p. 155 | THE KRUPP GUN WORKS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 15, 1879

THE KRUPP GUN WORKS.

One of the most wonderful manufacturing establishments in the world is the great cannon factory of Friedrich Krupp, at Essen in Rhenish Prussia. They were founded in 1810 by Friedrich Krupp, who died in 1826, and are now carried on by his son, Alfred Krupp, but under the father's name. The present Herr Krupp is a tall, fine-looking man of remarkably commanding presence, with white hair and beard, high forehead, bright eyes, and strikingly intellectual expression.

His father was a man of average means, who lost his money by unsuccessful inventions, and died leaving his son, at the early age of seventeen, with a small workshop, four workmen, and debts. By a life of incredibly hard work, amid many failures and disappointments, Herr Krupp has raised himself to the position of the richest man in Germany, the members of the Rothschild firm excepted. All his first efforts to make a career for himself were baffled by the persistent refusal of the government of the day to entertain his ideas for the improvement of guns and cannons.

At last, in despair, he offered his services to the French, who immediately desired to come to terms with him. Before concluding this arrangement, however, he wrote to Berlin to say that his offer had been accepted by the French, and that he was on the point of selling his inventions to that government; this opened the eyes of the Germans, and since that time the entire equipment of their army has been intrusted to his charge, with what brilliant results is shown by the successes of the late war.

Herr Krupp's house, a regular English mansion, is capable of containing one hundred guests and dining three hundred. Here the crown prince is a frequent visitor, the old emperor himself having more than once honored Essen with his presence. Dinner is served at six, after which a French play is read by Herr Krupp's faithful amanuensis, Dr. Pieper, followed by billiards, which is often played till two o'clock in the morning, the guests dropping off at any time that suits them. The master of Essen is not much of a card-player, so his visitors generally content themselves with dominoes and billiards.

Visitors are never admitted to the works unless personally known to the managers. Twelve thousand hands are employed, besides five thousand more at mines belonging to the establishment. The articles manufactured comprise axles, tires, car-wheels, springs, rails, shafts, cannon, gun carriages, etc. The establishment embraces 1,100 different furnaces, 264 forges, 240 boilers, 71 steam hammers (one of 500 tons power), 286 steam engines (over 1,000-horse power), and 1,056 machine tools. It contains also 300 miles of railroad, 15 locomotives, 800 cars, 3,154 dwelling houses, besides shops where supplies are sold to the employees at cost-price.

In the heart of the works stands a little house, carefully railed in and neatly kept. This is pointed out as the place where Herr Krupp's father died, and where he himself was born. Though it blocks up the way in just the busiest part of the manufactory, where every yard of ground is of value, he will on no account allow it to be touched or in any way interfered with.

A truthful anecdote is told in connection with Herr Krupp's marriage. One day, being in the theater at Cologne, he was struck by a girlish face in the box opposite; he begged one of his friends, who was acquainted with the family, to introduce him. Next day he was engaged, and in the following week the wedding took place. This marriage, concluded so hastily, has proved a most happy one, Frau Krupp being esteemed both far and near. A kind, polite hostess, and a most generous benefactress of the poor, there is not a person in the whole factory who does not brighten up at the sight of her face.

Herr Krupp's visits to the works are now few and far between, sometimes not twice in a twelvemonth, because, as he says, “I am getting old now, and they must learn to get on without me.” The work is carried on by a committee, at the head of which are his son and brother-in-law; the former, although not yet twenty-five years of age, is a worthy follower of his father. The Krupp guns are considered by artillerists the very best in the world.—Detroit Evening News.