Page 64 - June

HISTORY
Russian metallurgists

Continuation

But Obukhov, as we know, did not set
himself the goal of producing ordinary steel.
He was driven by the desire to get metal of
excellent quality.
A little more than a year has passed
since the beginning of Obukhov's activities
at the Zlatoust plant, and the results of his
work have already attracted the attention of
specialists. In December 1855, even a special
commission arrived at the plant to make sure
on the spot of the success of the metallurgist.
The commission arranged comparative
tests of rifle barrels made of cast steel from
Obukhov and barrels of German, Krupp-

The inscription engraved on the barrel of made manufacture. With an enhanced
Obukhov's famous steel cannon. powder charge, the Krupp barrels exploded
on the eighth shot, the Obukhov barrels on
the fourteenth.
The enthusiastic response of the commission and with it the project of a broad organization
of the steel-cannon business, proposed by Obukhov, were immediately sent to St. Petersburg.
There, however, they were in no hurry, and only in May 1857 the minister got acquainted
with the Obukhov project, who first decided to conduct one more test - on a large scale.
The triumph of Obukhov steel over foreign steel was not limited to victory in the tests
of rifle barrels. Other facts convincingly spoke about the superiority of the Russian invention.
Obukhov's tool steel easily cut English, of the same hardening. Plows from English steel were
trimmed with 50 - 80 skins, from Obukhov - 2,000 - 2,500.
In 1857, Obukhov was granted a privilege for the method he invented for the production
of high-quality steel, and only in 1859, when the necessary funds were released, the production
of an experimental batch of steel guns began.
Having fallen from the offices into the energetic hands of the inventor himself, who was
put in charge of the new production, things went faster.
In March 1860, the first steel cannons were already cast. After a test shooting in Zlatoust,
they were sent to St. Petersburg.

64 Stanochniy park