The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-03 00:00:00

Government Powder Magazines,

'With the impression caused by the explosion of
Messrs. Hall's powder magazines at Erith still
fresh on the public mind, a brief notice of the Go-
vernment magazines in the South-West District
cannot be otherwise than interesting, and will serve
as an appendix to the article on " The Powder
Magazines at Parfleet" in The Sun of the 19th ult.

The Government magazines in the South. West
District are three in number—Marchwood, Tipnor,
and Priddy's.hard. Marchwood is the largest
magazine in the kingdom, the greatest receiving
store from Parfleet, and has a storage capacity for
7(1,000 barrels of powder, each containing 100 lb.
".fipeor is the depot magazine for Portsmouth, and
has a storage capacity for 22,000 barrels. Priddy's-
bard Ia the issuing magazine for Portsmouth, and
is the only one of the three establishments where
manipulation of powder can be truly said to take
place. It has a laboratory within its walls, and is
closely situated to the Portsmouth dock and Royal
Clarence victualling-yards. There are also the shell
magazines within the walls of the Gan-wharf,
'which can be at once disposed of here by saying
that, although they are situated close to the engine
house of the Gun-wharf factory, yet as each shell
is closed with its metal cap and enclosed in its own
wooden box, they lie there in perfect security.
The doors are double, as is the case with all maga-
zines!, and every time the➢ are opened a man is
specially stationed with a supply of water to throw
on any suspicious looking matter that might alight
at or near the doors from the direction of the fac.
tory chimney or boiler house. Under these circum-
stances, the care of the Portsmouth Gun-wharf
shell magazines, and the safety of that este.
blishment and the towns of Portsmouth and
Partsea, so far as the storage of shell in the
Gun-wharf is concerned, may be safely consigned
to the care and supervision of the resident mili-
tary storekeeper and his staff. The removal of
the lightning:conductors from the roofs of the maga.
zines to positions round and above them would add
to their security. There is, of course, an immense
amount of powder, loaded shell, rockets, is
the magazines of the fortifications round Ports.
mouth, and also on board Her Majesty's ship Ex.
collent in the harbour, and on board such of Her
Majesty's ships as may be anchored at Spithead—
but with this material it is not intended to deal at
present, our further remarks being confined simply
to the magazines at Tipnor, Marchwood, and
Pciddy'sehard.

At the extreme point of a long and narrow strip
of salt marsh which projects from the island of
Portsea into the shallows of the northern extremity
of the waters of Portsmouth harbour, within half
a mile of the left flank of the defensive lines of
Ililsea, and nearly opposite the ruins of Porchester
Castle, stand theTipnor magazines. Their distance
by road frcm Portsmouth dockyard is about 31
miles, but in a straight line across the water they
were not more than two miles distant. No public
waterways pass near them, so that they are per- ,
fectly free from danger from passing vessels, while
the general aspeet of the situation is sufficiently
uninviting, winter or summer, to check the curio-
sity of the waterman's freight ofany passing wherry
The approach to the magazines by land is for the
last mile through rugged lanes, over the peninsula
of salt marsh referred to, and with two solitary
exceptions, free from human habitations, and there.
fore nearly as perfectly ieolated cn its land as on
its water approaches. At some NO or 690 yards from
the extremity of this strip of salt marsh a high
gate thrown across the road, and connected right
and left with a lofty palisading reaching to high.
water mark on either side, marks the boundary of
the establishment. A short distance within there
gates are the outer buildings of the establishment
ccesiprising the residence of the superintendent,
the res'alecces of six magczlne men, the barrack
for the detachment of 60 soldiers and their cons.
mending officer quartered on the establishment,
with the necessary canteen and other offices. Pass.
lag on beyond these buildings another barrier, kept
locked night and day and under charge of a sentry,
has to be passed. Directly inside this barrit r stand,
right and left, two low one storied buildings—the
(Mee and guard room—and a little in advance of
these the engine house, &c., the latter close to the
high brick wall that encircles the magezines. Pass-
ing along the western side of this wall another bar-
rier, locked and guarded by a sentry, has to be
passed before the visitor reaches the entrance to the
msgsszine and its small wooden planked jetty,
alongside which the vessels of the War Department
discharge and receive their cargor,a. The planking
is pegged down with wooden pegs, and the barrows
which transport the powder to and from the mega-
ztnes are of ►he form used at Parfbet and ether
Government establishments of the kind. It was
satisfactory to find on inquiry that an order of the
most peremptory nature is in force in the Pcrts-

mouth, or Smiths West District, prohibiting
lights of any kind on board any vessels belonging to
the War Department in the district engaged in the
transport of powder, or other combustible materiel,
whether the-vessel is empty or loaded. 'I he order is
but of recent date, and it is uncertain whether it is
yet in existence at all other stations. The Tipnor
magazines differ materially in external appearance
from those at Parflee!, standing at a greater alti-
tude from the level of the ground, and being plenti-
fully supplied with windows, in the latter particular
diff:ring altogether from the Purfleet magazines,
which haue no windows. The entrance to the maga-
zine proper at Tipnor is about 100 feet from high
water mark, that being as near as possible the dis-
tance from the double doors of the magazine to the
outer edge of the jetty. About 30 feet are taken up
by the jetty, and the remaining 7) are occupied
with a covered passage and ante-rooms leading up
to the double door entrance. At the outer entrance of
this covered passage are two small rooms, one on the
right being the room where all persons entering the
magazine change their own feet coverings for the
brown leather magazine boots,and comply with other
precautionary regulations, as at Put fleet, The op-
posite chamber has its floor covered with hide, and
is termed the cooperage. Here all powder barrels
or cases suspected of being faulty, when such are
met with, are examined and repaired by the cooper
of the establishment, or the powder shifted into
other barrels, 0 wing to this latter operation being
performed there this:room is sometimes called the
" shifting-room." The passage ie divided by four
doors, at intervals, fgom the double doors at the
entrance to the magazine, and right and left along
this passage are stored empty casks and cases.
Entering the magazines, it is perceived as soon as
the eye gets accustomed to the gloom of the place
that what appeared to be two buildings adjoining
each other in their outward walls is in reality but
one vast building, with a dividing wall and double
doors transversely cc:oss its centre. The building
is bombproof, an 4 a continuous vista of arches can
after a time ba seen extending in all directions over-
head, springing from piers of immense strength,
which rest on the foundations at short intervals.
The same strict regulations and surveillance exist
inside the Tipnor magazines which are to be found
Purfleet, and have hitherto been attended with
he same good results. It is said by those who have
been attached to the magazine for years (and it is a
peculiar feature that the majority of the men ems
ployed in Government magazines belong to what
are termed " magazine families "—that is, they
have been born and reared on magazine ground, on
which their fathers have been born and reared
before them) that a grain of loose powder has
never been seen on its floor. This may be an
exerveration, but certainly a carefully-applied
applioesien of the brush in one of the passages
even dust, and, as the magazine is
brought not
swept through every time powder is received or dis.
charged, and also at 11 ed intervals, it is not pro-
bible any spilt grains would remain long enough
on the floor for observation. The magazine now
rntains 80,5001 b of loose powder in barrels of the
G., P. 0., and A,4. descriptions, and 143,7101 b of
Lt( same kind in metal cases in flannel bags, in all
~;;C, tons. There are lodged for the Royal Artillery
10,C001b of powder in barrels, and 76,4001 b in com-
mon cartridges, In made-up cartridges there are
048,000ib made up for large ordnance, end 76,3081 b
for small arms, giving a grand total of the contents
of the magazine as 1,277,3701 b, or 570 tons. The
storage capacity of the magazine is a little over

22,000 barrels. Powder is stored in Tipnor in five
descriptions of packages, from which the common
powder barrel used in private magazines is rigidly
excluded, powder being received from the private
manufacturers only in barrels made by them spe-
cially under the terms of their contract. This barrel
stands lowest in grade of excellence in Government
magazines, and is termed "common" powder barrel.
Next stands the Government improved barrel, sue.
ceeded by the metal lined improved barrel, which
latter is about es near to perfection of security as a
wooden powder case can well be devised. In addi-
tion to these wooden receptacles are two descriptions
of sectional metal cases stored for magazine service
in her Majesty's ships, and their presence in the
midst of the numerous wooden barrels surrounding
them strongly suggests the security that would be
at once gained if all magazines stored powder only
in similar metal coverings, and discarded the use of
wood, or at least of unlined wood cases, altogether.
There is nothing apparently which can be Bugs
gested to add to the efficiency of the care and
supervision bestowed, under the existing regnla.
tions of the War Department, by the officials at
Tipnor upon their magazine for its safety and
preservation ; yet there are four alterations which
might be at once carried into effect, which would
certainly add to the present security of the build-
ing, and one provision for the future that would
perpetuate its present admirable isolation from
other buildings. The alterations relate to the office,
the cooperage or shifting-room, the lightning-con- •
dactors on the outside of the building, and the pre.
sence of small-arm cartridges inside. The provision
for the future relates tO the purchase of a strip of
private land within a short distance of the magazine.
The office stands within 60 yards of the south
windows of the magazine, and necessarily has a fire-
place fitted for the clerks' accommodation in cold
weather. In the daytime, in dry weather, the glass
windows round the magazine are opened, as well
as the ponderous inner and outer shutters, and all
that then separates the contents of the magazine in
a line with the windows with the outer world is the
ordinary stout, wire blind. With a wind from S.W.
and sparks from the office chimney—and sparks
will sometimes issue from the beat regulated chim-
neys—the latter, if blown against the wire blind,
would enter the magazine, and might settle upon a
wooden barrel of powder. The spark, in 999 cases
out of 1,000, might probably goont of life innocently,
or the barrel of powder, and the magazine with it,
might go up. There is plenty of spare land, 200
yards farther distant to that where the office now
stands, and it would be as conveniently placed as
now, if removed. The lightning-conductors on the
side of the building are affixed to the roof of the
magazine at their highest point, when they would
be more efficacious and safe if fixed round the en-
closing wall at a height exceeding the present posi-
tion. So far for the outside of the building. As
regards the inside, the presence of the shifting-room
in such class connection as a 65-foot passage with
the magazine is decidedly objectionable. It is not
denied that a barrel of powder might explode while
under manipulation in the shifting-room, as to
meet some such event the doors have been
erected in the passage to cut off communication
with the magazine itself. No sane person, how.
ever, would volunteer to stay inside the magazine
while a barrel of powder was exploded experi-
mentally in the shifting-room, and this is es
strong an argument as can well be urged for the re-
moval of this shifting-room to some position at a
greater od-stance from the magazine, and where it
would not be connected with it by any covered pas-
sage. The only fact remaining to notice in connec-
tion with the arrangements of the magazine itself
is the storing of small-arm cartridge in it. We
have already expressed our grounds of objection to
the presence of this material the Purfleet maga-
zines, and the same argument will apply with equal
force to the magazines at Tipnor. The provision
for the continued isolation of the magazine now
only remains to speak of to conclude our notice of
Tipnor. The magazine and its surroundings stand
on the western edge of some 10,000 acres of land
belonging to the War Department, but into this
large tract pierce some narrow strips of land which
ar© private property. One of these, of small extent
and value, actually extends along the foreshore to
the cu'er. boundary paling of the establishment,
and on the shore line close to the magazine. This
land is announced for sale, and already a large brick
kiln, the property of some enterprising speculator,
is erected and busily at work turning out mounds
of bricks for the erection of buildings. The land
may now be bought without these buildings, and
the isolation of tho magazine thus cheaply pre-
served. A few months more, and the expense of
such a course will be doubled or trebled.

The Marchwood mafe,,,zines are situated on the
western shore of Southampton eater, the magazine
pier being about two miles distant from the steam•
boat pier at Southampton. The village of March-
wood, the nearest part of which is about half a mile
distant from the magazines, has a somewhat scat-
tered population of 1,200 persons. The magazines
stand on about 17 acres of ground, and the entire
establishment is in form as near an equilateral trie
angle as is possible, the base of the triangle being
occupied by a barrack for the accommodation
of a company of infantry that is constantly
stationed here on detached duty, for the protection
of the magazines, from some regiment in the dis-
trict, the necessary guardhouse, entrance-gates to
the storekeeper's residence, offices, labourers' cot-
tages, &c., this base of the triangle resting upon the
Government road which leads horn the shore line of
the river to the village of Marchwood. The right
face of the triangle rests, with its dwarf sea-wall,
upon high water mark of the river, and comprises
the pier and landing stage, the examining.house,
the shifting-house, and A B C and D magazines.
The left face of the triangle inclines in the direction
of the village of Marchwood, and is, therefore, ad-
ditionally protected by an outer wall 65 feet distant
from the wells which enclose each magazine. It
contains E F and magazines and the cooperage.
Along the line of magazines on each angle, or face,
is a timber-laid and pegged road, or "roller" way,
over which the barrels of powder are wheeled three
at a time in magazine barrows on gun metal wheels.
Throughout this roadway, which is, in fact, a con-
tinuation of the landing stage and pier, the plank-
ing is fastened down with wooden trenails, and not
a particle of iron has been used in its construction.
Parallel with this roller way is a small canal, which
was formerly used to float boats up to the door of
each magazine to deliver or receive its freight of
powder. The substitution of the roller way and
pier has, however, superseded this tedious process
by another more suitable to the present age. The
peculiar features in the Marchwood magazines,
and one in which they differ from all others, is their
method of construction, which appears to reduce
the chances of damage from an explosion to the
minimum point attainable, and so to protect each
magazine that its explosion shall not necessarily
destroy its follow. This is accomplished by building
each magazine as a square of massive side walls,
covered in with a light timber and slated roof, and,
in addition to enclosing each magazine with
its own independent outer wall and courtyard—the
distance between the walls of the magazine and the
wall of the courtyard being about 20ft—each ma-
gezine is isolated from its next fellow by a traverse
of earth 40ft in breadth of base, and 21ft in height.
Should a magazine at any time explode, the least
resistance offered to the expansion of the gases
generated would be in the slight roofing of the
building, and the main force of the explosion would
therefore be expended upwards instead of laterally,
the small portion of the force that would be thrown
laterally with the magazine walls would be met by
the outer enclosing walls and the earthen traverses,
which it is calculated would suffice to throw it
off and upward, and effectually protect the adjoin-
ing magazines. The actual position of the maga.
zines, examining honse, shifting house, cooperage,
&c.,:with the pier and landing stage, is in this wise:
—The pier runs out into the river 150 yards to the
landing stage,where the vessels discharge or receive
their cargoes. If powder is being received, three
barrels at a time are placed on the barrow and
wheeled to the examining house, which is the first
building on the chore line at its junction with the
base of the triangle, and there the casks are care-
fully examined. If found tight and perfect in all
respects they are then stowed away in one of the

magazines. If they show the slightest sign of
slackness in the beeping, staves, or head, they are
carefully covered up in cloths and removed to the
shifting house, where they are either tightened up
by the cooper, or the contents are shifted into an-
other barrel, as may be required. Both examining
house and shifting house are entirely removed from
any close connection with a magazine, each being a
building by itself with its own protecting traverses of
earth, thus standing in marked contrast to the posi-
tion of the examining and shifting room at Tipnor,
which is situated in the covered entrance ',u-
sage to the magazines. The examining and shifting
houses at Marchwood are both on the right face, in
company with A, B, C, and D magazines. The
cooperage is on the left face, also protected by its
earthern traverses, in company with E, F, and G
magazines. The distances bet ween the respective
magazines, which distance of course includes the
traverses, are —from Ato B, 114 ft ; from Bto C,
250 ft ; from C to D, 110 ft ; from Dto E, 150 ft ;
from E to F, 120 ft ; from F to G, 95ft. The distance
from the head of the landing stage to the nearest or
A magazine is 458 ft. It may be as well to state
here that in the event of any loaded or loading ves-
sel alongside the pier not being completed in her
loading or unloading, she is compelled to haul off
from the pier each day at sunset, and drop anchor
down the river clear of the magazine, and 300 yards
off in the river from the pier line.
The Marchwood magazines, as we have said, have
- a storage capacity for 76,000 barrels of powder
gar-fleet has a storage for 52,000), but their present
contents, not reckoning some 1,500 barrels on their
way in the Lord Panmure from Parfleet, are as

follows :
Whole barrels of loose powder 62,372
Ditto cannon cartridges 2,602
Quarter•barreis of riflo ammunition, small arm
Metal-lined cases of ditto

TOTAL WEIGHT OF GUNPOWDER. _
Tons cwt. gr. lb
Loose powder
Powder in cartridges

Grand t0ta1.... 2,467 12 2 20
In this return are observable the objectionable
presence of rifle ammunition, with large storages

of powder, and the absence of the variety of pack•
ages which may be found at Tipnor, as, with the
exception of 105 metal.lined cases, all the remainder
—upwards of 62,000—are contractors' barrels,
made by them under the terms of their contracts
with the Government.

If we enter ore of the Marchwood magazines—
say F, with its 13,200 barrels, an idea may be
formed of the internal arrangements of the whole,
and a contrast drawn with the blind arches of
Purfleet, or the almost equally gloomy vaults of
Tipnor or Priddy's Hard. We enter by the door
in the Courtyard wall from the rolling way, and
immediately inside the doorway are ushered into
the " shoe and clothes rooms," which are attached

to the court-wall, and where we make the neces-
sary alterations in clothing. A short planked roller
way leads from the entrance•gate and shoehouse to
the double copper- lined doors of the magazine, the
latter a by no means gloomy one-storied building,
with largo double-shutter wired windows, standing
in the middle of the courtyard, its slatecovered roof
capped with the Government pattern lightning-con•
doctor. Entering the building it is found to be a
well lit and ventilated and beautifully clean pinewood cabi-
net of vast dimensions, walls, ceilings, and fittings gleam-
ing in all the bright dry freshness of that wood, with not a
speck of dust to be found on the floor or fittings to toil a
lady's cambric hankerchiet, nor a sign of cobweb or stain
of any kind to be discerned on the pins planking of its
roofing. Long narrow passages extend through this northern
forest plucked hall, fr3m which branch off bays to each
window filled up with its share of the 1,320,0001 b. of pow-
der, which is piled up in tier upon tier of barrels in every
available space. The floor is as clean, if not so bright
and fresh-looking, as the pine-lined walls and roofing, and,
as a proof of the great care taken in receiving or issuing
barrels, it is staled that the fluor is carefully watered
before and carefully swept immediately after the work is
done. No barrel of powder, it is said, that has once passed
the examining-house has ever been known to leak, nor has
a grain of spilt powder ever been found on the magazine
floor. Constant inspection is being made of the barrels in

store, and if any one gives sign of shrinkage or slackening of
its hooping it is at once removed to the shitting-house, where
it receives the necessary attention from the cooper, and is
then reconveyed to the magazine. Four barrels of powder

requiring the attention of the cooper were in the shifting-
house at the time of our visit. An experienced eye could
detect no slackening of hoops, or fault of any kind, but the
keener vision of the officials had detected the' sign" and

removed them from among their thousands of follows to

apply the remedy. On inquiring of one intelligent man, who,
it was understood, had once been stationed at a magazine
where agony deal of private merchants' powder was at times
received temporarily from •merchant shipping, whether
the average of private:powder casks was as good es those
under the cooper's hands, the reply was, "Oh, dear no,
many of them you might knock to pieces with a good blow
of your fi,t." This was ilangerons ground, and no further
inquiries were, therefore, made.

Marchwood, it will be admitted, from what we have said
of it, must necessarily involve an immense amount of re-

sponsibility on the shoulders of whoever may have charge
of it, for although the issues and receipts there do not ex.
coed the average of two per week taking the year round, yet
vigilance must never be relaxed, the storekeeper in charge
must never be absent from hie post, must live with his
family literally in the centre of his magazines, may sleep
certain hours if he can (sleep, perhaps, ho does not on first
taking charge, until his nerves get braced by time to the
novelty of the "situation"), and for all this responsibility,
care, and discomfort, banished from friends and the outer
world, the gentleman in charge receives the extraordinary
sum of 2s 6d per day in addition to the amount of salary
he would receive if quietly employed at his desk at the
Tower or in the War-affice. The Marchwood establishment
consists of the resident military storekeeper, one foreman,
one cooper, and five magazine seen, the latter of whom all
have sprung from "magazine families," and one watchm an
to go the rounds at night. There is also the military guard,
now consisting of a company of the 87th Regiment and its
officers. When extra labour is required, working parties
are engaged from the soldiers off duty. Three sentries are
constantly on duty, one at the guardroom and one facing
each line of magazine doors. This arrangement, however,
leaves the magazine's water frontage and the angle of the
establishment nearest Marchwood altogether unwatched
and an additional watchman should be engaged for the nights
watch on the sea front, and a sentry placed at the angle
nearest Marchwood. The lightning-conductors on the roofs
of the magazines might also be superseded, or supplemented,
by other conductors affixed to tall poles at each end of each
magazine, but just outside the wall of the courtyard.
There is nothing else that could possibly be suggested as an
improvement in any portion of the arrangements and super-
vision of the great establishment at Marchwood, while there
is everything to admire in the very jealous and proper feel-
ing with which the approach of a stranger to its gates is re-
garded by its efficient resident storekeeper.
Priddy's.hard may be dismissed with a briefer notice than
either Tipnor or Marchwood, for the reasons that the same
excellent rules and regulations that exist at the two latter
establishments are in equal force at the former. All that
the skill of man, guided by experience over a long series Of
years, can do, under the circumstances of the present ar-
rangement of this establishment, is done here as it is done at
Tipnor and Marchwood ; but it differs greatly from those
establishments, inasmuch as it is not a mere storehouse for
powder as they are, but is the issuing and receiving maga.
zine for the port, and consequently has its magazine almost
constantly open, and has also a laboratory with its work-
shop within its walls, and at no great distance from its
magazines. Its close neighbourhood to the dockyard at
Portsmouth and the Royei Clarence Victualling yard at
Gosport gives an immensely increased importance to any
question which may arise as to its safety. On this latter
point Priddy's.hard is certainly safe enough, except in the
event of some unexpected accident. Although powder and
other dangerous materiel, including rockets, are being con-
stantly passed in and out of the magazines, yet it is always
carried near the magazines in as small quantities at once
as may be possible. The fact, however, remains indisput-
able that if there is danger of an explosion in any Govern-
ment magazine in England it is in the magazine at Priddy's -
hard ; and that a certain danger does in reality exist there
is sufficiently proved in the presence of the laboratory and
its workshop in such close proximity to the magazines, not-
withstanding the known care and experience of the officer
in charge and the staff under him. The results that would
follow from an explosion at Priddy's.hard cannot in any
degree be estimated without first considering its position.
Priddy's-hard establishment stands on the west shore of
Portsmouth harbour opposite the northern extremity of the
dockyard and her Majesty's ships Excellent and Illustrious,
while between the magtzines and the latter vessels are
moored the largest of the ships of war which may be laid at
harbour moorings out of commission. Tho harbour shore
forms the termination of that side of the establishment on
which stand the magazines, a creek running some distance
into the shore separates it from the Royal Clarence Victual-
ling-yard at Gosport, and a semi-circular line of fortifica-
cation stretching from the creeleto harbour high-water mark
isolates it from the usainlend and the adjacent village of
Hardway. It is distant from the north building shed of
Portsmouth dockyard just half a mile, and only half that
distance from the shipping moored in mid stream. From
I her Majesty's ships Excellent and Illustrious (both, as the
gunnery ships of the port, crammed with gunpowder and all
sorts of experimental shells, rockets, and other projectiles
under trial) it is distant about 100 yards further than the