Origins
In 1836, Joseph-Eugene Schneider and his brother Adolphe purchased a derelict ironworks in Burgundy, near the town of Le Creusot, and founded Schneider Brothers & Co. (later renamed Schneider & Co.). Two years later the company produced the first steam locomotive to be built in France. Eugene Schneider along with the company's chief engineer, François Bourdon, developed the world's first true steam hammer at the Schneider works in 1841. Schneider and Co. went on to build 110 steam hammers of all sizes between 1843 and 1867, 26 of which were employed by the firm itself. As the jobs grew more demanding, the hammers grew correspondingly larger, and the Schneiders eventually saw a need for a hammer of colossal proportions.
The Creusot steam hammer was completed in 1877, and with its ability to deliver a blow of up to 100 tons, eclipsed the previous record set by the German firm Krupp, whose steam hammer "Fritz" with its 50 ton blow had held the title as the world's most powerful steam hammer since 1861. In celebration of this technological achievement, a full scale wooden replica of the Creusot hammer was built and displayed at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1878.
Read more about this topic: Creusot Steam Hammer
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