gratuitously.

These benefits are not addressed to ingrates, as was proved by the profound sorrow that reigned in the little city when the death of the benefactor of Creusot was learned.—Science et Nature.

LE CREUSOT.

The members of the American Gun Foundry Board visited these works in 1883, and give the following in their report: The most important steel works in France are situated at Le Creusot, and bear the name of the location in which they are situated. These works have advanced year by year in importance and in magnitude since their purchase by Mr. Eugene Schneider.

This gentleman's death, in 1875, was a source of mourning to the whole town, the inhabitants of which looked up to him as a father. The grateful people have erected to his memory a monument in the market square.

Under the administration of his son, Mr. Henry Schneider, the fame of the products of the works has been enhanced, and the proportions of the establishment have been much increased. The whole number of workmen now employed here and at other points amounts to 15,000; and it is the great center of industry of the adjoining region. At no other place in the world is steel handled in such masses.

It would be foreign to the purpose of this report to dwell on the many objects of commerce which are supplied from these works, but it is safe to say that no proposed work can be of such magnitude as to exceed the resources of the establishment.

For the preparation of metal for cannon and armor-plates Le Creusot is thoroughly equipped. The iron is produced on the premises from the purest imported ores, and the manufacture of the steel is carried on by the most approved application of the open-hearth system with the Siemens furnace; the chemical and mechanical tests are such as to satisfy the most exacting demands of careful government officials; and the executive ability apparent in all the departments and the evident condition of discipline that pervades the whole establishment inspire confidence in the productions of the labor.

The capacity for casting steel is represented by seven open-hearth furnaces of 18 tons each, equal to 126 tons; and the process of casting large ingots is a model of order and security. Ladles capable of holding the contents of one furnace, mounted upon platform cars, are successively filled at a previously determined interval of time and run on railways to a convenient position over the mould; before the first ladle is exhausted the supply from the succeeding one has commenced to run, and so on to the completion of the casting, the supply to the mould being uninterrupted during the entire process. The precision with which the several ladles are brought into position in succession makes it entirely unnecessary to provide a common reservoir into which all the furnaces may discharge. By this process the casting of a 45 ton ingot, which was witnessed by the Board, was effected in 23 minutes.

The process of tempering the gun-tubes was also witnessed by the Board. The excavation of the pit is, as at St. Chamond, 15 meters deep, with the furnace at one end and the oil tank (100 tons) at the other. One side of the upright furnace is constructed in the form of a door, which, by a convenient arrangement for swinging, is made to turn on its hinges. Thus, when the tube is raised to the right temperature, it is seized by the traveling crane, the door of the furnace swung open, and the tube at once advanced to the tank in which it is immersed.

All tubes are immersed in oil the second time, but at a temperature much below that to which they are raised at the first immersion. This process constitutes the annealing after tempering.

The manufacture of steel-armor plates is a specialty of Le Creusot, which is engaged in an active competition with the manufacturers of compound armor. Plates up to 60 centimeters in thickness and 3 meters wide are forged here; they are tempered after forging, but what subsequent treatment they