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MANUFACTUKES OF EUSSIA. 



As to steel casting in the strict sense of the word, the industry increases 

 yearly and is particularly developed in some of the foundries, and attains a 

 very high grade of products; amid the latter, the castings of stems, stern posts. 

 and screw propellers for men of war, should be mentioned. The rolling of steel iron 

 plates of considerable thickness at the Izhora Crown Manufactories in Kolpino, testi- 

 fies to the great mechanical force of the factory, as well as to the high degree of 

 technical development. Cast steel is worked at the St. Petersburg manufactories 

 and also at the Ural and south Eussia factories. 



Besides the steel articles made by simple casting, the Eussian manufactories 

 are engaged in the production of various goods of cast steel blocks by forging, 

 stamping and rolling. Thus, car and engine wheels for railways, axles, bands, springs, 

 car beds and other articles of furniture for the rolling stock and road beds of rail- 

 ways, are now supplied exclusively by Eussian works, The price of these articles, 

 owing to the increasing cheapness of cast iron and to the development of the trade in 

 itself, shows a visible tendency to decline. This refers equally to various parts of 

 machinery, for example, the simple and crank shafts, connecting rods, couplings and 

 kindred appliances. The manufacture of the railway bands alone, which in 1889 

 amounted to 640,000 pouds, and in 1890, to 668,000 pouds, proves that the pro- 

 duction of the various kinds of steel wares in Eussia, especially those relating to 

 rolling stock and road beds, has already reached great proportions, warranting the 

 possibility of supplying the railways with articles of home make. 



Owing to the absence of any detailed information concerning the kinds and 

 quantity of the wares made at each of the steel founding works, it is impossible to 

 state the exact quantity and value of the articles cast, forged, stamped and rolled 

 from steel. The following data, received direct from the two manufactories at St. 

 Petersburg, the Oboukhovsk and the Poutilovsk, will give, nevertheless, a general idea 

 of the state of the cast steel industry. It must be said, however, that the specialitj- 

 of the Oboukhovsk manufactory consists in the making of articles for armament, and 

 that the Poutilovsk works produce principally articles for railway and engineering 

 uses, and to some extent for ship building and the making of armor. 



