Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-07-04
POWDER-MA KING.
Drying Room-Tropicai Temperaiure-FiiIing
Kegs. and Manufacture Of same-ship-
ments of Powder, whither-Men En-
Ployed-DirerentW orks of the Com
pany-Historical, Ancient and
Modern-Finnle.

Inc drying house OF these powder
works has two apartments. In one
the process whence the building has
its name is carried on, in the other
kegs are filled, closed, and made
ready for market. The men employ
ed here 60 about their business with
very grave faces. They do very lit
tie smiling, and glide 10 and fro in
their cloth-clad feet as silently as
shadows, and as solemnly as the chief
mourners at a funeral. Though Mes
tor sware the joke were laughabe,
we doubt whether any Of them could
be caught to show their teeth in the
way OF grin, or any thing thereto
approximating Profound intellectual
operations of some sort seem to be
going on behind the frontal bones of
their chronological dominions. What
it is that they are so soberIy trying
TO fathom, is qnite to much for our
comprehension, unless, indeed, it be
that they are estimating, in deadly
mathematical manner, how much
propellant gunpowder force would, if
liberated, be required to blow them
to the moon. At any rate we cannot
fancy them thinking Of any thing
that might be called facetious or fun
ny. Like Hamlet they seem to muse
on things beyond the reaches Of
their souls" Man delights them not.
and woman neither, and it would
evidently be all one TO them if this
goodly frame, the Earth, were ster-
lie promotory, and the armament
foul and pestilent congregation of
varors.
The temperature that prevails in
the drying room is essentially equa-
torial. You detect upon entering the
presence of an odor not at all dis
agreeable, and feel at once that it is
not just the place that a sane man
would be likely 20, seek in the
dog days. Over the whole mass of
animated matter composing your
physical identity, comes sudden
glow, and in moment the perspira-
ton begins to start from every pore
that your cuticle contains. A rich
roseate color mounts to your cheeks;
flannel shirts and overcoats are
thought of with singular adherence,
and you are in for telling somebody
that it is hot. You feel like taking
off your fleshly integuments, and
extracting the most indispensable
portions of your viscera.
The drying room is filled to its
utmost capacity with wooden paste
board bottomed trays, having the
form of a parsllelogram, and boing
some two or three inches in depth.
These contain the powder The tenn
perature is raised TO 170o to 225o
Fahrenheit, and in fourty-eight hours
to drying is finished. An officer of
the British army recently recon-
mended that the temperature for
drying powder should not be less
than 5000 f. AT that point, it is
claimed, the very last particle OF
moisture is extracted, the saltpetre
and sulphur reduced to a state OF
fusion, and the grains so indurated
that they would not be effected by
exposure to an atmosphere as humid
as that of London before sunrise
But since it is known that gunpowder
will explode if exposed to tempera-
ture Of 600o, the safe presumption is
that our manufactures will not heed
the rash suggestions Of this English
officer. They will 90 on drying the
compound in the old way, prefsrring
rather the conservatism Of safety
than the radicalism of danger.
When the drying process is finish
ed, the trays are removed and their
contents emptied After being suf
ficiently cooled off, the powder is put
into kegs. These hold just twenty
five pounds, and are made some OF
wood and some Of sheet iron. They
are carefully closed and properly
labelled, after which they are taken
for safe keeping to the magazine, a
solid, jail-like building located fully
mile from the manufacturing estab.
lishments.
The two keg factories belonging
to these works are kept in constant
operation, and some tour or five men
find steady and profitable employ.
ment in each The work is mostly
performed by machinery, and with
out any extra efforts, upward of three
hundred kegs can be manufactured
per day. The sheet iron used comes
from Pittsburgh, and the pine lum.
Der from the extensive saw mills OF
Green Bay. Before the kegs receive
their contents, they are carefully
lined with pitch. This preserves the
powder from the effects of moisture
as we'll az the deterioration and dam,
ages incident to long transportation
and storage
The powder produced by these
mills is shipped to St Louis, Chicago
and numerous other points which il
is needless to name. 1t is used in
the vast coal mines of Lasalle. in
Illinois, by the Pacific railway com.
panies, and even in the gold and sill
yer mines Of the farthest West.
On an average twelve men are at
work here the year round, but al
certain seasons as many as twenty or
twenty-five find employment. The
mills are usually kept running sum-
mer and winter, although o few Sc.
we're cold days have been known to
keep them at q stand-still for month
or longer at time.
The Platteville powder mills are
the only works of the kind in the
west. They belong, as already stated.
to the extensive Latin and Rand
Powder company, whose works are
named and located as follows: En-.
pire works, Kingston, Orange works
Newburg, Kfskatom works, Catskill
and Saugerties works, Saugertics, all
in the state Of New York Battle
works, Baltimore, Md; Cressona
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