e necessary before all to increase the power of
the steam hammer. The Creusot establishment, which endowed metallurgy
with this valuable machine, had allowed itself to be eclipsed, not by
the number (for it had 57), but by the dimensions of the largest one.
In 1875, the Krupp works constructed one of 50 tons, and their example
was followed at Perm, St. Petersburg, and Woolwich. It was then
that Mr. Henry Schneider put in execution a bold project that he had
studied with his father, that of constructing a 100 ton steam hammer,
along with the gigantic accessories necessary (Fig. 2). It became
necessary to erect a building apart for its reception. This structure
covers a surface of one and three-quarter roods, and reaches a height
of 98 feet in the center. As for the hammer, imagine uprights 25
feet in height, having the shape of the letter A, surmounted with a
cylinder 19 1/2 feet in length and of a section of 31/2 square yards.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE CREUSOT ONE HUNDRED TON STEAM HAMMER.]

The piston which moves in this cylinder, under a pressure of 5
atmospheres, is capable of lifting a weight of 100 tons. The hammer,
which is fixed to this piston by a rod, has therefore an ascensional
force of 88,000 pounds. It can be raised 16 feet above the anvil, and
this gives it a power three and a third times greater than that of the
Prussian hammer. Large guns can therefore be made in France just as
well as in Germany.

This enormous mass is balanced in space at the will of one man, who,
by means of a lever, opens and closes two valves without the least
effort. This colossal hammer required an anvil worthy of it. This
weighs 720 tons, and rests upon granite in the center of 196 feet of
masonry.

The hammer is surrounded with four furnaces heated by gas, and duty
is done for each of these by steam cranes capable of lifting 350,000
pounds. These cranes take the glowing block from the furnace, place
it upon the anvil, and turn it over on every side at the will of the
foreman. Under this hammer a cannon is forged as if it were a mere
bolt. The piece is merely rough-shaped upon the anvil, and a metallic
car running upon a 36 foot track carries it to the adjusting shop.
There the cannon is turned, bored, and rifled, and nothing remains but
to temper it, that is to say, to plunge it into a bath after it has
been heated white hot. For this purpose an enormous ditch has been dug
in which there is a cylindrical furnace, and alon