Whose engagement to Miss Bertha Krupp was recently announced. fleet-the famous Askold, which showed its heels to the Japanese flyers after a sortie from Port Arthur and a running fight, and, although in badly crippled condition, managed to elude its pursuers and escape to Shanghai-was also made in Germany at the Krupp yards. The name of Krupp has become world-fa of whose residents depend entirely upon this remarkable firm for a livelihood. Since Peter Friedrich Krupp founded the works which bear his name in 1810, erecting the first smelting furnace for the manufacture of cast steel a year later, the enterprise has expanded until it represents to-day four steel and iron works, one of the largest shipyards in Germany, three groups of coal mines, and sixteen blast furnaces, taking the product from no less than 667 ore workings in Germany, in addition to a large tonnage annually secured from the workings in northern Spain. All told, no less than 150,000 persons depend upon the several industries for support. Of these, 40,000 are skilled and unskilled workmen, and about 4,000 are employed in various clerical capacities. The Essen plant is by far the largest, requiring about 25,000 hands. At present, 3,000 are employed at the Gruson division, about 4,500 in the shipyard, while the coal and iron mines require a force of 6,000, and the blast furnaces and other works about 5,500. The army of employees, with their families, constitute important communities in themselves, those employed at Essen residing in eight suburban colonies. Another community is peopled entirely by the miners, while the shipyard workers also form a separate town in themselves. The Essen works have been so prominently identified with the progress made in the construction of ordnance, ammunition, and armor-plate, that it is interesting to outline their history briefly. Several of the shops which were built at Essen in 1818 are still standing and being utilized for various purposes. The first cast steel was converted into a cannon at this plant, when a 3-pounder gun was finished under the supervision of Alfred Krupp in 1847. The use of cast steel in small-arm barrels was first tried here with success in 1843. With 1853 came the manufacture of weldless steel tires, which attracted so much attention from engineers. The first 12-pound cannon was finished in 1854 at Essen, while in 1862 began the casting of Bessemer steel in Germany. To-day the Essen works have facilities for manufacturing ordnance of every type, ranging from the 1-pounder rapid-fire gun used in the fighting top of the warship to the seacoast-defense gun and the main battery of the first-class battleship. The coastdefense turrets are finished at the Gruson works; but armor-plate of every type for naval use is completed at Essen, as well as hardened steel castings for war-vessel protection. As an indication. of the capacity of the Essen plant alone, it may be stated that up to the present time, it has completed about 45,000 guns for naval and coast defense, in ordnance for siege and fortress purposes, and in batteries of field and mountain artillery, including the necessary gun-carriages and other accessories. Here are also manufactured shells for piercing heavy armor-plate, as well as ordinary steel projectiles, mining shells, and shrapnel; and even a large quantity of cast-iron shells and cast-iron shot are turned out yearly, in addition to fuses and ammunition. The Gruson plant may be termed In central background are four inclosed docks for constructing battleships. supplementary to that at Essen in the production of war material. The celebrated turret takes its name from the founder of these works, which are located at Buckau. The turrets are composed of chilled cast iron, and are utilized principally for the protection of coastdefense guns. Another form of turret manufactured at Gruson is provided with a steel top and a glacis armor of chilled cast iron or cast steel. Armor for the protection of observation stations is another product. The Buckau division is equipped with machinery for manufacturing small cannon, as well as carriages and ammunition for them. Both Friedrich Krupp and his son Alfred believed that a successful industry should own not only the facilities for production, but the sources of raw material forming the base; and this is why the coal and ore mines in connection with the blast furnace form such a notable adjunct of the enterprise under consideration. One of the principal coal mines. is located practically on the site of the Essen works, the other two being situated near Bochum. In all, they comprise seven working pits, of which three are at Essen. The former have a maximum depth of 1,700 feet; and at present no less than ten veins of coal are being worked on two levels, the veins varying from 2% to 6 feet in thickness. Most of the coal is secured by hand mining; but the works are equipped with both overground and underground draining machinery and a hydraulic air-compressor for operating ventilators, while a separating and washing floor is also installed, which has a capacity of 100 tons hourly. The workings near Bochum contain thirty veins, with a total thickness of 112 feet. They are much more extensive than the pits at Essen, and furnish most of the total output of the Krupp mines, which represent nearly 1,500,000 tons yearly. They are also provided with surface and underground draining machinery, as well as hydraulic air-compressors which have a capacity of 10,000 cubic feet hourly, in addition to four ventilators and four separation plants, treating 200 tons an hour. In connection with the mines are sets of coke ovens having a total daily output. of 700 tons. These are of the vertical type, served from above, but are not provided with apparatus for securing byproducts, such as is installed in most of the modern ovens of the United States. The various groups of iron-ore deposits produce annually about 520,000 tons. They include, as stated, 667 different workings producing hematite and red ore as well as manganese. The Krupp interest in the Spanish mines is held under the title of the Orconera Iron Ore Company, and a line of steamships owned by the Krupps is used in the transportation of the ore to Germany. The blast-furnace capacity is not so ONE OF THE 5,000-TON PRESSES FORGING AN INGOT FOR A GUN. ducing from 200 to 225 tons every 24 hours. The furnaces are provided with steam hoists and four Cowper heaters. An interesting feature in connection with the plant is the service of the ore, a series of Brown hoist conveyors, electrically driven, being used for transferring the ore from shipyard to the plant. The blowing engines are of the vertical-compound type, furnishing 32,000 cubic feet of air per minute; but the of the 1,900 tons daily, which is the average output of this division of the Krupp industries. They include four furnaces at the Mulhofen works, three at the Hermanns works, and four at the Johannes works, but none are of modern type. The great Germania shipyard at Kiel is relied upon by the Kaiser to create the greater part of the navy upon which he has decided. By the provisions of the German naval law of 1900, he will have |