Creusot steam hammer, Industrial heritage monument in Le Creusot, France.

The Creusot steam hammer is a 21-metre-tall forging machine with a 100-tonne falling mass, built by Schneider & Cie in 1877. Its four hollow cast-iron legs, 10.25 metres high, support a 30-tonne table and a 6-metre steam cylinder. The anvil rests on a one-metre oak bed above masonry sunk 11 metres to bedrock. A curved plate on the structure reads "SCHNEIDER & Cie", "CREUSOT" and "1876".

Schneider and Co. completed the hammer in 1877; its first blow fell on 23 September 1877. With a 100-ton hammer it surpassed Krupp's 50-ton "Fritz" of 1861, and a full-size wooden replica stood at the Pavillon Schneider of the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition. Bethlehem Steel bought the patent rights and in 1891 built a near-identical 125-ton hammer; the Creusot machine stayed in service until 1930.

The hammer became the emblem of Le Creusot, and a full-scale wooden replica greeted visitors at the Pavillon Schneider of the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition. In demonstrations of its accuracy, it could cork a bottle without breaking it, crack a nut without damaging the kernel, or tap a watch glass without shattering it.

The hammer stands outdoors at the southern entrance of Le Creusot, place du 8 mai 1945, where it was reassembled in 1969. Visitors walk around its base and look up at the 21-metre frame, the riveted legs and the cylinder; the anvil block and foundation lie below ground level. The 1876 plate reading "SCHNEIDER & Cie, CREUSOT" is on the upper column.

In 1878, during demonstrations at Schneider & Cie, a visiting writer noted that the hammer could cork a bottle without breaking it, crack a nut without damaging the kernel, or tap a watch glass without shattering it. These feats showed that a machine delivering a 100-ton blow could be controlled with great precision.