Friedrich Krupp

Friedrich Carl Krupp (1787 to 1826) was a German steel manufacturer from Essen and the founder of the Krupp family business, which became one of Europe's great industrial empires and is now part of ThyssenKrupp. Raised by his grandmother after his father died, he worked with the engineer Gottlob Jacobs at the Sterkrade Works on making cast steel, a process then closely guarded in England. In 1810 he founded a small forging plant near Essen, and in 1815 formed a partnership with Friedrich Nicolai to produce cast steel for uses such as mint dies and button stamps. Demand stayed too thin to keep the works busy, and he ended his life in a laborer's cottage near the plant. His widow Therese took over the business, and he passed the cast steel secret to his son Alfred, who made it succeed.