The herald., 1922-10-12
Electric Welding in Essen.

dustrial region is even larger thar
the mining area. for II overilows TO the
southwest and includes the famous
factory towns of Barmen, Elberfeld
and SOlingen.
Essen's Sudden Rise.
Boom" towns of mushroom growth
are not peculiar to America, as the
startling rise of Essen proves. Though
founded away back in the Ninth cen
fury, it slumbered along for hundreds
of years, an obscure, unimportant ham
let. Even as late as 1850 il had hard
ly more than 10000 people. Then the
hrupp boOm-the rise of the greatest
machine shop the world has ever seen
struck ii, and today the city houses
half a million.
Set in the heart of the coal fields,
crowded with endless industrial plants
whose tall chimneys belch eternal
smoke and fumes, the great workshop
fairly throbS with power and energy.
The roar and rattle of ceaseless wheels
| and the din of giant hammers pound
ing on metal seem TO keep the whole
town atremble.
Here every form of iron and steel
article is made, from boys skates TO
giant marine engine shafts. Curious
ly enough, even some of the smoke.
or the fumes from the smokestacks,
Is caught and converted into a gas
that furnishes more power to run the
mills!
More than hundred years ago the
first krupp set up his small, crude
shop and began to make by hand the
tools. the drills and chisels, used BY
tanners, blacksmiths and carpenters
along the Ruhr and the Rhine. He al
SO made dies for use in the mint of
the government. Within so years. due
to the old ambition for expansion.
krupp tools were known and used as
far away as Greece and India.
Then came the great era of mass
production in steam engines, hammers,
steel tires for railway cars, cast-steel
shafts for river and ocean steamers,
and finally that astonishing output of
guns and armOr plate which brought
the militaristic nations of the world
to buy at Essen.
The daily roar of artillery at the
proving grounds, where each new gun
was tested, added to the din of
whistles, rushing trains, and rafting
gears, made pre-war Ruhr probably
the noisiest place on earth. 1t Is noisy
enough now, but the great guns are
silent; Krupp makes them no more
The big lathes that once made guns |
Tor every nation, from Chile to China |
now turn out shafting for marine and |
other engines. Box cars for Belgium. !
car wheels for South America. and |
whole tram-line systems for the Dutch
East Indies were some of the orders
being filled few months ago.
Everybody Is a Worker.
This Ruhr is pre-eminently the habi-
fat 81 ihDor. Everybody works, and
nearly everybody works with his hands
An army Of chemists, engineers and
technical men is employed of course:
out they form merely small element
OF the grimy, dusty. sweaty popula-
ton that keeps the coal moving. the
furnaces roaring, and the big lathes
turning.
The population, variously estimated
IT from three and one half to four mil
lions, Is not easy to determine. he
cause thousands come and 90 as the
ide of trade rises and falls; and no.
where Is the worldwide house short
age more keenly felt than in this
iensely populated area. About many
IL the mines the government has SET
up temporary barracks where thou
sands of miners are housed.
In the more picturesque and less
'roWded spots of the Ruhr the over
ords OF industry have reared their
'lllas and spacious homes: but n dis.
motive leisure class, an idle rich. like
ne groups conspicuous in Charlotten-
erg, Dresden or Wiesbaden. is not
ound. Hundreds are here who have
etfred, but they are the aged and
ensloned workmen, doing comfort
bly, in the clean, coy colonies buIlt
DR. them in cities like Essen.
A tiny speck on the map is this
Gated, smoking, Ruhr. but big, like
cinder, in the worlds eye-a spot
lat Caesar knew, a high spot in a
giOn old in history.