The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

XXI. —SHIP AND BRIDGE BUILDING History.—The shipbuilding and bridge-construction yard belonging to Messrs. Schneider and Co. is situated at Chalon-sur-Saône, 40 kilometres (25 miles) distant from Creusot, though it forms a part of the Works. Messrs. Schneider established this yard in 1839. Dür- ing the first four years (from 1839 to 1843), there were not more than 40 or 50 workmen employée!, as boiler- makers, rivetters, carpenters, smiths, labourera, &c. The tools were of a primitive kind, and consistée! almost en- tirely of punching and shearing machines, worked by hand. There were but two buildings, a small shed covering the machine tools, and a house, the ground floor of which was occupied by the two forges, the first floor containirig the manager’s office and the foreman’s lodging. At that time the yard was used exclusively for the building of iron boats, those first completed being the “Allobroge,” “ Ville de Turin,” “ Citis,” &c., and this faet caused the yard to be styled the “ Bateau de fer,” a name under which it is often now called in the district. In 1843 the yard acquirecl more importance, Messrs. Schneider and Co. having put down a 10 borse-power steam engine and machine tools worked mechanically, such as punching and shearing machines, lathes, &c. Besides this, the number of forges was in- creased. Very shortly after, the company launched the first tilg', “Le Griffon,” which was built for the Saône navi- gation ; then followed larger boats for service on the Rhône —“L’Aigle du Rhin,” “La Foudre,” “L’Ouragan,” “Le Mississippi,” and “Le Missouri;”—and later, other tug-boats for the Saône, “Le Vengeur,” “La Ville d’Autun,” “La Ville de Mâcon,” &c. The construction of the early French railways greatly aided the development of this départaient of Messrs. Schneider and Co.’s works, owing to the fortunate circum- stance that Chalon was ai that time the terminus of the line from Paris. From 1847, when the Paris train used to stop at Chalon, until 1854, when the line was carried as far as Lyons, the Chalon yard enjoyed a most flourishing period. Messrs. Schneider and Co. then built ail the large transport boats for traffic on the Rhône, such as “ L’Océan,” “ La Méditerranée,” “ Le Mistral,” “ Le Sirocco,” “ Le Crocodile,” “ Le Marsouin,” &c. ; the grapnel-boats “ La Ville d’Arles,” “ La Ville de Beaucaire,” and “ La Ville de Valence,” which served to help the barges over the rapids; and the passenger boats “Le Zéphir,” “L’Eole,” “ L’Eclaireur,” &c. Besides these they built varions pleasure boats, among others “ La Seine,” for the French Emperor ; “ L’Ariel ” and “ Le Dauphin,” which were ordered by the Pasha of Egypt DEPARTMENT, CHALON SUR SAONE. for navigation on the Nile. The reputation Messrs. Schneider and Co. had obtained in boat construction spread far and wide, and they executed important Orders for navigation on the Po and the Danube. The plant was increased periodically, in Order to keep it in relation with the work ordered; in 1853 a new'machine-tool shop was built, and in the following year it was provided with a 30 horse-power engine. During the above brilliant period of ship construction, the French railways had developed in a marked degree, and Messrs. Schneider and Co. devised means of giving to this department of their Works a still greater extension, by undertaking bridge-building on a large scale. The first bridges were built in 1853 for the Paris-Lyons Railway Company, and erected near the Lyon-Vaise railway station. During the ten years from 1853 to 1863, there were built 450 bridges for French and foreign railways : the Paris-Lyons Railway ; the Besançon, Saint-Dizier, Ardennes, Strasbourg, and Brives lines ; the Savenay to Lorient Railway ; the Doi'dogne lines ; the Lorient to Quimper, Auray to Napoléon-Ville, Rhône to Mont-Cenis, Lausanne to Fribourg Railways ; in Italy, the Civita- Vecchia bridge ; in Spain and Portugal, bridges over the Tagus, &c. During this sanie period they constructed other im- portant bridge work, such as the Cherbourg swing bridge for the French Admiralty in 1858, the Brest swing bridge in 1859 for the “Ponts et Chaussées;” the latter con- struction, being a most remarkable one for the time, will be referred to later. The increasing development in the railways brought to Messrs. Schneider and Co. work of another kind, in the shape of locomotive tenders, which bave always been one of the specialities of their Chalon department. From 1853 to 1863 they manufacturée! 460 bodies of tenders for the Lyons, West of France, North of Spain, Saragossa, Seville to Cordoba, Lombardy, Venetian, and other railways. Another important speciality, due to the same cause, is the construction of iron buildings ; this department completed the goods station of Bercy in 1858, the re- pairing and maintenance shops of the Rome station in 1859, the Civita-Vecchia railway station, that of Alicante, &c. In 1863 the motive force in the Chalon works amounted to 50 horse-power. During the following years, bridge-building continuée! to fiourish. In 1864 and 1865, thirty-eight bridges were constructed for the Haute-Marne Canal; in 1866, the Rio de Janeiro roller-bridge; in 1868 and 1869, a complété