The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

164 MESSES. SCHNEIDER AND CO.’S WORKS. could be relied on ; to détermine the best inethods of' making the most suitable steel ; and to define the conditions which that metal had to fulfil. Messrs. Schneider and Co.’s works had been selected for this important investigation, as their products had even at tliat time early acquired a great reputation throughoub Europe. Moreover, the works possessed very complété appliances for the manufac- ture of the liighest qualities of steel, as well as efficient plant for making and finishing tlie smaller natures of ørdnance. The experiments were carried out under the personal supervision of Mr. Schneider, and were supervised by a Commission of Artillery Officers appointée! by the Government. The very prolongée! and exhaustive in- vestigation resulted in a report in favour of steel, and in a first order being given to Messrs. Schneider and Co. for six guns : two of 75 millimétrés calibre, two of 95 milli- métrés, and two of 78.6 millimétrés. The guns of 78.6 millimétrés were entirely completed at Creusot; those of 75 and 95 millimétrés were finished there, all but the rifling and the vent-bushing, which were done at one of the Government arsenals. Exceptfor the very brief period when Messrs. Schneider and Co. had, under pressure of time, and with relatively imperfeet appliances, constructed field artillery during 1870, no ordnance had been manufacture«! at Creusot since the old days of bronze and cast iron. So that the commence- ment of their great gun factory dates from the year 1872, and grew out of the small Government order intrusted to them in that year. It is. worth mentioning, in reference to those first six trial guns, that the perfection of the workmanship called for much admiration, no less than the excellent quality of the material employée! ; the breech mechanism attracted considérable attention from the faet that al parts were made interchangeable. The period between the date of the first experiments in 1872-3 and 1875 was, comparatively, one of trial, for during those two years experiments were continually carried on at Creusot. Messrs. Schneider and Co. commenced the construction of guns as a regulär departinent of their business in 1875, when the experimental period was over, and a large and very complété gun-making plant was installée!. Simultaneously with the development of heavy artillery, advanced the improved construction of armour- plates, in which, as we have already seen, Messrs. Schneider and Co. took a leading part, especially in the production I of all-steel plates, the first of these being tested at Spezia in the year 1876. One brauch of this industry grew, later on, into the construction of armoured turrets for war vessels, and of chilied cast plates for land fortifications ; o£ such armour Messrs. Schneider and Co. designed and inanufactured a great variety of types, with the same good results that attended their preliminary efforts at gun- making. They secured many of the ordets for the first chilied cast-iron turrets for the French Corps of Engineers, and somewhat later they executed a large amount of work for the same body, such as disappearing turrets and other fortification protective work ; caponiers, cupolas, &c. Their ever-inereasing means of production enabled them to supply Foreign Governments as well as that of France. Among the more important Orders executed for abroad æay be inentioned the turrets and other protective work sup- plied by them to Belgium, Roumania, and Holland, as well as turrets for ships to the Spanish and other navies. As may be readily supposed, the present gun-making plant of Creusot is now very different from what it was in 1875; we have already referred briefly to some of the changes thai have taken place in this department since it was inaugurated, and we shall now proceed to describe these changes in detail. But it should be mentioned here, that, as in the armour-plate and other departments of the Creusot works, so in the gun factory, the developments and iinprovements, alike in design, material, and means of construction, have been steadily constant, so that Creusot has always kept to tlie front in the manufacture of ordnance. The most important step recently taken by Messrs. Schneider and Co., in connection with their manufacture of ordnance, has been the acquisition of the large and well- equipped gun factory at Havre, once belonging to the Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée, which was laid out by Mr. G. Canet for tlie manufacture of his well-known system of artillery. Messrs. Schneider and Co. liave since greatly improved the equipment of their Havre works, by adding a considérable number of new appliances and machine tools. In making this important addition to their means of production, Messrs. Schneider and Co. secured the co- opération of Mr. Canet, who has now the Control of the artillery departments both at Creusot and Havre. The Schneider and Canet systems of gun-making are also combined, under the name of the Schneider-Canet system.