Invention and Engineering

Creusot steam hammer

The Creusot steam hammer is a giant steam hammer built in 1877 by Schneider and Co. in the French industrial town of Le Creusot. With the ability to deliver a blow of up to 100 tons, the Creusot hammer was the most powerful in the world until 1891, when the Bethlehem Iron Company of the United States purchased patent rights from Schneider and built a steam hammer of almost identical design but capable of delivering a 125-ton blow. The Creusot hammer is no longer operational, and is a tourist attraction in the town of Le Creusot, where it was built. With few remaining rivals, the hammer today is once again the largest of its kind in the world. The Creusot steam hammer was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1981.

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See also

• ▸Economy of Germany
• ▸Griffin Mission One
• ▸Barber's pole

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