The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-12 00:00:00

GUNPOWDER MANUFACTORIES.

(From the Mechanics' Magazine.)
The fearful explosion at the Hounslow Gun-
powder Mills will necessarily for a while draw
men's attention to the consideration of the causes of
such disasters, and the more philosophical and pro-
fitable means of their prevention. We have had
enough of these accidents to convince us that gun-
powder is a chemical combination of an extremely
treacherous nature. Although not so uncertain as
gun-cotton and fulminating silver it is, from the
difficulty of defining to what length it may be
trusted, of the same coquettishfamily. Gun-cotton,
it has been proved in the making of rockets, may
be rammed by a succession of gentle taps, or by
the whole force of hydraulic pressure some nine
thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times with
perfect impunity, and then a child shall drop a mere
rodupon it and cause the loss of many lives. Fulmi-
nating silver may be stirred with impunity two or
three times a-day in a wooden bowl, with a wooden
stick for a period of some ten or fifteen years, an d
yet this simple act shall at some other time scatter
into space a large factory, spread dismay throughout
Bond street and Piccadilly, and strike the in-
genious inventor of wire•cartridges a corpse. With
gunpowder, copper as a metal has, from the
time of Roger Bacon, been supposed to be
friendly, and men have not doubted that the
former would patiently submit to be knocked
about by the latter with the greatest unconcern;
yet after such a fact has been almost universally
accepted as beyond dispute, experiments in France
and Austria incontestibly prove that under special
circumstances copper is as liable to produce its
ignition as iron. Indeed, at the accident at Hatton,
about a year ago, a spark was seen to escape from
the copper tool used by one of the men. And now
we have iron rollers substituted at the Hounslow
Powder Mills in lieu of stone, as iron is considered
to ensure an additional safety from accidents.
When we visited the works on Thursday we
found the pressing-house, or rather the site where
it had stood, bearing every evidence that it was
upon this spot that the explosion first took place,
the greatest corroboration being in the fact that
the hydraulic press in the centre of the building
yet remained almost uninjured. Not only that
the accident originated here, but that the press
itself was the cause of it, we feel fully convinced.
The four uprights of the press were still standing,
somewhat, however, out of the perpendicular. The,
bottom was nearly perfect, but the whole of the
top had been blown away. This would be just
the effect which might have been anticipated from
an explosion taking place within the press. It
acted in some wise -as a huge piece of ordnance,
scattering destruction around, but leaving itself
intact.

Now, does not extreme pressure necessarily in-
volve an explosion taking place within the press. It
acted in some wise as a huge piece of ordnance,
scattering destruction around, but leaving itself
intact.
Now, does not extreme pressure necessarily in-
volve friction of particles, and does not friction of
particles, under certain circumstances, and in
countless instances, produce ignition ? If the reply
is in the affirmative, what is there in the nature of
sulphur, or charcoal, or saltpetre to exempt them
from a well-ascertained law ? We believe we are
not alone in pointing with suspicion to this
machinery. Very well-grounded fears respecting
its danger have been openly expressed by the best
informe men upon the works, and if we are not
misinformed, so strong was this feeling during the
period of its construction that the foreman of the
works, after respectfully protesting against its
adoption, resigned his appointment rather than run
the risk he saw in its use. -

Fear does not, however, appear to exercise much
sway over the men who work in these dangerous
trades. Eight men were killed en the Wednesday
and more than eighty had, directly or indirectly,
offered to supply their places before even their
mangled remains were consigned to the grave.
Surely, then, the inducement must be great ; the
pay must be liberal, and the hours short. It the

two shillings and twopence a day be an equivalent
for the risk, this the " black men"—the men who
must go with a " blow"—receive regularly and
faithfully. And here a most important considera-
tion presents itself. Have we any right to tempt
honest men, even for fifty times that amount,
to risk their lives in such an avocation ? Surely
we have convicts enough doing nothing—or
less than nothing—who might be employed in
such pursuits, and who might then be paid for
their time ; for no one would grudge even the
greatest malefactor 2s. 2d. a•day when it was
known that his body was liable to be rent into
fragments and scattered to the four quarters of the
globe at a moment's notice. The question whether
Hounslow is now a proper locality for the carrying
on of so dangerous a trade must shortly force itself
upon the attention of the Legislature; and we shall
not be surprised to hear that meetings are called
and attended by the principal landowners and
others for some five miles round to take into con-
sideration a matter which so seriously affects the
interests of their property, and the consequences
resulting from fright and alarm which so many of
their relatives and tenants are now suffering and
may suffer for years.