Here we are at the great forge (Fig. 1), that wonderful creation which
has not its like in France, that gigantic construction which iron has
wholly paid for, and which covers a space of twenty-four acres. We
first remark two puddling halls, each of which contains 50 furnaces
and 9 steam hammers. It is in these furnaces that the iron is puddled.
The ball or bloom thus obtained is afterward taken to the hammer,
which crushes it and expels the scoriæ.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE GREAT HALL OF FORGES AT THE CREUSOT WORKS.]
The puddler's trade, which is without doubt the most laborious one in
metallurgy, will surely soon be lightened through the use of steam.
Two rotary furnaces actuated by this agent have been in operation for
a few years at Creusot, and each is yielding 20 tons of iron per day.
We have but a court of 130 feet in width to cross in order to reach
the rolling mill. At the entrance to this we enjoy one of the most
beautiful sights that the immense works can offer. For a length of
1,240 feet we perceive on one side a series of rolling machines, and
on the other a row of reverberatory furnaces that occasionally give
out a dazzling light. In the intervals are fiery blocks that are being
taken to the rolling machines, in order to be given the most diverse
forms, according to the requirements of commerce.
The iron obtained by puddling is not as yet in its definite state, but
the rolling mill completes what the puddling hall does in the rough.
Five hundred and fifty thousand tons of iron, all shaped, are taken
from the forge every day. To reach such a result it requires no less
than 3,000 workmen and a motive power of 7,000 horses.
But do not be appalled at the cost of the coal, for, thanks to
ingenious processes, the heat lost from the furnaces nearly suffices
to run the boilers. If we remark that a power of one horse does in one
hour the equivalent of a man's labor per day, we conclude that these
machines (which run night and day) represent an army of 160,000 men
that lends its gratuitous aid to the workmen of the forge. This is
what is called progress in industry.
We have just seen that iron is obtained in small masses. These can be
welded upon heating them to 1,500 or 2,000 degrees. It is impossible
to manufacture a large piece exempt from danger from the weldings.
Cast iron always has defects that are inherent to its nature, and
these are all the more dangerous in that they are hidden. Steel is
exempt from these defects, and, moreover, whatever be the size of the
ingot, its homogeneousness is perfect. This is what has given the idea
of manufacturing from it enormous marine engines and those gigantic
guns that the genius of destruction has long coveted.
Ah, if the good sense of men does not suffice to put a limit to their
increasing progress, bridges, viaducts, and tunnels will take it upon
themselves, if need be, to bar their passage. But, in order to forge
large ingots, it became necessary before all to increase the power of
the steam hammer. The Creusot establishment, which endowed metallurgy
with this valuable machine, had allowed itself to be eclipsed, not by
the number (for it had 57), but by the dimensions of the largest one.
In 1875, the Krupp works constructed one of 50 tons, and their example
was followed at Perm, St. Petersburg, and Woolwich. It was then
that Mr. Henry Schneider put in execution a bold project that he had
studied with his father, that of constructing a 100 ton steam hammer,
along with the gigantic accessories necessary (Fig. 2). It became
necessary to erect a building apart for its reception. This structure
covers a surface of one and three-quarter roods, and reaches a height
of 98 feet in the center. As for the hammer, imagine uprights 25
feet in height, having the shape of the letter A, surmounted with a
cylinder 19½ feet in length and of a section of 3½ square yards.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE CREUSOT ONE HUNDRED TON STEAM HAMMER.]
The piston which moves in this cylinder, under a pressure of 5
atmospheres, is capable of lifting a weight of 100 tons. The hammer,
which is fixed to this piston by a rod, has therefore an ascensional
force of 88,000 pounds. It can be raised 16 feet above the anvil, and
this gives it a power three and a third times greater than that of the
Prussian hammer. Large guns can therefore be made in France just as
well as in Germany.
This enormous mass is balanced in space at the will of one man, who,
by means of a lever, opens and closes two valves without the least
effort. This colossal hammer required an anvil worthy of it. This
weighs 720 tons, and rests upon granite in the center of 196 feet of
masonry.
The hammer is surrounded with four furnaces heated by gas, and duty
is done for each of these by steam cranes capable of lifting 350,000
pounds. These cranes take the glowing block from the furnace, place
it upon the anvil, and turn it over on every side at the will of the
foreman. Under this hammer a cannon is forged as if it were a mere
bolt. The piece is merely rough-shaped upon the anvil, and a metallic
car running upon a 36 foot track carries it to the adjusting shop.
There the cannon is turned, bored, and rifled, and nothing remains but
to temper it, that is to say, to plunge it into a bath after it has
been heated white hot. For this purpose an enormous ditch has been dug
in which there is a cylindrical furnace, and alongside of it there is
a well of oil. The car brings the cannon to the edge of the ditch, and
a steam crane performs the operation of tempering with as much ease as
we would temper a knife blade.
In the presence of such engines of attack it was necessary to think
of defense. The hammer that forges the cannon also gives us the armor
plate to brave it. This time the ingot is flattened under the blows of
the hammer, and even takes the rounded form of the stern, if it be so
desired. Thus is obtained the wall of steel that we wish.
Will it be possible to keep up the fight long? In order that one may
get some idea of this for himself, let us rapidly describe an entirely
peaceful contest that took place recently upon the coast of Italy. Two
rival plates, one of them English and the other French, were placed
in the presence of the Spezia gun, which weighs 100 tons. These plates
were strongly braced with planks and old armor plate. Three shots were
to be fired at each of the plates.
In the first shot the ball was of hardened cast iron, and weighed
1,990 pounds. The English plate was filled with fissures, while the
Creusot did not show a single one. The ball penetrated it about seven
inches, and was broken into small pieces.
In the second shot the projectile was the same, but the charge was
greater. The shot may be calculated from the velocity, which was 1,530
feet. It was equal to what the great hammer would give were it to fall
from a height of a hundred yards. The English plate was completely
shivered, while the French exhibited but six very fine fissures
radiating from the point struck. The ball entered 8 inches, and was
broken as in the first experiment.
The third shot fired was with a steel ball, against the French plate,
the English being _hors de combat_. The penetration was the same; the
ball was not broken, but was flattened at the point like the head of a
bolt.
We should like to speak of those magnificent workshops in which the
immense naval pieces are adjusted, where the shafts of helixes 60
feet in length are turned, and of the boiler works, where one may see
generators that have a heating surface exceeding 2,000 square feet,
for it requires no less than that to supply 8,000 H.P., and thus
triumph over the force of inertia and those colossal iron-clads. But
how describe in a magazine article what the eye cannot take in in a
day?
Despite all our regrets, we have to pass over some things, but our
duty will not have been performed if we omit the history of the works.
Creusot, which to-day is a regularly-built city with a population of
28,000 souls, was in 1782 but a poor hamlet called Charbonniere. The
existence there of a coal bed had long been known, and iron ore had
been found not far off. But how establish works in a locality deprived
of a water course, and distant from the large ways of communication?
In 1782 the steam engine, which Watt had just finally improved,
removed the first difficulty, and the second was soon to disappear,
thanks to a projected canal. An iron foundry was then established
there under the patronage of Louis XIV., while the Queen had
glassworks erected.
As long as the war lasted the foundry supported itself through casting
cannons and balls, but after the year 1815 it became necessary either
to transform the works or sell them. It was decided to do the latter.
The Messrs. Chagot, who became purchasers in the sum of $180,000, were
in turn obliged to sell out in 1826. Creusot was then ceded to Messrs.
Manby & Wilson, who already had works at Charenton. At the end of
seven years of efforts this firm made a failure, and, finally, in
1836, after six million dollars had been swallowed up, Creusot was
bought for $536,000, by Messrs. Adolphe & Eugene Schneider & Co. The
period of reverses was at an end, and one of continued success was
begun.
The new managers had seen that carriage by steam was soon to follow,
and open up to metallurgy an entirely new horizon. The works were
quickly transformed and enlarged, and in 1838, the first French
locomotive was turned out of them. After locomotives came steamboats.
It was then that the necessity of forging large pieces gave the idea
of a steam hammer.
By a coincidence that can only be explained by the needs of the epoch,
the English came upon the same discovery almost at the same time, and
the Creusot patent antedated the English one by only two months.
Two years afterward, frigates such as the Labrador, Orenoque,
Albatros, etc., of 450 H.P., were rivaling English vessels on the
ocean.
After the death of Mr. Adolphe Schneider, on the 3d of August, 1845,
his brother Eugene, left sole manager, displayed an activity that
it would be difficult to exceed. He made himself familiar with the
resources and productions of foreign countries and of France, and then
made up his mind what to do. He desired to make his works the finest
in the world, and it has been seen from what precedes that, after
twenty years of effort, his aim has been attained. What a rapid
progress for so short a time! In 1838, the first locomotive that was
not of English origin appeared to us like a true phenomenon; a few
years afterward the Creusot locomotives were crossing the Channel in
order to roll proudly over the railways of a rival nation.
A general, no matter how skillful, could not conquer with an
undisciplined army, so the education of the workmen's children was one
of the things that the founder of this great industrial center had
constantly in mind. Mr. H. Schneider has continued the work of his
father, and has considerably extended it, at Creusot as well as in the
annexed establishments. The number of pupils who frequent the schools
exceeded 6,000 in 1878.
The work is not confined to educating the children, but a retreat is
afforded the parents, without putting them under any restraint.
After twenty-five years' service a workman receives an income of $100
if he is a bachelor, and $150 if married, but upon one condition,
however, and that is that he is a Frenchman. For $1.20 a month he is
lodged in a pretty little house surrounded with a garden, and, if he
is sick, he is attended gratuitously.
These benefits are not addressed to ingrates, as was proved by the
profound sorrow that reigned in the little city when the death of the
benefactor of Creusot was learned.--_Science et Nature._
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