John Hughes (businessman)
John James Hughes (born June 25, 1815 in Merthyr Tydfil , Wales , † June 17, 1889 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Welsh engineer and businessman and founder of a metallurgical factory in the Ukrainian city of Jusowka (Юзовка), since 1924 Stalino and since 1961 Donetsk .
Life
Hughes' father was an engineer and manager of a metal works in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. He started his career under the supervision of his father. At the age of 28 he bought a shipyard and at 36 he owned a foundry in Newport . In the mid-1850s he moved to the Millwall Iron Works , a rolling mill in the London borough of Millwall , as an engineer . There he designed, among other things, steel armor for warships. In the late 1850s he became the executive director of Millwall Iron Works . In 1864 he constructed a gun carriage for heavy cannons, which was used by the Royal Navy and the navy of other European nations.
The Russian Empire was also interested in the weapons technology developed by Hughes. In 1869 he accepted an order from Tsar Alexander II to build a steelworks north of the Azov Sea for southern Russia. Because rich coal deposits had been found there in the Dnieper and Donets basins. Hughes found the investors he needed for the new company and, at the age of 55, embarked for the Sea of Azov with eight ships in 1870. Not only were the necessary machinery on board, but also - and more importantly - skilled workers from Welsh and English ironworks . Not far from the small village of Alexandrowka, he founded a metallurgical factory on the Kalmius River . The first pig iron was extracted in 1872. The ultra-modern factory had eight blast furnaces and could be operated continuously. The settlement that arose around the plant was named after the founder of the plant Hughesowka or Jusowka (Юзовка). Like industry, the town developed rapidly. After the October Revolution , the city was renamed Stalino in honor of Stalin in 1924 . The Soviet Union's hunger for steel brought the region further upswing, the Donbass (a merger of Donetsky Basejn, Donetsk Basin) became a socialist myth, after the destruction of the Second World War , the city, which is now called Donetsk, was rebuilt extensively and with Soviet character . Jusowka is considered to be the nucleus of the industrial area in Donbass.
John Hughes was married to Augusta James from Llanover, Monmouthshire . Four sons were born to them.
John Hughes died in June 1889 on a business trip to Saint Petersburg .
literature
(in order of publication)
- Susan Edwards: Hughesovka. A Welsh Enterprise in Imperial Russia . Glamorgan Record Office, Cardiff 1992.
- Norman Roberts: The Neglected Man: John Hughes of Newport and Millwall . In: Welsh History Review . Vol. 21 (2003), pp. 675-703.
- Colin Thomas: Dreaming a city. From Wales to Ukraine . Ylolfa, Talybont 2009. ISBN 978-1-84771-124-3 .
- Roderick Heather: The Iron Tsar. The Life and Times of John Hughes . Penpress, Brighton 2010. ISBN 978-1-907499-17-3 .
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Rudolf Hermann: Mr. Hughes and the iron heart of Ukraine , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 16, 2014, p. 7.
- ^ Annie Gwen Jones: The Steel City . BBC radio broadcast, broadcast on December 15, 1943. Manuscript ( Memento of the original of March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hughes, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hughes, John James (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Welsh manufacturer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 25, 1815 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Merthyr Tydfil , Wales |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 17, 1889 |
| Place of death | St. Petersburg |