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

TOTAL WEIGHT OS GUNPOWDER.

Tons cwt. gr. lb
Loose powder 2,338 0 2 24
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 tho 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
Pnrfleet, 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 large double-shutter wired windows, standing
in the middle of the courtyard, its slatecovered roof
capped with the Government pattern lightning-con-
ductor. 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 soil a
lady's cambric handkerchief, nor a sign of cobweb or stain
of any kind to be discerned on the pine planking of its
roofing. Long narrow passages extend through this northern
forest plucked hall, from 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
barrel., it is stared that the floor 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 ev3r been found on the magazine
&or, 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 fellows to
apply the remedy. On inquiring of one intelligent man, who,
it was understood, had once been stationed at a magazine
where akood deal of private merchants' powder was at times
received temporarily from merchant shipping, whether
the average or private powder casks was as good as those
under the cooper's hands, the reply wns, "Oh, dear no,
many of then, you midat knock to pieces with a good blow I
of your fist." This was dangerous gronnil, and no further I
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 his post, must live with his
family literally in the centre of his magazines, may sleep
certain hours if he can (sleep, perhaps, he does not on firer-
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
cum of 2s Gd per day in addition to the amount of salary
he would receive it quietly employed at his desk at the
Tower or in the War-effice. The Marchwood establishment
consists of the resident military storekeeper, one foreman,
one cooper, and five magazine then, 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 uuwatched
and an additional watchman should be engaged fur the night/
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 ccurtyard.
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 tho circumstances of the present ar-
rangement of this eal.ablishnsent, 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 conzequently 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 Royal 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 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 thsa would
follow from an explosion at Priddy's-hani 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 magazines and the latter vessels are
moored the largest of the ships of war which may be laid at
harbour moorings out of commission. The: harbour shore
forms the termination of that aide of the (3stablishment on
which stand the magazines, a creek rune's:lg 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 creek to harbo ar high-water mark
isolates it from the mainland and the adjacent village of
Hardway, It is distant from the north building shed of
Portsmouth dockyard just half a mile, mid. only half that
distance from the shipping moored in mid stream. From
her Majesty's ships Excellent and Illustria us (both, as the
gunnery ships of the port, crammed with gun powder and all
sorts of experimental shells, rockets, and other projectiles
under trial) it is distant about 100 yards fu.c)ther than the