Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-01-15
Geographic News
Bulletins BY the
National Geographic Society

Essen, whose name is known
around the world because of its as
I~sociation with the Krupps and the
building Of old Germany's great en-
gines of war, and to which the
French marched because PREPARATION
payments were not made, is The sub ,
ject of the following communication
to the National Geographic Society
by Frederick Simpich:
Boom towns of mushroom
growth are not peculiar to America,
as the startling rise of Essen plain
ly proves Though founded away
back in the ninth century, it SUM
bered along for hundreds of years,
Ian obscure, unimportant hamlet.
Even as late as 1850, it had hardly
more than 10000 people. Then the
IKrupp boom-the rise of the great
est machine shop the world has ever
Iseen-struck it, and today the city
houses half a million.
Town Throbs With Industry
"Set in the heart of the coal fields,
crowded with endless industrial
plants, whose chimneys belch eternal
smoke and fumes, the great work
shop fairly throbs with. power and
| energy. The roar and rattle of
~ceaseless wheels and the din of giant
hammers pounding 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. Curl
| ously enough. even some OF the
lsmoke, or the fumes from the
'smokestacks, is caught and con-
verified into a gas hat furnishes more
power to run the millsi
"And to the $4,000 or mor men
on his payroll, the name of Krupp is
| above that of kings. And indeed,
| no industrial enterprise anywhere
| has ever shown a more astonishing
| development, reflected more dramat-
ically the result of human ~concentra-
ton, or achieved a wider notoriety
among the nations of the world.
First Krupp Shop Tiny
"More than a 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 also made dies for use
in the mint of the government.
Within thirty years, due to h old
Eambition for expansion, Krupp tools
were known and used as far away as
Greece and India. Here, about this
time also, spoons were first rolled
from one solid block of metal by
an ~odd-looking machine invented Tor
that purpose.
Then came the great era Of mass
production in steam engines, ham
mers, steel tires for railway cars,
cast steel shafts for river and
ocean steamers, and, finally that as
tonishing output of guns and armor
Mate, which brought the militaristic
nations of the world to buy at Es-
sen.
1.-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 IN earth.
Great Guns Now Silent
ut is noisy enough now, but the
great guns are silent; Krupp makes
them no more. The big lathes that
once made guns for every nation,
from Chile to China, now turn out
shafting for marine and other en-
gines. Box cars for Belgium, car
wheels for South America, and
whole tramline systems for the
Dutch East Indies were some OF the
orders being filled when / saw these
giant works a few months ago.
you can picture the size and
scope of this colossal plant when ]
tell you that, literally. the coal and
iron come in at one end Of the flock
of factories and emerge at the other
in the form of finished locomotives,
with steam UP for testing, or as
lplows, all painted and ready for the
farm, or as the finest nickeled in
struments and tools.
aside from its truly amazing in
dustrial aspects, with its s~ingularly
adequate welfare institutions for
aged and crippled workmen, Essen
is only an overgrown German fac
tory town-somber and smoky. 1t
is the sort of place you like to see
once"