlOck Oh elBUly-UNe lODS can
now be cast, which shows how great an
advance has been made since 1851, when AL
fred Krupp's block of 4,O0O-pOunds created
sensation in the engineering world on be-
ing exhibited in London.
A VAST ORGANIZATION.
When the metal has reached the correct
condition half a hundred men assemble at
the mold and a white-bearded veteran
takes his place at the head of il. The men
are the elite of the staff. Their fathers
did the work before them, and the secret
and the skill of manipulation are handed
/ outsiders are ever admitted.
Inc veteran gives a signal and the doors
| or the furnaces open. With perfect disci-
| pine the men march off TO their appointed
/ doors IN pairs, each pair carrying long steel
| tongs, with which they lift up a crucible
/ ruiz or molten steel In instant the scene
Is changed, the whole place glows with the
| hght or score of white-hot pots of burn
/ ing metal, and the men march solemnly
and regularly from all sides TO the mold in
/ the center where the old man directs them
| dens into the pit
| Out again the foremost ones pass to the
furnaces and return with other crucibles
! 1ull OF steel. They march and cOuntermarch
| with all the order of the dance or the pa
rade: IL IS dance of fairies or OF demons,
/ as you choose TO regard these pots which
| carry In them the power OF death and the
| radiance or some magic light. A few min
/ utes ana all Is over. The mold is full and
/ SLOWLY congealing, cooling and changing
/ color; the furnaces are closed melting more
Il f11u la