GERMANY'S WAR FACTORY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10571, 28 September 1910, Page 6

GERMANY'S WAR FACTORY.

THE ROMANCE OF KRUPP'S.

In these days, when halt the world is watch jiiy, Germany and wondering what she"will do'next~in the way of military, expansion or aggression, the lvrnpp works, with which the power and destinv of tiie Fatherland are inseparable, form the pride and boast of every German. They constitute the hinge and pivot mi ' = which Germany's military strength turns. They are a constant menace to her foes. It is here that

militant Germany's inventive genius and productive power are concentrated, and here is the birthplace of myriads of engines destined to deal out death and destruction to those who venture to thwart the Teuton will. So writes Mr G. R. Oppler in an interesting article in The World's Work tor August, from which we make the following extracts: — ' "The Krupp works dominate, the whole of Essen, a town of about 300.0U0 inhabitants. Situated in the centre, close to the railway, they, together with their attendant institutions, cover an area of live hundred acres, or about three times the size of Hyde Park, 'i he tentacle arms of the vast establishment stretch out octopus-like on all sides. Two thousand trucks and over hits' locomotives rush along these tracks daily conveying Germany's guns, ar-mour-plates, ammunition, and -shells to Gei man garrisons, forts, ports, and harbors. Sis thousand tons of coal, coke, and briquettes are poured daily into the huge creature's rapacious jaws. One and a-(|iiartcr million tons of fuel arc required annually to appease its insatiable appetite. Twenty million cubic metres of water, or more than the -150.(ii'!0 inhabitants of Cologne consume •yearlv, are used in the works. It would take too long to detail all particulars of this Brob'dingnarian enterprise. Even the highest and most distinguished military and artillery officers who have served for years in the German armv are only allowed to see a part of the works, and then only when provided with special passes signed and countersigned by Krupp officials and the German War Office. ' . Strangers who arc sufficiently distuiobtain special favors from the German Foreign Office are received at Lvriipp's with the courtesy and amiability that is inseparable to-day from everv German business concern. But thev are shown only what it lies in the interests of Germany for them to see, and nothing more. To a great many people the name ot Krupp onlv implies the vast gun and armour-plate factory at Essen. This conception docs not correspond to facts. The linn comprises, in addition to the Kssen factory, a huge shipbuilding yard —the "Gerniania"—at Kiel, three coalmines employing 10.000 men, iron-ore mines in Germany and Spain, three huge smelting-works at Engers, Neuwied. and Sayn, the Gruson Armourplate Works at Annen. the "Friedrieh Vlfred" Smelting Works at Rhein-

hausen-Fricmersheim, and a shipping

wharf with ocean-going steamships at Rotterdam. On February 1, 1910, there •a.-- a total of G7.GG2 men employed_at these establishments, including G779 officials.

Start in™ in 1810, in the small cottage dory with six workmen. Friedrich

Krupp began operations with the dogred purpose of achieving fame. Sacrificing hj: tii resources and health to the ibject in view, he bequeathed, at nis ■loath in 182f>. nothing but a small forge ■isid his secret of making crucible steel to his sou Alfred', then fourteen years •i' :--gc. liovv this hid. imbued by a -iir.ilar spirit, converted, as if by a •logician's wand, the little forge iiuo 'he huge works of the present day. works that have made his name renowned in every quarter of the globe, ■-; a mailer of common knowledge.

Alfred Krupp died, and his son T'"riYdrich Alfred Krupp. the friend of

-he Kr.'.-i-r, reigned in his stead, eon■iuu'i:;/ the same victorious path until November 22. 1002. when be followed h ; s fathers. After his death the .vorks lasscd into the bands of the eldest

I-•>lighter. Fraulein Bertha Krupp, tne riehe.-t woman in Europe, and was converted into a company with a capital of C9.0ri0.000 on July 1, 1003. The crmpanv is managed by a directorate of 10 members, who, in their turn, are answerable to a Board of live members, including fieri- Krupp von Boiiien and Halbach. the husband of Fraulein Krupp, who possesses practically all the shares of the company. It wac tiie secret of crucible steel, be-

niicnthed by Friedich Krupp to his son. that made the Krupp Works. Its incomparable finalities and purity have enabled perfectly homogeneous, uniform. n;:d dense blocks to ho cast. These characteristics caused the Prussian GovcriTTnent to frive the workrheir first order for 300 cannon, and from that day the connection between the Government and the works has never been severed. Huntsman, of

Sheffield, had aiso discovered the secret of makiiif; crucible steel some hundred

cars before Krupp. and he manufac-

turer! it for some time there. I'll fortunately the secret was buried with him. and lay dormant until revived by Krupp.

Few outsiders are privileged to view the inside of the establishment. Those =o favored are considered guests of the

Krupp family and arc accommodated ; n the i<'--senor Hot', an hotel belonging to the firm. Personal friends of the family reside in a palatial building opposite Villa Hugel, which contains over 60 aoartmerits. During the lifetime of the late Alfred Friedrich Krupp visitors to the works were invited to dinner at the Villa, and the latter part of the evening was frequently devoted to serious business. Many a stupendous project hi's been planned during the stillness of the night watches at Villa Hugel. If is impossible for the uninitiated visitor to gather anything but a fleeting impression of the multifarious nature of the work carried on in the vast establishment, and it would take weeks to visit the 65 different departments that exist at Essen alone. In nine long extended cannon shops we

«eo grim monsters of warfare, from the baby mountain gun up to the naval and fortress aun of the largest calibre lying peacefully side bv side. Among them are guns over 40ft in length that weigh over 40 tons, and are capable of hurling a projectile weighing eight hundredweight a distance of about 1G miles. Place one of the deadly weapons on the top of Primrose Hill and it can sweep and scour with its missiles the whole district lying between Richmond ind Leytonstone. between the Crystal Enlace and Wembley Park. There are others the nickel-headed projectiles of which can pierce the strongest armour of any Dreadnought afloat at a distnnce of three miles. Some of these shells are filled with over a thousand steel balls or more than sufficient to innihilate half an infantry regiment. If we go past the cannon shops wc "ome to the crucible works. Here we find hundreds of men walking together in pairs carrying between "them on long bars white-hot crucibles of refractory cla.y which contain the mysterious mixture of steel elnimed as an exclusive secret of the Krupn family from the + ime of Fripdrich Krupp. ' The pairs ndvance sinelv and tilt the glowing mass into the mould iii which the giant Week is born. Tn this manner blocks of 85 tons have been turned out. The filling goes on until the 'desired size has been obtained. The process seems lengthy and laborious, but by its means -solid steel blocks of anv size can be produced which are "ntirelv free from bubbles and flnws—the despair of the manufacturer. These flaws arc hidden from view, and it is almost impossible to detect them when ■the block is finished. Still, at innumerable times, they have been the sole caus°s of trrcat disasters throuirh cannon bursting, propeller shafts fractnrinc trtd machinery breaking down. Some idea of the magnitude of the process involved can be gained from the fact that to supplement the stock of crucibles s> •■nroinl nottery has been established within the works, which turns out 4800 daily.

Some way further on tvp scp the famous-.steam linmmcr. "Fritz," the ciant of the 160 steam hammers at work in the establishment. "FrJ+.a" «-.-is constructed in 1860 by Alfred Krupn at a. cost of £100,000.' At that time Krupp's competitors regarded his intention to set mi +he giant hammp»\ which possesses a falling weight of 50 tons, as n siVn of ineinient madness. Undeterred, Krupp continued and today. _ after "Fritz" has been at worlfor 50 years, he is as useful as ever. The late Emperor Wilhelm was a grent admirer of the Brobdinsrnarian tool. Breaking nuts without injuring their kernels is a popular method of demon-

strating the marvellous delicacy of its adjustment. In the armour-plate department we see ' huge hydraulic presses, of. which „ there arc no fewer than 81 in the works ± and under which steel blocks are press- ;, ed.inid:..squeezed' until compelled to as- 0 sume the desired shape, no matter how e large they may be. Size plays no part a in these worksi. ..TJie .'more enoiunous v the size, the greater the seeming impossibility, the easier does it seem to c the., spectator that the task is accomplished. A huge crucible steel block j, weighing 110 fewer than 80 tons is t placed under a 5000-ton hydraulic press; after being coaxed, handled, and formed for half an hour it emerges in ( [the shape of the gigsuitic-Vshaft. of an t Ocean steamship, 150 ft long. By the f laid of a special mechanical apparatus,- '] the shaft is bored, the kernel being ( extracted in one piece. Such stupend1 ous feats are daily. occurrences at the ; works. ■;' " . ■ ■' 1 Other equally famous-machines are , the hydraulic shears which cht through three inches of solid armour-plate as if. J it were cheese. Enormous bending ( presses of 10,000-ton pressure bend ar-mour-plates to any shape desired with infinite ease. The greatest armour- , plate, perhaps, that has ever been turned out in this department was exhibited at Dusseldorf outside the Krupp pavilion during the Exhibition of 1902. This unique construction was not intended to serve any practical purpose, but was onlv shown to demonstrate the capabilities 'of the Krupp Works. The plate weighs 105 tons, is 40ft m length. Kilt wide, and Ift in thickness. It is impossible to describe the immensity of the fittings and arrangements 'of the Essen establishment without giving a few figures. The firm has its own waterworks, makes its own gas and generates its own electricity. The gasworks suplv more gas for the fac-torv-town than is used annually m Munich, namely, 20,000,000 cubic metres. And vet the 37,000 gas-jets distributed all over the establishment do not suffice for illuminating purposes, and electricity in the shape of 2700 arc lamps and 30,000 incandescent- lights lias to be pressed into service. Over 30!) steam boilers generate the steam for the 7200 different machines and the 222-1 electric motors at work. More than 450 miles of cable and wire and over GOO telephone stations and 20 telegraph stations are required to facilitate : lommuuication throughout the works. The chemical physical department must also not be forgotten, as the constant experiments and investigations mane form the keynote of the high excellence of the Krupp Works. Three hundred ; and twenty thousand different analyses and investigations were made there last year. . . [ ' The works at Essen arc provided with . three .splendid shooting-ranges, one 15 ■ miles in length for heavy artillery, an- ; other five miles long and a smaller one . for the trial of small guns, armotir- . plate, explosives, etc. Large naval guns i are mostly tried at the long range at - Meppen. Last year over 35,000 expeny mental shots were "fired, the weight- of 7 the projectiles discharged amounting to p over 1,200,0001b5. Foreign officers of all t nationalities can be seen at these ranges ) dailv testing the guns ordered. Thus, Argentine and Chilian, Chinese and -. Japanese military commissions follow i each other in rapid .succession, and it - has occurred that guns standing parallel . to each other on the shooting-range e have been pointed at each other in s deadly warfare later on. ~ The Oer mania shipbuilding yard at 1 Kiel deserves special mention as a Krupp « institution, where some of the most a modern of Germany's Dreadnoughts arc :i undergoing completion. At- the present o moment there are seven slips situated there, all of which are fitted up to ac- '. commodate ships of the largest size. . Four of these slips are covered over. In addition, there is another building n slip for ships of special design. ,|- The whole of the yard at which 7000 i- men are working at present is so eonil structcd that in times of necessity all r l of the different workshops can be ex■r, tended by at least 30 per cent. Of t late years the Germania yard has aco quired a reputation for fast torpedoi- boats and submarines, j Kven such a cursory description or 0 the Krupp Works as the present one 0 would be incomplete without a refcr- .,, nice to the wonderful system prevailing ; there for the benefit and welfare of the ( 'l employees. Years and years before the „ German Government introduced its ,-, beneficial schemes for the welfare of the working men they had been in .. operation in the Krupp Works. The i Krupp Works have been styled the ,1 classic ground of workmen's welfare. f . At Essen alone the dwellings built by i_ the firm for the accommodation of workmen in the shape of handsome villas, ;'. situated in miniature garden cities, '=. ; house over 35,000 persons. The same ,\ j applies to all the other Krupp Works. n Hospitals, convalescent homes, dinings (halls, schools, industrial and other ,'f libraries, baths, savings banks, eoncert- , (hulls and clubs are in evidence everyf] j where, and are in great request. By .. I means of co-operative stores, to which .. s there are slaughterhouses and bakeries I, jatached, the workmen can obtain food v land other necessaries of life at a minimum cost.