28 AXNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



motis size of the castings ; and in these respects he is so far in advance 

 of all other producers of cast steel that it will be extremely difficult to 

 approach, much more to overtake him. Krupp affects considerable 

 mystery in his processes. He rejoices in astonishing the world by the 

 magnitude of his operations; and, like many others, who have far less 

 reason for self-gratulation, he is not inaccessible to the charms of pop- 

 ular applause. He has printed a handsome series of plates of various 

 objects of his manufacture, which is prefaced by four photographic 

 views of his works in Essen. They are evidently of large extent, and 

 are reported to occupy, one way or other, one hundred and eighty 

 acres of ground. It is stated that he employs puddled steel, which is 

 broken up, assorted, and re-melted in crucibles. This variety of 

 steel does not appear to be adapted for cutlery. It is affirmed 

 that there is a great consumption of plumbago and leather-parings at 

 the Essen Works. Each crucible is said to contain seventy pounds 

 of steel, and the furnaces in which they are heated vary much in 

 dimensions, the smallest holding two, and the larger twenty-four 

 crucibles. When a large casting is required, the organization has 

 been carried to such a remarkable degree of perfection that at a 

 given signal all the crucibles needed are ready to be taken out of the 

 furnace at the same time. Their contents are poured with the utmost 

 rapidity into a large reservoir, and from this the metal is cast. By 

 this means, as in bronze-founding on the large scale, homogeneity is 

 attained. The apparatus for working the steel is the most gigantic 

 yet constructed. There is a steam-hammer weighing fifty tons. The 

 anvil face weighs one hundred and eighty-five tons, and cupola fur- 

 naces were built expressly to melt this large quantity of metal. The 

 largest casting in the world is the great bell at Moscow, reported to 

 weigh one hundred and ninety-two tons; but it cracked in cooling, 

 and was never removed from its birthplace. Krupp's anvil rests on 

 eight blocks of cast iron, weighing from 125 to 135 tons each, and 

 making a total weight of 1,250 tons of cast iron ! This solid structure 

 of iron is supported on a wooden foundation, forty feet square. The 

 mould for casting steel solid is constructed so as to avoid the presence 

 of all angles, of which the inevitable effect would be to cause a 

 lodgment of the air, and consequent unsoundness due to bubbles. 

 Vent-holes will not suffice to remedy this evil, as they become so soon 

 stopped up by the rapid solidification of the steel that the air has not 

 time to escape. The largest casting exhibited by Krupp, in 1851, 

 weighed two and one-quarter tons, and the largest in the Exhibition 

 of 1862 weighs twenty-one tons. It was in the form of a solid 

 cylinder, about nine feet high and three feet eight inches in diameter, 

 and was broken across to show fracture. We inspected the fractured 

 surface over and over again, even under a good lens, and failed to 

 detect a single flaw. The largest casting Krupp ever made weighed 

 twenty-five tons. Now, when we reflect that this enormous mass of 

 metal is melted in comparatively small crucibles, we get an idea of 

 the perfect organization requisite to have every crucible ready, and 

 the pouring effected at almost the same moment of time ; and it is in 

 this organization that we are disposed to think one great merit of 

 Krupp consists. A large rectangular ingot, weighing fifteen tons, was 

 also exhibited ; it was broken across in eight places to show uniform- 



