WHERE GUNPOWDER IS MADE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue III, 20 July 1895, Page 69

WHERE GUNPOWDER IS MADE.

During the last twelve months the attention of the newspaper public has been directed to the little Essex town of Waltham Abbey in a startling manner. A series of terrible explosions, and latterly the great Cordite trial, have combined to make the home of gunpowder a place of importance and of interest. It is at Waltham Abbey that the extensive works of the Government known as the Royal Gunpowder Factory are situated. Here it is that the gunpowder used in the British army is made. The works are charmingly placed by the River Lee, about a quarter of an hour’s walk from the Great Eastern Railway station at Waltham Cross. Were it not for one solitary chimney, the visitor on approaching the town would never imagine that he was close to a large factory where 500 to 600 men were employed day and night in manufacturing, moulding, and grinding deadly explosives. The factory covers a very large acreage of land, extending right and left on both sides of the main street of the town, stretching far out into the marsh country which has made Estex so much a country of nurserymen. Unlike most factories, there are no signs of economy in the matter of space. Instead of high buildings, with hordes of men crowded together, the factory consists of a beautiful wooded plantation. Here and there among the trees little huts are seen dotted about. These huts are the places where the powder is being handled. Except at the main gates, where the offices and other buildings make a knot of houses, the little huts are placed at a great distance apart. The reason for this is that should an explosion occur there would be little chance of the flames or concussion extending beyond the hut whence the mischief started. The entire plantation is covered with a net-work of water ways ; the place is a veritable Venice. The water of the river Lee is made to flow all round, and in some cases through, the huts or * houses ’ as they are technically called. On the day of the terrible explosion of 1893 — December 13th — one poor fellow saved himself from a horrible death by jumping into the water round the burning shed. Were we to enter into a description of all the processes of manufacture of gunpowder we should provide some very readable matter, but unfortunately we should exhaust our space. Suffice it to say that in almost every hut each workman carries his life in his hand. Of course, no man is allowed to have so much as half a match upon him when on duty. I have known several men to be dismissed for entering the gates with matches in their trousers pockets quite recently. Some of the machinery used in the ‘ houses ’ is of a very delicate nature. One machine—the ‘ Cam ’ —is used to press loose grains of powder into solid prisms, to be employed in the firing of big guns. The slightest grit of foreign matter that got into the workings of this instrument might blow twelve men into eternity. An interesting department is the ‘ mill-houses,’ where great flat mill-stones revolve over layers of gunpowder and * fine ’ it down to a regulation degree of consistency. The men, whose lives are thus hourly in danger by reason of the perilous nature of their employment, are a fine set of fellows. Never do they appear to greater advantage than when a * blow ’ (as an explosion is called) takes place. They are provided with goloshes, non-inflammable clothing and head-gear when at work. To see a number of- these strangely clad men noiselessly rushing along a towing-path at three o’clock in the morning is a sight long to be remembered ; and when we add to that the knowledge that they are hurrying to the rescue of their comrades, whom they know are being burnt to death, we feel that her Gracious Majesty has reason to be proud of such servants. At night the whole factory is lit by electricity, and, when seen from some point far out on the marshes, the plantation looks like a fairy palace. The various stages in the manufacture make it necessary that the materials shall be conveyed from one part of the works to another. This is done by means of covered barges. Any person walking along the Lee banks for any length of time can hardly fail to be passed by one of the larger powder barges which are used to convey the completed powder to Woolwich.

The proper management of so large an undertaking as this vast factory has caused much anxiety to the powers that be. All that good engineering can do and skilled chemistry can teach is pressed into service at Waltham Abbey. Nominally, the master of the situation is Mr Campbell Bannerman, the War Minister ; but actually, Dr. Anderson (the Director-General of Ordnance Factories), and Colonel Ormsby (the Superintendent), are the powers de facto. Their task is a very harassing one, and is a great strain. The Colonel has the Royal Cordite Factory—quite a separate department- -as well as the gunpowder works under his command, so that he has a heavy load of responsibility to carry. About fifteen minutes walk along the river in the direction of London is another large war establishment, the Royal Small Arms Factory. The whole trade of a large district, with a population of nearly 14,000 souls thus depends upon the production of death-dealing implements.