The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-19 00:00:00

The Powder Magazines at Purfleet,

Just now public attention is keenly directed to a
thorough examination of the conditions under which
powder is stored in Government and private maga-
zines, and the precautions which are or ought to be
taken to mitigate the risk with which the mere prey
Bence of these tremendous mines threatens whole
districts. That great good will ultimately arise
from this investigation cannot be doubted for a
moment, and if the evidence given at the Belvedere
inquiry as to the neglect of proper care in Mr
Hall's magazines is to be relied on, the public can•
not be too earnest in their efforts for complete and
searching inquiry. At any rate, the question has
not been of their raising, but has, on the contrary,
been forced on their attention in the most terrible
manner possible. The appalling proofs of the ex-
plosion spread far and wide round Erith show the
danger in which the inhabitants have lived, and the
evidence given at the inquiry shows them also the
hourly peril in which they must be content to dwell
for the future, unless these terrible storehouses are
better built and better regulated than they seem to
have been in the case of the magazines on Erith
marshes. We do not for a moment entertain the
belief that it will ever be possible to do away with
powder magazines, and magazines, too, containing
vast stores of powder collected on one spot. Bread
is not more necessary to our individual life than
gunpowder is to our national. Good powder is only
to be got from England. Our export trade of this
explosive material is larger than that of all the rest
of the world, while, peaceful people as we are, our
annual consumption in fleets, forts, and colonies is
almost as great as that of all the rest of Europe
put together. But we apprehend that those who
have been ruined round Erith would not for a
second deny the necessity for large powder maga-
zines ; and as a rule powder when in the magazines
is in the safest place which experience or human
ingenuity ca❑ devise to store it. It is from powder
in transit that all the danger really arises. It is the
lax state of the law as to powder barges, or what
are used as much—the lax state of the law as to what
number of barrels they shall carry, and what re-
gulations shall be enforced as to lights and fires on
board, which not only endangers the magazines to
which they are bound, but actually perils the very
existence of the metropolis itself in their passage up
the Thames. The inquiry into the general manage-
ment of those powder barges of private firms cannot
be too searching, nor the regulations under which
in future the perilous traffic should be carried on
too strict or too rigidly enforced.
Since the disaster at Erith a great deal has been
said as to the general management of the Govern-
ment magazines at Purfleet, and all sot ts of state•
meats have appeared as to the quantity of powder
which is kept there, and the risks to which it is
exposed. We propose, therefore, to give the public
a plain account of how Purfleet is managed and
what it contains. If, on the one hand, we state that
the powder stored there is enormous—enough in
quantity to appal the boldest when they think of
the chances of accident—on the other hand, we shall
be bound to admit that everything which the ex-
perience of a century, the progress of science, and
even imaginative and over-scrupulous fears can sug-
gest in the way of precaution should be adopted. If
ever Purfleet blows up—and if it does London will
be the first to know it—the accident will not be
caused by Purfleet proper, but will be due to some
one or other of the barges always landing or receiv-
ing powder there. The quantity of powder that
blew up at Erith the other day was less than 1,000
barrels, or short of 50 tons. The quantity that
Purfleet stores is 52,000 barrels, or two thousand
three hundred tons. It is not the largest magazine
in the kingdom. There is another, within four
miles of one of our most important seaport towns,
which stores nearly four thousand tons. This latter,
however, is a mere surplus storehouse, which is
rarely opened—a vault where the powder is en-
tombed and carefully guarded. Another, which we
have no scruple in mentioning, for its situation is a
disgrace to the Admiralty—Upnor Castle—contains
some 1,500 or 1,600 tons of powder. Sheerness and
Chatham, with their foes and dockyards, would
cease to be even geographical expressions if any.
thing went wrong with the constantly opened ma-
gazine which is in their midst under Upnor Castle.
There are other magazines, too, in different parts of
the kingdom, which are as large as Purfleet; but
these are mere e., storehouses, which
are seldom opened or required but in time of war.
The importance of Put fleet consists in its being the
great receiving house where every atom of powder
used by the Government—whether made at their
own works at Waltham Abbey, or privately at
Dartford, Faversham, and Hounslow—is landed,
examined, tested, and if approved, passed into store,
and if rejected returned at once to the barges. Thus
in the ordinary fulfilment of its duties not a day
passes without the magazine being open—scarcely
a day in which it has not been either to test, receive,
or send away loads of powder. When first esta-
blished, a century ago, the magazine was isolated
from everything. Now there is a village close to it,
and beautiful villas are scattered over the country
around it far and near. The ground occupied by the
Government is about 25 acres, and this is mostly
moated round and walled and rewailed in almost
a series of concentric circles about the magazines.
There is a permanent guard of two officers and
80 men, with a large staff of watchmen, coopers,
storekeepers, overseers, clerks, &e , all of whom
with their wives and families live within the walls
in the " garrison," as it is termed. Every one, no
matter how remotely connected with the works in
this part of the garrison, even the tailor who makes
the flannel dress, and the shoemaker who stitches
the soft leather shoes to be worn in the magazine, is
on the staff, and has to conform to the rules of being
within the wails before 9, and having all lights and
fires out in the quarters by 10 30. Yet, large as is this
staff, the " powder.men," the actual workers in the
magazines, are only 19 in number, and all these are
the sons, and, in come cases, the grandsons of those
Rho first worked here. They have lived among
powder all their lives, and are familiar with every-
thing but its explosive character, for at Purfleet, as
at all Government magazines, there has never been
an accident. The first accident here would be the
last, and would lay half Kent, Middlesex, and
Surrey in ruins. The visitor who is fortunate enough
to obtain the rarely accorded permission to inspect
these magazines is taken charge of by no less a per•

son than the chief of the establishment, Mr Cleave,
whose vigilance regards even a visitor as a possible
source of danger, and therefore to be intrusted to no

hands save his own. Passing through the sentrres
and a series of doors you come to one at which the
_ .

watchman is on duty, which admits to a small turfed

enclosure between high walls, where a sentry is pac•
ing on a little strip of asphalte laid in the grass.

This is the last of the sentries, for near at hand

is the magazine ground, where, to the cautions
eyes of the powder men, a sentry with his steel

equipments would be regarded with as much

favour as a bonfire. Beyond the sentry is a
small cooperage which leads to a long, low,
narrow room with a wooden partition, about 2
feet high, running across the floor, separating one
end from the other. At the end you enter hang
workmen's clothes and shoes; at the other be-

yond the partition, which is magazine ground,

nothing but flannel dresses and soft leather shoes
are kept. At the farther end of the room you leave

your walking-stick or umbrella, or knife, or any-
thing that is of iron or stiel. Here, too, for the
smimd7 reason you pull off your boots, and in case of
or grit being on your dress have furthermore to
clothe yoursslt in a loose flAnnel blouse and trousers.
Then only-,do you step over the partition to put on
a pair of the soft stitched leather boots. Having
thus fuliilltd all the strict conditions which the
duty of the " clothesmsa" imposes on you, he opens
the last door of all,
which
grass-rown enclosure admits you to a spacious
, craonsdsc.d in all directions with
lit tic wooden Pllo"9:ab7i,nd.sioonk.the centre of which
stand five largo,
great lightningyo ut conductorsieer:ii
have no windows but
if justnppowder
w asee
e:
many ° g buildings. Th
all their doors are open, and
through th© half gloom the
silencee"binsi
barrels stacked in blocks like gigantic
Nothing strikes the visitor more than the
nasgazines
this place. The 19 powder-men employed here areo
all bogy, for at the wharf in front of the
one vessel has to be loaded, and another unloAded,

so that the passage of the copper barrows, each with
their two barrels of powder, is incessant, yet still
there is no noise. The barrows wove silently, and
the men, in their soft shoes, seem to glide over the
polished woodwork without a sound. Not a word is
spoken, and the dry creaking of the barrels in the
magazines, as they are moved from tier to tier, come
with a sound which is here almost noise. Occasion-
ally, as some less full than others are lifted down, one
can hear the dry hissing rattle of the grains as they
turn over, but this, and the actual creaking of the
somewhat thin barrels, and the soft rumble of the
trucks taking them away, is all that can be distin-
guished. Outside, on the wharf, one can hear the
sound of gentle hammering, with occasional words
of direction, but within the magazines themselves
all is as quiet, and almost as dark as night. There
is a regularity, a method, and an evidence of careful
supervision everywhere, which insensibly imparts a
feeling of perfect security even in the gloomiest of
the high, narrow passages which wind among the
stacks of powder.
The external aspect of these magazines, with their
lean-to roofs and stable-looking architecture, gives
no idea of their real features of construction. To use
a familiar image, each magazine is constructed like
two railway arches, which are built of the strength
called bomb proof, and afterwards covered over with
the sloping roof and walls with which all acquainted
with the river are so familiar. There are five of these
buildings, and each is fitted to allow the storage of
44 " lots" of 200 barrels in each lot, with two end
lots of 400 barrels, making the contents of each
magazine 10,400 barrels, or 52,000 barrels in the
whole five. Sometimes this quantity has been ex-
ceeded by 2,000 or 3,000 barrels being stored in the
passages between the " lots" or bins, but it is always
sought to avoid this if possible. As a general rule
there is never more than 52,000 barrels nor less than
42,000. The latter quantity only is now in store.
Though we speak of them as five magazines, yet in
reality all five are one. There is not more than 50ft
between each wall, and all are kept with open end
and side doors during the day, except during the
time the workmen are at dinner, when the thickly-
plated double copper doors are closed, and the keys
resigned to Mr Cleeve, who alone of all the staff can
enter the magazine at any hour of the day or
night. Every lot or bin is numbered with the even
numbers on one side, the odd on the other, and each
lot contains solely the sample of one manufacture,
whether private or Government, with the maker's
name and date of its reception, and the letters
" L. G.," "L. G. 1t.," and "E. R.," denoting
large grain for common powder, large grain
rifle for rifled guns, and "E. R." for the best
kinds used only for Enfield rifles.
Thus, so perfect is the system of s`oring that at
any hour of the day or night the exact bins or lots
can be found by the powder-men, and either stored
away or taken out for shipment, In fact the maga.
zines are generally so dark that daylight makes but
little difference in the gloom of their interior, and
during the Crimean war, when the demand for
powder was loud and urgent, the powder-men in
relays worked night and day through the darkest
winter nights—as a matter of course without lights,
but, what is not a matter of course, without ever
making a single mistake as to the "lots" and quali-
ties ordered for shipment. In some of the gloomiest
parts of the magazine a piece of copper framed in
wood, like a hand mirror, and tinned over so as to
reflect a light upon the name and number of the
barrels, is kept fur use, but it is a mere formal piece
of magazine furniture, and seldom called into requi-
sition, so well do the men know the exact position
of each barrel It is almost needless to say that no
lights or iron work of any kind are ever allowed to
approach even the outer walls which enclose the
magLzine building, and the most jealous scrutiny
is maintained to see that not an atom of dust comes
into the stores. The brickwork of the massive
arches is lined with pegged boarding, which fits
like cabinet work, to guard against the falling of a
grain of dirt from the masonry. Incessantly are men
employed in sweeping and sprinkling the wooden
tramways not only inside the magazine, but on all
the wooden paths around it. A careful examination
of the refuse thus brought together by the brooms
only shows a fluffy kind of mixture almost entirely
composed of hair off the blankets used, or woo
from the workmen's dresses. Of dust, in the ord

1 nary acceptation of the terrii, there is scarcely a
truce, and of powder, or of any thing which could be
supposed to resemble it, there is,absolutely nothing.
The barrels are never rolled, but are wheeled in bar-
rows, as we have said, two at a time. A leaky pow-
der barrel is almost unknown at Put fleet, so rare is
its occurrence, though some of the barrels have been
in use E. ioce 1808 and 1813. When it does happen
that a barrel leaks it is never placed in the maga-
zine, but at once removed in a hide to the examining
house, and its contents changed to a new barrel.
There can be no question, however, but that all
powder barrels are made too slight, and that a law
which will render it compulsory to have powder
barrels water tight would at once do away with
more than half the chances of accident from powder,
especially when in transit from port to port or from
mills to magazines. The great rules at Putficet are,
first, that nothing but powder is admitted to the
magazines—that is to say, that portfires, rockets,
shells, arc. are e-,.cluded with as much vigilance as
if they were lights. The second rule is, that no
powder, not even half an ounce, is ever left out of
the magazines ; the third, that nothing is ever done
in a magazine but to lift in powder and lift it out
. ...

again. To attempt to open or cooper a cask in the
magazine, which Messrs Curtis and Harvey's work-
men speaks of as being done habitually by them,
would at Purfleet lead to instant and final dismissal.

It is impossible to condemn this practice of working
in the magazines too strongly. In one important
respect, however, Fur Let has departed from its safe
and wholesome rule of not admitting anything but
powder to its magazines. Quarter-barrels and half-
barrels of rifle ball-cartridges are now often stored
there. Considering that it is stili a doubtful ques.
tion whether the greased cartridges do not heat
when kept long in store, this deviation from the old
rule seems at least to be questionable as regards its
safety, In face of the gigantic issues at stake in
case of an accident at Purfleet, would it not be more
wise to avoid even a suspicion of calamity by storing
the cartridges elsewhere ? For the rest, as far as
general precautions are concerned, nothing stems
to be neglected. The alarm-b4ll is rung when there

is any appearance of thunder in the air, that the
doors and all the apertures of the magazines may
be closed at once. This precaution is a wise one,
though it would savour much more of precaution in
its real sense if the antiquated lightning conductors
which now cover each low•lying magazine were at
once removed from the buildings themselves and
placed higher on poles around them. During the
night the watchmen have to admit the guard out•
side the magazine each hour, and the sentries them-
selves have to strike each quarter hour of their
watch upon large bells, so that any want of vigi-
lance in this respect is so easily discovered that it
becomes almost impossible. In fact, as regards the
magazines the care which is taken of them leaves
nothing to be suggested nor nothing to be desired,
except, perhaps, that they were further away from
London.

Bat the Puifleet magazines have to be regarded
from three points of view—first, as a place for the
transhipment of powder to and fro; and, thirdly, as
a place for testing powder. These are its three great
working aspects as regards the Government, though
as regards the general public there is still another
view to be taken of the whole, which is Y.'urfleet as

a place of safety. Looking only at Puffhet as a

mere place of storage for ponder, there is no doubt

that it is safe euougb. As far as its storage is cou-

cerned there seems no chance of accident unless from

" unavoidable calamity." What that calamity would
be to England our readers may guess by bearing in

mind that lees than 50 tons exploded at Erith, and
that Purflcot, as a rule, stores 2,300 tons. As a

place for testing powder, Purficet, with its tre-
mendous roaguz7.nes of explosives, seems objection-

able. Government cannot manufacture much more

than half the powder it requires at Waltham

Abbey, and has therefore to buy at the rate of some
25,000 or 30,000 barrels a year from private firms.
All this powder, whether from private houses or
Waltham, is tested for cleanness, strength, and ab.
sorption of moisture at Purfleet, the private firms
being allowed to be 5 per cent. under the Govern-

ment standard in each case, though why we cannot

see.

Supposing a firm to send in 1,000 barrels, 10
per cent., or 100 barrels, are opened, and a small
sample taken from each, when all the samples are
mixed together. These samples are inspected in
the "examining room," which is a little apart from
the magazines. It is lined with raw hides, and a
bank of earth divides it from the powder.houses•
Still, though the same care is used here as in the
magazines, the mere fact of 200 barrels of powder
being sometimes open at one time makes this a
risky and objectionable feature of the Purfleet este.
blishment. The samples taken are first tested for
dust and dirt, and then for weight per cubic foot
comparison with that of the Government. Having
fulfilled these standards it is removed to a totally
different part of the establishment outside the walls,
where it is tested first for " flashing" on glass to
see that it leaves no improper or foul residuum.
Next two ounces of it are tested for strength in a
small Gomer mortar, loaded with a 681 b. solid shot.
The "L. G." powder (large grain) throws this shot
268 ft, the "F. G." (fine grain) 276 ft, the "E. R."
(Enfield rifle, 320 ft, and the "A 4" or " L. G. R."
(large grain rifle), with 3 ounces, throws
it 266 ft. Any powder throwing the shot less than
240 ft is rejected. These, however, are not the
only tests. What remains of the samples after
firing is placed in chests bored on the top and sides
with numerous holes—the Government powder
being similarly placed in other chests. In this
state it is left for 21 days to try its absorpa
tion of moisture, when it is taken out and
tested for strength again. If on this second and
most severe trial it falls short of the strength of the
Government powder by even throwing its shot six
inches less, the whole is rejected. All these experi.
ments are carried on some 500 yards away from the
magazines, and are of course conducted with the
utmost care. Still it is much to be wished that they
could ho done somewhere else, and, above all, that
the examining-house was far away, instead of, as
now, close to the magazine. As a matter of course,
the loading and shipment of powder goes on
every day at Purfleet. On Wednesday last a barge
was laden with 800 barrels and sent away. This
loading with such a quantity canclusively proves
one of two things—namely, that Mr James, the har-
bour-master of the port of London, knew nothing of
the subject when he stated in his evidence at the
Belvedere inquiry that 700 barrels are an illegal load;
or, on the other hand, that the law as to the number
of barrels is so little regarded that even the Govern..
ment habitual' transgress it. 600, 700, and 800
barrels, and even more, are not an uncommon load
to arrive at Purfleet. Powder barges arriving at
Purfleet are never let alongside the wharf till their
lights and fires are out, which again shows that even
the Government authorities recognise the use of lights
and fires on board these craft. But no loading or
unloading of powder is ever permitted at Purfleet
unless at the hands of the Government powder-men
themselves. The crews are always removed from
the barges at once, and have a place regularly as-
signed to them outside the magazines, where there is
a cookhouse, and where they can smoke. No barge,
if
:it can possibly be avoided, is allowed to remain
at the wharf all night. If, however, it should be
compelled to remain, the crew are brought on board
at 9 o'clock, and have to turn in in the dark. When
the powder is all on board and secured below, the
barge is removed to a buoy in the river about
300 yards from the magazine. While at this buoy
the crew can have their lights and fires, whether
there is powder on board or not; yet an accident
happening to a powder barge with 800 barrels on
board at only 300 yards' distance from the magazine
would be the same as if it happened in the msgszine
itself. In this respect, and in this respect only, do
the precautions at Purfleet appear less than they
should be in the face of the tremendous havoc which
would follow on any casualty. What would be the
effect of an explosion at Purfleet it is almost impos-
sible to conceive as regards its damage to the river
and the surrounding neighbourhood. What its effect
would be in London may be approximately calcu-
lated by a consideration of the chemical rules relat-
ing to the explosion of gunpowder, and according
to which the metropolis would certainly fare badly.
Two thousand tons of powder would occupy 75,000
cubic feet of space, or equal to a pile of 100 ft long,
40ft wide, and 20ft high—quite the size of an ordi-
nary parish church. As powder at the moment of
its explosion exerts an elastic force of 1,060 times
the pressure of the atmosphere (15,0001 b to the
square inch), the ignition of this quantity would in-
stantaneously liberate a force equal to 14 million
tons. As the vibrations of force radiate equally in
all directions, like those of light and heat, it neces.
scarily follows that its intensity diminishes in pro-
portion as the circle of its radiation increases in dia.
meter. Thus, taking the direct distance from London
to Purfleet as 16 miles, an explosion taking place at
the latter magazine would by the time it reached
town be distributed over 10 billion square yards of
surface, and therefore the mechanical effect of the
shock to the houses in London would be a little
over 31b per square yard of surface, or 2201 b on the
front of an ordinary average dwelling-house. This
would be augmented to a slight extent from the
fact that the power of the shock would not radiate
downwards, in consequence of the earth, and would
react in other directions. The quantity of powder
exploded at Erith on the occasion of the late catas-
trophe was 104,001 b, or 1,733 cubic feet ; this pro-
bably produced a force of 800,000 tons, and this,
radiating to London, was spread over a space of
0,600,000 square yards, and reduced its effec!ive
force on the houses of the metropolis to about 6oz
per square yard. It may seem surprising to many
that this small force should have been so distinctly
felt; but when it is remembered that a very few
doorpoundsesveexreerfteeedliinngboafngeoinngeuaiio will
give rise to a
very in most houses the
surprise will cease. The pressure which would be
exerted upon the houses of the metropolis by an exs
plosion at Purfleet of Sib or 41b per square yard
would probably be sufficient to break most windows
facing in its direction, and houses would feel the
shock very severely ; for though the pressure would
not be more than that specified above, the wave of
force arising from such a quantity of powder would
be of great duration. Gravesend and Woolwich
would probably be completely unroofed, and Erith
vanish into air.
It would be well if, while public attention is
aroused on this subjact, the general conditions of
what is called the powder wharf at Isleworth were
considered. The amount sometimes accumulated
there, and the regulations under which it is go.
verned, should be inquired into; also if barges
laden with powder barrels and with fire on board
are not constantly in the habit of leaving there and
dropping down the river with the tide till they
anchor in the Thames in the midst of the city, or at
Purfleet, or the Pool opposite the Docks. If any.
thing happened to these barges while in what we
may call city waters, our happy suburban friends
would find the ruins of St Paul's somewhere in
Copenhagen-fields.—limes.

CARRIED AWAY BY A TIGER.—At 9 o'clock a.m.
on the 24th of September a Malay, named Ningul,
with four others, three men and one woman, all Malaya,
left Campong Elari, which is situated on the right bank of
the Sirangoon river, distant about a mile from the Siran-
goon station, No. 3. and entered the jungle to cut wood at
a place called Sungie Siloo. While they were engaged in
cutting wood a tiger sprang out of the jungle, se'z,d the
man named Ningul, and was walking away with him. The
others on seeing this gave chase and pursued the tiger for
about a mile, when the animal threw its victim down and
ran away. The Malays, on going to pick the man up
found that life was extinct. The Duff►dars of Stations
Nos. 2 and 3, Sirangoon, proceeded to Campong Elari to
examine the body of deceased, when they observed that the
neck was broken, and impressions of the tiger's claws visi-
ble on different parts of the body of deceased.—Straits
Times.

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