MACHINES AND IMPLEMENTS. 177 



CHAPTER X. 

 Machines and Implements. 



THE manufacture of machines in Eussia began in the end of the seventeenth and 

 in the beginning- of the eighteenth centuries by the construction of apparatus 

 for the mining works then established, due to the iron will of Peter the Great, which 

 never weakened before any obstacles whatever when the honour and welfare of Eussia 

 were at stake. The manufactories founded by him at Olonets not far from St. Peters- 

 burg, and having an easy communication therewith by water, fiumished the Eussian 

 axmy and navy with guns and other equipments, and served at the same time to in- 

 troduce technical inventions; the articles made at these factories served as models 

 to those that were established later. 



The gifted coadjutors of Peter the Great in the introduction of the mining in- 

 dustry, which was closely followed by machine building in Eussia, were Henning, a 

 foreigner, and the blacksmith Demidov, the founder of tlie still-existing works in the 

 Urals, which bear his name. In 1786 a Scotchman, Haskoyn by name, who was 

 induced by Catherine the Great to come to Eussia, established new works in the re- 

 gion of Olonets with the help of the local foreman Yartsov. In this manufactory the 

 founding of cast iron guns and the mechanical processes relating thereto were intro- 

 duced; and in 1790 the first Eussian steam engine of the Watts pattern was built. 

 With the aid of Haskoyn, the Crown foundries were built near St. Petersburg ; these 

 works developed later into the great establishments known as the Cronstadt and the 

 Izhora machine works, which are until now supplying the different needs of the Eussian 

 navy. The Izhora factories among other works produce at the present time steel-iron 

 armor plates. 



In 1805 the Alexandrovsk spinning manufactory was founded in St. Petersburg; 

 it was for a long time under the management of Wilson, who had supplanted Has- 

 koyn. Although the influence of this establishment upon the development of weaving 

 and spinning by means of machinery in Eussia was inconsiderable, still it was here 



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