The Almö Bridge ( Swedish : Almöbron ) stood from 1960, when it was built to connect the island of Tjörn to the Swedish mainland , until 1980, when it collapsed after a ship hit it.
83-410: Built after a suggestion from Krupp , the arch bridge type was cheap to build but it also had narrow roadways that slowed traffic. Below it was the busy shipping lane leading to the town of Uddevalla , which sported a large shipyard and bulk harbor at the time. The Almö bridge collapsed at 1:30 a.m. on January 18, 1980, when the bulk carrier MS Star Clipper struck the bridge arch, collapsing
166-487: A book published in English in 1669. He writes, "They have, among others, particular invention for the melting of iron, without the using of fire, casting it into a tun done about on the inside without about half a foot of earth, where they keep it with continual blowing, take it out by ladles full, to give it what form they please." According to historian Donald Wagner, Mandelslo did not personally visit Japan, so his description of
249-700: A contract with the British armaments company Vickers and Son Ltd. (formerly Vickers Maxim) to supply Vickers-constructed Maxim machine guns. Conversely, from 1902 Krupp was contracted by Vickers to supply its patented fuses to Vickers bullets. It is known that wounded and deceased German soldiers were found to have spent Vickers bullets with the German inscription "Krupps patent zünder [fuses]" lying around their bodies. Krupp received its first order for 135 Panzer I tanks in 1933, and during World War II made tanks , artillery, naval guns, armor plate, munitions and other armaments for
332-405: A full day of heating, stirring and reheating to achieve this. The blowing of air through the molten pig iron introduces oxygen into the melt which results in oxidation , removing impurities found in the pig iron, such as silicon , manganese , and carbon in the form of oxides . These oxides either escape as gas or form a solid slag . The refractory lining of the converter also plays a role in
415-429: A lower rate on a proportion of their output in order to encourage production, but not so large a proportion that they might decide to reduce their selling prices. By this method he hoped to cause the new process to gain in standing and market share. He realised that the technical problem was due to impurities in the iron and concluded that the solution lay in knowing when to turn off the flow of air in his process so that
498-576: A number of English puddlers visited this place to see my new process. Several of them have since returned to England and may have spoken of my invention there." It is suggested Kelly's process was less developed and less successful than Bessemer's process. Sir Henry Bessemer described the origin of his invention in his autobiography written in 1890. During the outbreak of the Crimean War , many English industrialists and inventors became interested in military technology. According to Bessemer, his invention
581-500: A patent that was taken out in May 1878. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas's invention consisted of using dolomite or sometimes limestone linings for the Bessemer converter rather than clay, and it became known as the 'basic' Bessemer rather than the 'acid' Bessemer process. An additional advantage was that the processes formed more slag in the converter, and this could be recovered and used very profitably as
664-665: A phosphate fertilizer. In 1898, Scientific American published an article called Bessemer Steel and its Effect on the World explaining the significant economic effects of the increased supply in cheap steel. They noted that the expansion of railroads into previously sparsely inhabited regions of the country had led to settlement in those regions, and had made the trade of certain goods profitable, which had previously been too costly to transport. The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6–7 per long ton, along with greatly increasing
747-505: A problem for Ford Motor Company in 1964 when they desired to export their car of the same name to Germany, especially since American military personnel stationed there wanted the new car. Although Krupp offered to sell the Mustang name to Ford for a reasonable price, Ford declined and as a result, badged all Mustangs destined for Germany "T-5." By 1978 Krupp's rights to the Mustang name expired and all Mustangs exported to Germany henceforth retained
830-431: A time. They were usually operated in pairs, one being blown while another was being filled or tapped. By the early 19th century the puddling process was widespread. Until technological advances made it possible to work at higher heats, slag impurities could not be removed entirely, but the reverberatory furnace made it possible to heat iron without placing it directly in the fire, offering some degree of protection from
913-513: A ton. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas , a Londoner with a Welsh father, was an industrial chemist who decided to tackle the problem of phosphorus in iron, which resulted in the production of low grade steel. Believing that he had discovered a solution, he contacted his cousin, Percy Gilchrist , who was a chemist at the Blaenavon Ironworks . The manager at the time, Edward Martin, offered Sidney equipment for large-scale testing and helped him draw up
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#1733093473378996-458: A vast array of uses. Mushet's patent ultimately lapsed due to Mushet's inability to pay the patent fees and was acquired by Bessemer. Bessemer earned over 5 million dollars in royalties from the patents. The first company to license the process was the Manchester firm of W & J Galloway , and they did so before Bessemer announced it at Cheltenham in 1856. They are not included in his list of
1079-567: A visit to London in 1857. During the first half of 1858, Göransson, together with a small group of engineers, experimented with the Bessemer process at Edsken near Hofors , Sweden before he finally succeeded. Later in 1858 he again met with Henry Bessemer in London, managed to convince him of his success with the process, and negotiated the right to sell his steel in England. Production continued in Edsken, but it
1162-514: The Forest of Dean . His method was to first burn off, as far as possible, all the impurities and carbon, then reintroduce carbon and manganese by adding an exact amount of spiegeleisen , an alloy of iron and manganese with trace amounts of carbon and silicon . This had the effect of improving the quality of the finished product, increasing its malleability —its ability to withstand rolling and forging at high temperatures and making it more suitable for
1245-720: The Great Venezuela Railway from 1888 to 1894 raised Venezuelan national debt. Venezuela's suspension of debt payments in 1901 led to gunboat diplomacy of the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903 . Russia and the Ottoman Empire both bought large quantities of Krupp guns. By 1887, Russia had bought 3,096 Krupp guns, while the Ottomans bought 2,773 Krupp guns. By the start of the Balkan wars the largest export market for Krupp worldwide
1328-686: The Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania , had also investigated the process in Europe. He built a mill in 1876 using the Bessemer process for steel rails and quadrupled his production. Bessemer steel was used in the United States primarily for railroad rails. During the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, a major dispute arose over whether crucible steel should be used instead of
1411-463: The u is usually treated as short in both languages, corresponding logically (in either language's regular orthography) with the doubled consonant that follows. A British documentary on the Krupp family and firm included footage of German-speakers of the 1930s who would have had speaking contact with the family, which attests the long [uː] , thus [kʁuːp] or [kɾuːp] , rather than what would be
1494-584: The 1914 420 mm Big Bertha , the 1916 Langer Max , and the seven Paris Guns in 1917 and 1918. In addition, Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft built German warships and submarines in Kiel. During the war, Krupp also modified the design of an existing Langer Max gun, which they built in Koekelare . The gun called Batterie Pommern was the largest gun in the world in 1917 and was able to shoot shells of ±750 kg from Koekelare to Dunkirk . Before World War I Krupp had
1577-560: The 20th century the company was headed by Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1870–1950), who assumed the surname of Krupp when he married the Krupp heiress, Bertha Krupp . After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Krupp works became the center for German rearmament. In 1943, by a special order from Hitler, the company reverted to a sole-proprietorship, with Gustav and Bertha's eldest son Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1907–67) as proprietor. After Germany's defeat, Gustav
1660-517: The American inventor William Kelly though the claim is controversial. The process using a basic refractory lining is known as the "basic Bessemer process" or Gilchrist–Thomas process after the English discoverers Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas . A system akin to the Bessemer process has existed since the 11th century in East Asia. Economic historian Robert Hartwell writes that
1743-585: The Chinese of the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE) innovated a "partial decarbonization" method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast. Sinologist Joseph Needham and historian of metallurgy Theodore A. Wertime have described the method as a predecessor to the Bessemer process of making steel. This process was first described by the prolific scholar and polymath government official Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in 1075, when he visited Cizhou. Hartwell states that perhaps
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#17330934733781826-471: The German boy of the future must be slim and slender, as fast as a greyhound, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel" ( "... der deutsche Junge der Zukunft muß schlank und rank sein, flink wie Windhunde, zäh wie Leder und hart wie Kruppstahl." ) During the war Germany's industry was heavily bombed. The Germans built large-scale night-time decoys like the Krupp decoy site (German: Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage) which
1909-561: The German military. Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard launched the cruiser Prinz Eugen , as well as many of Germany's U-boats (130 between 1934 and 1945) using preassembled parts supplied by other Krupp factories in a process similar to the construction of the US liberty ships . In the 1930s, Krupp developed two 800 mm railway guns , the Schwerer Gustav and the Dora . These guns were
1992-542: The Great", invested heavily in new technology to become a significant manufacturer of steel rollers (used to make eating utensils) and railway tyres. He also invested in fluidized hotbed technologies (notably the Bessemer process ) and acquired many mines in Germany and France . Initially, Krupp failed to gain profit from the Bessemer process due to the high phosphorus content of German iron ores. His chemists, however, later learned of
2075-641: The Mustang name. Krupp Steel Works of Essen, Germany, manufactured the spherical pressure chamber of the dive vessel Trieste , the first vessel to take humans to the deepest known point in the oceans, accomplished in 1960. This was a heavy duty replacement for the original pressure sphere (made in Italy by Acciaierie Terni) and was manufactured in three finely machined sections: an equatorial ring and two hemispherical caps. The sphere weighed 13 tonnes in air (net displacement eight tonnes in water) with walls that were 12.7 centimetres (5.0 in) thick. Krupp Steel Works
2158-583: The Nazi war effort . Despite being sentenced to imprisonment for twelve years, he served just three and was pardoned (but not acquitted) by John J. McCloy . As a result of this pardon, all of Krupp's holdings were restored. In the years following the Third Reich's collapse, Krupp rose once again to become one of the wealthiest companies in Europe. However, this growth did not last indefinitely. In 1967, an economic recession resulted in significant financial losses for
2241-506: The Tjörn side was closed 40 minutes after the accident. The mainland side had been closed by a lorry driver who had slowly driven up the bridge in the fog, noticing the railing was missing; he stopped his lorry ten meters ahead of the missing roadway. The large arch foundations still exist but the bridge was never rebuilt. A replacement, the Tjörn Bridge , was constructed in 17 months and opened
2324-609: The United Kingdom and negotiate with the Bank of England on their behalf. Holley secured a license for Griswold and Winslow to use Bessemer's patented processes and returned to the United States in late 1863. The trio began setting up a mill in Troy, New York in 1865. The factory contained a number of Holley's innovations that greatly improved productivity over Bessemer's factory in Sheffield, and
2407-549: The United States and to cap the Chrysler Building . After the Nazis seized power in Germany , Krupp supported the regime and was one of many German businesses that profited from slave labor during World War II . Upon the war's end, the head of the company, Alfried Krupp , was tried and convicted as a war criminal for employing prisoners of war, foreign civilians and concentration camp inmates under inhumane conditions in support of
2490-420: The United States. His A Treatise on Ordnance and Armor is an important work on contemporary weapons manufacturing and steel-making practices. In 1862, he visited Bessemer's Sheffield works, and became interested in licensing the process for use in the US. Upon returning to the US, Holley met with two iron producers from Troy, New York , John F. Winslow and John Augustus Griswold , who asked him to return to
2573-407: The bid was abandoned after resistance from Thyssen management and protests by its workers. Nevertheless, Thyssen agreed to merge the two firms' flat steel operations, and Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG was created in 1997 as a jointly owned subsidiary (60% by Thyssen and 40% by Krupp). About 6,300 workers were laid off. Later that year, Krupp and Thyssen announced a full merger, which was completed in 1999 with
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2656-470: The biggest artillery pieces ever fielded by an army during wartime, and weighed almost 1,344 tons. They could fire a 7-ton shell over a distance of 37 kilometers. More crucial to the operations of the German military was Krupp's development of the famed 88 mm anti-aircraft cannon which found use as a notoriously effective anti-tank gun. In an address to the Hitler Youth , Adolf Hitler stated "In our eyes,
2739-452: The blister steel bars were broken into pieces and melted in small crucibles, each containing 20 kg or so. This produced higher quality crucible steel but increased the cost. The Bessemer process reduced the time needed to make lower-grade steel to about half an hour while requiring only the coke needed initially to melt the pig iron. The earliest Bessemer converters produced steel for £7 a long ton , although it initially sold for around £40
2822-434: The blowing air, prevented Bessemer steel from being used for many structural applications. Open-hearth steel was suitable for structural applications. Steel greatly improved the productivity of railroads. Steel rails lasted ten times longer than iron rails. Steel rails, which became heavier as prices fell, could carry heavier locomotives, which could pull longer trains. Steel rail cars were longer and were able to increase
2905-446: The business. In 1992, the company went public for the first time upon merging with Hoesch AG . In 1999, it merged with Thyssen AG to form the industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG . Controversy has not eluded the Krupp company. Being a major weapons supplier to multiple sides throughout various conflicts, it was sometimes blamed for the wars themselves or the degree of carnage that ensued. Friedrich Krupp (1787–1826) launched
2988-578: The cause of this was the lack of trained personnel and investment in technology rather than anything intrinsic to the process itself. For example, one of the major causes of the decline of the giant ironmaking company Bolckow Vaughan of Middlesbrough was its failure to upgrade its technology. The basic process, the Thomas-Gilchrist process, remained in use longer, especially in Continental Europe, where iron ores were of high phosphorus content and
3071-595: The cheaper Bessemer steel. In 1877, Abram Hewitt wrote a letter urging against the use of Bessemer steel in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge . Bids had been submitted for both crucible steel and Bessemer steel; John A. Roebling's Sons submitted the lowest bid for Bessemer steel, but at Hewitt's direction, the contract was awarded to J. Lloyd Haigh Co. Using the Bessemer process, it took between 10 and 20 minutes to convert three to five tons of iron into steel – it would previously take at least
3154-419: The company had a steelmaking capacity of around eight million metric tons and sales of about 28 billion DM (US$ 18.9 billion). The new Krupp had six divisions: steel, engineering, plant construction, automotive supplies, trade, and services. After two years of heavy losses, a modest net profit of 40 million DM (US$ 29.2 million) followed in 1994. In 1997 Krupp attempted a hostile takeover of the larger Thyssen, but
3237-475: The conversion — clay linings may be used when there is little phosphorus in the raw material, and Bessemer himself used ganister sandstone – this is known as the acid Bessemer process. When the phosphorus content is high, dolomite , or sometimes magnesite , linings are required in the basic Bessemer limestone process, see below . In order to produce steel with desired properties, additives such as spiegeleisen (a ferromanganese alloy), can be added to
3320-510: The development of the open hearth furnace . The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten. The modern process is named after its inventor, the Englishman Henry Bessemer , who took out a patent on the process in 1856. The process was said to be independently discovered in 1851 by
3403-508: The district of Handsworth in Sheffield . This process had an enormous impact on the quantity and quality of steel production, but it was unrelated to the Bessemer-type process employing decarburization. The Japanese may have made use of a Bessemer-type process, which was observed by European travellers in the 17th century. The adventurer Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo describes the process in
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3486-498: The earliest center where this was practiced was the great iron-production district along the Henan – Hebei border during the 11th century. In the 15th century, the finery process , another process which shares the air-blowing principle with the Bessemer process, was developed in Europe. In 1740, Benjamin Huntsman developed the crucible technique for steel manufacture, at his workshop in
3569-416: The entire floors of these lavatories. The Tatars and Kirghiz suffered most; they collapsed like flies [from] bad housing, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, overwork and insufficient rest...Countless fleas, bugs and other vermin tortured the inhabitants of these camps..." The survivors finally returned home in the summer of 1945 after their liberation by the allied armies. Krupp industries
3652-585: The family's metal-based activities, building a pioneering steel foundry in Essen in 1811. After his death, his sons Alfred and an unidentified brother operated the business in partnership with their mother. An account cited that, on his deathbed, the elder Krupp confided to Alfred, who was then 14 years old, the secret of steel casting. In 1848, Alfred became the sole owner of the foundry. This next generation Krupp (1812–87), known as "the Cannon King" or as "Alfred
3735-539: The firm. In 1968, the company became an Aktiengesellschaft and ownership was transferred to the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation . In 1999, the Krupp Group merged with its largest competitor, Thyssen AG ; the combined company— ThyssenKrupp , became Germany's fifth-largest firm and one of the largest steel producers in the world. In the early 1980s, the company spun off all its operating activities and
3818-600: The following year. The cable-stayed bridge has wider lanes for road traffic and eliminates its predecessor's vulnerability to ship collisions. Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH ) trading as Krupp , was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany 's premier weapons manufacturer during both world wars . It produced battleships , U-boats , tanks , howitzers , guns , utilities, and hundreds of other commodities. The company also produced steel used to build railroads in
3901-439: The formation of ThyssenKrupp AG. Cromme and Ekkehard Schulz were named co-chief executives of the new company, operating worldwide in three main business areas: steel, capital goods (elevators and industrial equipment), and services (specialty materials, environmental services, mechanical engineering, and scaffolding services). The unexpected victory of Prussia over France (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871) demonstrated
3984-554: The four to whom he refunded the license fees. However, they subsequently rescinded their license in 1858 in return for the opportunity to invest in a partnership with Bessemer and others. This partnership began to manufacture steel in Sheffield from 1858, initially using imported charcoal pig iron from Sweden . This was the first commercial production. A 20% share in the Bessemer patent was also purchased for use in Sweden and Norway by Swedish trader and Consul Göran Fredrik Göransson during
4067-470: The freight to car weight from 1:1 to 2:1. As early as 1895 in the UK it was being noted that the heyday of the Bessemer process was over and that the open hearth method predominated. The Iron and Coal Trades Review said that it was "in a semi-moribund condition. Year after year, it has not only ceased to make progress, but it has absolutely declined." It has been suggested, both at that time and more recently, that
4150-636: The giant Krupp steel works in Essen . Low pay, long hours, frequent bombings, and crowded air raid shelters added to the unpleasantness of poor housing, inadequate heating, limited food, and poor medical care, all compounded by harsh Nazi discipline. In an affidavit provided at the Nuremberg Trials following the war, Dr. Wilhelm Jaeger, the senior doctor for the Krupp slaves, wrote: Sanitary conditions were atrocious. At Kramerplatz only ten children's toilets were available for 1200 inhabitants...Excretion contaminated
4233-572: The growth of the United States as a major world steel producer. Using the Bessemer process, Carnegie Steel was able to reduce the costs of steel railroad rails from $ 100 per ton to $ 50 per ton between 1873 and 1875. The price of steel continued to fall until Carnegie was selling rails for $ 18 per ton by the 1890s. Prior to the opening of Carnegie's Thomson Works, steel output in the United States totaled around 157,000 tons per year. By 1910, American companies were producing 26 million tons of steel annually. William Walker Scranton , manager and owner of
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#17330934733784316-432: The impurities were burned off but just the right amount of carbon remained. However, despite spending tens of thousands of pounds on experiments, he could not find the answer. Certain grades of steel are sensitive to the 78% nitrogen which was part of the air blast passing through the steel. The solution was first discovered by English metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet , who had carried out thousands of experiments in
4399-402: The impurity of the fuel source. Thus, with the advent of this technology, coal began to replace charcoal fuel. The Bessemer process allowed steel to be produced without fuel, using the impurities of the iron to create the necessary heat. This drastically reduced the costs of steel production, but raw materials with the required characteristics could be difficult to find. High-quality steel
4482-486: The late 1880s the manufacture of armaments represented around 50% of Krupp's total output. When Alfred Krupp started with the firm, it had five employees. At his death twenty thousand people worked for Krupp—making it the world's largest industrial company and the largest private company in the German empire . Krupp's had a Great Krupp Building with an exhibition of guns at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. In
4565-453: The main span. The roadway landed on top of the ship, destroying the ship's bridge but causing no casualties. The loss of the bridge made radio communication difficult, as the Swedish pilot had to use a handheld VHF radio. Because of the ice, the ship was unable to launch a boat to get to shore and warn motorists as fog descended on the area. Eight people died driving over the edge before the road on
4648-475: The majority of rail to the new continental railway system. "Nearly all railroads were using Krupp rails, the New York Central , Illinois Central , Delaware and Hudson , Maine Central , Lake Shore and Michigan Southern , Bangor and Aroostook , Great Northern , Boston and Albany , Florida and East Coast , Texas and Pacific , Southern Pacific , and Mexican National ." In 1893, a mechanical engineer by
4731-406: The molten steel once the impurities have been removed. When the required steel had been formed, it was poured into ladles and then transferred into moulds while the lighter slag was left behind. The conversion process, called the "blow", was completed in approximately 20 minutes. During this period, the progress of the oxidation of the impurities was judged by the appearance of the flame issuing from
4814-406: The mouth of the converter. The modern use of photoelectric methods of recording the characteristics of the flame greatly aided the blower in controlling final product quality. After the blow, the liquid metal was recarburized to the desired point and other alloying materials were added, depending on the desired product. A Bessemer converter could treat a "heat" (batch of hot metal) of 5 to 30 tons at
4897-456: The name of Rudolf Diesel approached Gustav with a patent for a "new kind of internal combustion engine employing autoignition of the fuel". He also included his text " Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors ". Four years later, the first 3- horsepower diesel engine was produced. The common English pronunciations are / k r ʊ p / or / k r ʌ p / . The common German pronunciations are [kʁʊp] or [kɾʊp] . Thus
4980-459: The open-hearth process was not able to remove all phosphorus; almost all inexpensive construction steel in Germany was produced with this method in the 1950s and 1960s. It was eventually superseded by basic oxygen steelmaking . In the U.S., commercial steel production using this method stopped in 1968. It was replaced by processes such as the basic oxygen (Linz–Donawitz) process , which offered better control of final chemistry. The Bessemer process
5063-462: The owners gave a successful public exhibition in 1867. The Troy factory attracted the attention of the Pennsylvania Railroad , which wanted to use the new process to manufacture steel rail. It funded Holley's second mill as part of its Pennsylvania Steel subsidiary. Between 1866 and 1877, the partners were able to license a total of 11 Bessemer steel mills. One of the investors they attracted
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#17330934733785146-402: The patent for his process to four ironmasters , for a total of £27,000, but the licensees failed to produce the quality of steel he had promised—it was "rotten hot and rotten cold", according to his friend, William Clay —and he later bought them back for £32,500. His plan had been to offer the licenses to one company in each of several geographic areas, at a royalty price per ton that included
5229-474: The problem and constructed a Bessemer plant called C&T Steel. Unusual for the era, he provided social services for his workers, including subsidized housing and health and retirement benefits. The company began to make steel cannons in the 1840s—especially for the Russian, Turkish, and Prussian armies. Low non-military demand and government subsidies meant that the company specialized more and more in weapons: by
5312-589: The process is likely derived from accounts of other Europeans who had traveled to Japan. Wagner believes that the Japanese process may have been similar to the Bessemer process, but cautions that alternative explanations are also plausible. In the early to mid-1850s, the American inventor William Kelly experimented with a method similar to the Bessemer process. Wagner writes that Kelly may have been inspired by techniques introduced by Chinese ironworkers hired by Kelly in 1854. The claim that both Kelly and Bessemer invented
5395-454: The regular German spelling pronunciation , [kʁʊp] or [kɾʊp] . The documentary's narration used the English / uː / equivalent, / k r uː p / . This would seem to indicate that the short u is a spelling pronunciation , but it is nonetheless the most common treatment. Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before
5478-409: The same process remains controversial. When Bessemer's patent for the process was reported by Scientific American , Kelly responded by writing a letter to the magazine. In the letter, Kelly states that he had previously experimented with the process and claimed that Bessemer knew of Kelly's discovery. He wrote that "I have reason to believe my discovery was known in England three or four years ago, as
5561-579: The scale and speed of production of this vital raw material. The process also decreased the labor requirements for steel-making. Before it was introduced, steel was far too expensive to make bridges or the framework for buildings and thus wrought iron had been used throughout the Industrial Revolution . After the introduction of the Bessemer process, steel and wrought iron became similarly priced, and some users, primarily railroads, turned to steel. Quality problems, such as brittleness caused by nitrogen in
5644-469: The superiority of breech-loaded steel cannon over muzzle-loaded brass. Krupp artillery was a significant factor at the battles of Wissembourg and Gravelotte , and was used during the siege of Paris. Krupp's anti-balloon guns were the first anti-aircraft guns. Prussia fortified the major North German ports with batteries that could hit French ships from a distance of 4,000 yd (3.7 km; 2.3 mi), inhibiting invasion. Krupp's construction of
5727-490: The thousands, as detailed in the book The Arms of Krupp . Nazi Germany kept two million French POWs captured in 1940 as forced laborers throughout the war. They added compulsory (and volunteer) workers from occupied nations, especially in metal factories. The shortage of volunteers led the Vichy government of France to deport workers to Germany, where they constituted 15% of the labor force by August 1944. The largest number worked in
5810-472: The time, steel was used to make only small items like cutlery and tools, but was too expensive for cannons. Starting in January 1855, he began working on a way to produce steel in the massive quantities required for artillery and by October he filed his first patent related to the Bessemer process. He patented the method a year later in 1856. William Kelley was awarded priority patent in 1857. Bessemer licensed
5893-592: Was Andrew Carnegie , who saw great promise in the new steel technology after a visit to Bessemer in 1872, and saw it as a useful adjunct to his existing businesses, the Keystone Bridge Company and the Union Iron Works. Holley built the new steel mill for Carnegie, and continued to improve and refine the process. The new mill, known as the Edgar Thomson Steel Works , opened in 1875, and started
5976-460: Was prosecuted after the end of war for its support to the Nazi regime and use of forced labour. Krupp's trucks were once again produced after the war, but so as to minimize the negative wartime connotations of the Krupp name they were sold as " Südwerke " trucks from 1946 until 1954, when the Krupp name was considered rehabilitated. Krupp also used the name "Mustang" for some of their products, causing
6059-512: Was Turkey, which purchased 3,943 Krupp guns of various types between 1854 and 1912. The second-largest customer in the Balkans was Romania, which purchased 1,450 guns in the same period, while Bulgaria purchased 517 pieces, Greece 356, Austria-Hungary 298, Montenegro 25, and Serbia just 6 guns. Krupp produced most of the artillery of the Imperial German Army, including its heavy siege guns:
6142-410: Was a German decoy-site of the Krupp steel works in Essen . During World War II, it was designed to divert Allied airstrikes from the actual production site of the arms factory. Krupp Industries employed workers conscripted by the Nazi regime from across Europe. These workers were initially paid, but as Nazi fortunes declined they were kept as slave workers . They were abused, beaten, and starved by
6225-470: Was also contracted in the mid-1960s to construct the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope , which, from 1972 to 2000 was the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. Krupp was the first company to patent a seamless, reliable and strong enough railway tyre for rail freight. Krupp received original contracts in the United States and enjoyed a period of technological superiority while also contributing
6308-547: Was burnt for each ton of steel produced. Such steel when rolled into bars was sold at £50 to £60 (approximately £3,390 to £4,070 in 2008) a long ton . The most difficult and work-intensive part of the process, however, was the production of wrought iron done in finery forges in Sweden. This process was refined in the 18th century with the introduction of Benjamin Huntsman 's crucible steel -making techniques, which added an additional three hours firing time and required additional large quantities of coke. In making crucible steel,
6391-417: Was far too small for the industrial-scale production needed. In 1862 Göransson built a new factory for his Högbo Iron and Steel Works company on the shore of Lake Storsjön, where the town of Sandviken was founded. The company was renamed Sandviken's Ironworks, continued to grow and eventually became Sandvik in the 1970s. Alexander Lyman Holley contributed significantly to the success of Bessemer steel in
6474-482: Was inexpensive. Use of electric arc furnace technology competed favourably with the Bessemer process resulting in its obsolescence. Basic oxygen steelmaking is essentially an improved version of the Bessemer process (decarburization by blowing oxygen as gas into the heat rather than burning the excess carbon away by adding oxygen carrying substances into the heat). The advantages of pure oxygen blast over air blast were known to Henry Bessemer, but 19th-century technology
6557-414: Was inspired by a conversation with Napoleon III in 1854 pertaining to the steel required for better artillery. Bessemer claimed that it "was the spark which kindled one of the greatest revolutions that the present century had to record, for during my solitary ride in a cab that night from Vincennes to Paris, I made up my mind to try what I could to improve the quality of iron in the manufacture of guns." At
6640-449: Was made by the reverse process of adding carbon to carbon-free wrought iron , usually imported from Sweden . The manufacturing process, called the cementation process , consisted of heating bars of wrought iron together with charcoal for periods of up to a week in a long stone box. This produced blister steel . The blister steel was put in a crucible with wrought iron and melted, producing crucible steel . Up to 3 tons of expensive coke
6723-449: Was restructured as a holding company. VDM Nickel-Technologie was bought in 1989, for high-performance materials, mechanical engineering and electronics. That year, Gerhard Cromme became chairman and chief executive of Krupp. After its hostile takeover of rival steelmaker Hoesch AG in 1990–1991, the companies were merged in 1992 as "Fried. Krupp AG Hoesch Krupp," under Cromme. After closing one main steel plant and laying off 20,000 employees,
6806-598: Was senile and incapable of standing trial, and the Nuremberg Military Tribunal convicted Alfried as a war criminal in the Krupp Trial for "plunder" and for his company's use of slave labor . It sentenced him to 12 years in prison and ordered him to sell 75% of his holdings. In 1951, as the Cold War developed and no buyer came forward, the U.S. occupation authorities released him, and in 1953 he resumed control of
6889-418: Was so fast (10–20 minutes for a heat) that it allowed little time for chemical analysis or adjustment of the alloying elements in the steel. Bessemer converters did not remove phosphorus efficiently from the molten steel; as low-phosphorus ores became more expensive, conversion costs increased. The process permitted only limited amount of scrap steel to be charged, further increasing costs, especially when scrap
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