Being the armchair historian that I am (Have you ever studied the history of armchairs?? Fascinating…) in all seriousness, I have some questions that perhaps some of our astute railroad historians can answer for me.
I study WWII, pretty much in depth, and one cannot study that subject, without running across the name of Krupp. Krupp was the premier steel maker in Europe throughout the late 1800’s through the 1960’s, as well as Germany’s armorer since about 1866. Alfred Krupp invented/perfected the breech-loading "guhstahl kannonen" (cast-steel cannon) in 1854. They were used in combat, for the first time in 1866, and were used to defeat France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
How does Krupp figure into American railroads? A fair portion of the rails used on America’s first railroads in the 1850’s came from Krupp, as well as from Armstrong in England, but the majority came from Krupp. Alfred Krupp was the inventor of the “seamless railroad tire”, prior to that, “railroad tires” were welded (how, I don’t know). In fact, Krupp sold more of those wheels to American and European customers, than he did to the Prussian State Railway, because of his squabbling with one August von der Heydte, the Prussian Bank Minister, and, as I understand it, responsible for issuing patents. The use of kruppstahl rails and such on North American railroads is fairly well documented, well, fairly well documented over in Europe, that is. Most of the source material (which is not with me, as I am at work) that I have documenting this comes from European sources, as well as the book “The Arms of Krupp” By William Manchester.
Now, I have yet to find an American source that backs this up. Perhaps I havent’ looked hard enough. My dad was a big railroad buff in his lifetime, and he had a pretty good collection of books, as well as my younger brother. In