GFNS, AETILLERY SUPPLIES, AMMUNITION AND FIREARMS. 



147 



For tlie years 1886 to 1892 the production of these two manufactories, the 

 orders of various kinds of rails and those of the Department of War being excluded, 

 may be expressed by the following figures. 



Manufactories. 



The Alexandrovsk Steel Manufactory, also at St. Petersburg, ranks between 

 the two factories above mentioned. Its yearly production of steel wares, excluding 

 rails, together with the production of assorted and sheet steel, amounts to about 

 2,000,^000 roubles. Considering the general information received respecting the activ- 

 ity of Eussian steel mauufactories, the amount of their output can be placed at not 

 less than 6 to 7 million roubles. Unwrought steel, rails, cannon, ammunition, as well 

 as fire and side arms, are not included in this total. 



Guns, artillery supplies, ammunition and firearms. 



The articles of this category representing the means of State defense, exclusive 

 however of hunting guns, are chiefly made at the State manufactories, which occupy 

 such a high position with regard to their technical powers that they can compete 

 with the best works of Europe and America in quality of work. 



The long distance guns of considerable length and 12 inch caliber with wliich 

 the Eussian armor-clad ships,, constructed in recent years, are provided, also the 

 battery guns and other arms of heavy artillery, as well as steel balls and shells, 

 proof to the strictest trials of firing at armor, testify to the eminent technical 

 virtues of the manufactories and to the unquestionable experience and skill of the ma- 

 nagers. The Oboukhovsk Steel Founding and Gun Manufactory, now belonging to the 

 State, always keeps watch over the contemporary technical development of this branch 

 of industry, and promptly introduces all new inventions, the practical results of which 

 have been duly proved. Many processes of a special character are worked out at the 

 manufactory itself; among these the most conspicious is the process of cooling in 

 mass, introduced already in 1868, which makes it possible to obtain steel of uni- 

 form structure, and at the same time, to increase its resisting powers. 



10* 



