Pages from the History of the Zlatoust Prince-Michael Plant and the Samples of Its Products in the Collection of the Mining Museum of St. Petersburg Mining University

Abstract

The paper considers the history of the Zlatoust Prince-Michael Plant (“Knyaze-Mikhailovskaya fabrika”), the first steel-gun enterprise in Russia, where P. M. Obukhov, a great Russian metallurgist and graduate of Mining University, created the Russian gun steel, and reviews and analyzes the Plant’s products deposited at the Mining Museum of St. Petersburg Mining University. Among other things, the article analyzes the role of Obukhov and N. V. Vorontsov, another renowned Mining University graduate who founded the gun-steel plant in Perm, in the creation of this plant. Particular attention is given to the Prince-Michael Plant’s role as a laboratory for making the special Obukhov steel used for manufacturing the first Russian steel cannon and gun barrels for Berdan rifles. The history of the collaboration between the Mining Museum and the Zlatoust Plant, under the auspices of which the Prince-Michael Plant was created in 1859, began in 1819 when, by order of the Mining Department, the best samples of the Plant’s products began to be regularly sent to the Museum. The article reviews the Mining Museum exhibits made from the Obukhov steel: gun barrels and samples of gun steel as well as the tools for making bladed weapons. These items were intended for the 14th All-Russia Industrial Exhibition held in St. Petersburg in 1870, Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition held in 1872, and 1873 Vienna Worldʼs Fair. An important part of this work is the analysis of historical context in which the making and development of weapon manufacturing at the Prince-Michael Plant occurred.