Page 40 - february

HISTORY

Russian metallurgists
Continuation
Russian metallurgists marked the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries with many
remarkable inventions and important innovations. The Russian mining industry has reached
enormous power. On the eve of the onset of the new century, in 1798, from only two of our
ports Petersburg and Arkhangelsk, ships took abroad more than 2 million 700 thousand poods
of metal mined by the labor of the Russian people.
The army of workers in Russian mines and factories was also huge. By the beginning of
the 19th century, it numbered almost half a million artisans and registered peasants. They were
serfs, not free people. The power of the Russian mining industry was based on their labor, sweat
and blood. Meanwhile, in Western Europe, and first of all in England, a new, capitalist industry
appeared, based on the use of machines, on the labor of hired workers who came to the factory
not under direct compulsion, but for the sake of earnings.
The capitalist industry grew and matured rapidly. The number of machines in European
factories and plants increased day by day.
However, in Russia, as before, the serf was the main worker. The inventions of the Russian
people, often more important than their European contemporaries were rejected. Why did
Russian breeders have to spend money on cars, when there are so many "free" hands in the
country!
The industry of Russia began to decline, lagging behind the West European. Especially
far behind was the mining industry, which was entirely based on the
merciless exploitation of serfs.
Already in the first decade of the 19th century, the metallurgical
industry in Russia lagged behind the British; then it was overtaken
by the French, American. And yet, in these most difficult conditions,
when the autocracy and the feudal landowners strove with all their
might to fetter the active forces of our people, Russian technicians,
including metallurgists, continued to create as before, remained
pioneers of technology.
In the first decades of the 19th century, Russian metallurgists
made a great contribution to improving the methods of obtaining
and processing steel. In Russia, steel was mainly obtained from the
so-called "way". This method was very old. It was born shortly after
the appearance of blast furnaces.
Let us recall that when the bulk of the metal began to be
mined in the form of brittle cast iron, metallurgists had to look for
ways to transform cast iron into ductile malleable metal. And they
quickly found this way.

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