LE CREUSOT

industrial town, Sane-et-Loire dpartement, Bourgogne rgion, east-central France. It is located about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Dijon. In 1782 a foundry and blast furnaces, using coal instead of wood for the first time in France, were built at Le Creusot. Shortly afterward, John Wilkinson, an English ironmaster, built coke-burning blast furnaces and began producing arms with machinery brought from England. The town's metallurgical industry subsequently declined until 1836, when the brothers Adolphe and Eugne Schneider founded the Socit des Forges et Ateliers du Creusot (Creusot Forge and Workshop Company), which produced the first French locomotives as well as armour plate. Iron is no longer manufactured in Le Creusot, but the working of steel into fabricated products for rail transportation, agriculture, and the military is still of importance. The Schneider company, which merged in 1970 with the Ateliers et Forges de la Loire (Workshop and Forge Company of the Loire), is an important French firm producing heavy mechanical equipment and specialized steel. Le Creusot has been one of the chief armaments-producing centres of Europe, and cast-iron cookware bearing the city's name is sold worldwide. Pop. (1990) 28,909.