From Foundation to World War I

First cannons were successfully cast in Gun Foundry in Kragujevac on October 27, 1853.

Four pieces of four-pound cannons and two short howitzers were cast then. In the course of the following year, Craftsman School and Pyrotechnics were established within the Gun Foundry and Fund for the ill, the institution of health insurance for the employees of the Gun Foundry, forerunner of social insurance in Serbia. That same year, Charles Loubry returned to France and lieutenant Petar Protic becomes the manager of the Gun Foundry.

In May 1855, first machine for cold pressing and trimming of lead bullets was purchased in Belgium. The machine also included four matrices for production of spherical and cylindrical bullets of expansive and compressive type - Minii and Lorenz.

The inspection of control and stamping of all products was established on February 5, 1856. In the following year, first domestic Forging Plant for forging in dies was built and assembled and the capacities of the Gun Foundry were significantly expanded. Further development of the factory went into two directions. First, in 1860, the Gunsmith Shop was founded. In 1863, hothouse for timber was built. During the same year, the production of rifled muzzle-loaded La Hitte cannons started. In 1865, on the basis of La Hitte system, the factory started the production of cannon M.1858, caliber 4 pounds  (85,6 mm), with domestic gun-carriages for all types of guns, developed by Milivoje Petrovic-Blaznavac. The last battery of La Hitte cannons was cast in 1886.

First Design Department was established in 1866, and in 1871 the workshop for cartridge cases grew into a managing department called the Bushing Plant.

By the contract signed on July 25, 1878 in Berlin congress, Serbia gained independence and four districts: District of Nis, District of Pirot, District of Toplica and District of Vranje.

By the ideas of Koka Milovanovic, the protptype of the first domestic rapid-fire rifle was made in 1880. At that moment it was the best rifle in the world.

First industrial electric light was installed in the new building of Bushing Plant in 1884. This first dynamo-machine of 5 HP had the capacity of 30 light bulbs and 2 arc lamps. This happened during the period when even at the Serbian Court there was no such thing and in Europe electrical light was thought to be a miracle, that had been shown for the first time in Paris two years before that.

On April 24, 1889 world economy exhibition was opened in Paris. The factory participated with 42 products, including five machine tools. We received five silver and one bronze medal.

Electrical engine as the drive in the workshops of factory in Kragujevac was introduced in 1890. The production of hand grenades of system Kragujevac, designed by colonel Miodrag Vasic stardet in 1898.

At the world economy fair in London in 1907, the factory won silver medal.

First air bomb was produced in 1913.

At the beginning of November 1914 the workshops of Military-Technical Works were evacuated to Nis fortress.