The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-12-04
THIRTY-THREE IN ALL.
That Is the Total Death Rate of the
Cambo Powder mills.
One New Name Added to the List
Yesterday
When the KerneIIlng mill was Blown
to Pieces.

When the KernelIing mill was Blown
to Pieces.
About ten miles northwest of Portland as
the crow flies, although 1t is eleven and
half or twelve miles by road, are situated
just north of Little Falls In the town of
Windham, what are commonly known as the
Gambo powder mills. They are, properly
speaking the property of the Orien-
tai Powder Mills. The Portland & Ogdens-
burg railroad, now the mountain division of
the Maine Central, passes within quarter
of mile of the mills at flag station called
Newhall. Leaving the train at Newhall it is
but short walk down the road on the west
side of the track to the Office of the powder
company. This is neat story and half
wooden structure, with one bay window and
two good sized rooms, separated by folding
doors, well equipped for an office and private
office. There is bend in the road here and
short distance further ON the beautiful
Presumpscot river falls laundering and foam
ing over the dam on one side of which is the
saw mill owned by the Oriental Powder Com
pany, and on the other side the mills in
which the powder is made. The old Cum
berland and Oxford canal passes within a
hundred yards of the west bank at this point
and it is between the Presumpscot and the OBJ
solete canal that the mills are located. Rising
abruptly from the west bank of the canal is
a wooded hill that extends for some distance
parallel with the canal. The Gambo Powder
Mills were established in 1925, and since that
early time they have produced thousands of
kegs of powder. There are at present twenty
different mills, and all told between fifty and
sixty men are employed the year round. The
mills are one-story wooden structures, some
50x30 feet on the ground, and are situated
from hundred feet to as many yards apart.
Between many of them are barbados made
of heavy timber, and shaped like steep Roof
to prevent the conclusion made by an ex-
plosion of one mill from exploding the one
next to it. The different processes in the
manufacture of the powder are carried on in
the different mills.
The powerful explosive is composed of
three observation-disclosures, birthstone and
charcoal. A number of men are kept busy
cutting trees for the manufacture of charcoal.
Poplar, willow and alder are used almost ex-
clusively, and as these trees grow in close
proximity to the mills, it costs but little to
get the charcoal.
After the trees are cut down the bark is
peeled off and the wood put into iron cylin-
ders where it is burned. The newly made
charcoal and the birthstone are pulverized
together, after which the saltpetre and a lit
tie moisture is added, and the mixture rolled
out into sheets. 1t is then taken to the kerr
nellng mills where the mass is ground into
little kernels and glazed. 1t is then put into
kegs and stored in the stone magazines all
ready for the market.
The manufacture of powder is very dan
gerous. and from the time when the first
mill was built at Gambo until the present
date numerous fatal explosions have occur
red, making the place famous for its terrible
catastrophies that have caused so many
deaths. On . ...o iStn of October, 1856, an ex-
piosion took place just as the canal boat, in
use at that time, was crossing the river and
Whipple, Franklin Hawkes., John SWEET.
Edwin Hardy, Samuel Phinney and Luther
Robinson were killed.
The older residents of Windham well re-
member the explosions that from time to
eino nave nduc thc edIln quake In all the
region round about. The following list of
those who have lost their lives by these ex-
plosions since 1885 was made out by an old
man who lives about mile from the mills:
Charles Humphrey Oct. II. 1895.
Dennis Hatch, july 10, l849.
Leander White, Oct. 4, 1850
Thomas Bickford, Sept. %, 1851.
Luther Robinson, Oct. IL, 1855.
Edwin Hardy. Oct. IL, 1855.
John SWEET, Oct. p, 1855.
Franklin Hawkes., Oct IL, 1856.
Samuel Phinney, Oct. IL, 1855.
Q. 3. Whipple, Oct. II, 1866.
James Whipple, Oct. IL, 1855.
man named White killed May 4, 1855.
oliver Gerry, May 4, 1856.
Peter kitchie, jan 10, 1859.
David Jones jan is, 1859.
Albert Glidden, July z, 1862.
Josiah Little, July a. 1862.
Charles Carmichael, July iyG 8, 1861.
Charles Charlow, Feb. %, 1869.
Moses Hawkes., July, 1869.
Frank Jordan, August 2, 1870.
John Dlnsmore. Nov. 10, 1871
Y: Z. Stokes, Oct. %, 1879.
Clinton Mayberry, Oct. 81, 1879.
Reuben kenney, Jan. 81, 1884.
Clarence Clay, March IL, 1885,
Harry Hooper, March Ii, 1886.
Edward Williams, Nov. 5, 1888.
Waller Childs, Nov. 5, 1855.
More than 80 persons, it will be seen, have
been killed at Gambo since 1885 by the ex-
plosion OF some of the N lis, yet Ii Is said to
be impossible to avoid these catastrophies.
Yesterday morning little before o'clock
there was heard In Portland the sound of a
far off explosion Many said at once that
'GamDo has gone up agar" and such proved
to be fact.
Less than week ago William Bamblet, a
man 80 years old, arrived at Gambo from
Westheld, Mass, where he left his wife and
two daughters. He was an old powder
maker, having worked before in years
gone by at the Gambo powder mills.
So he readily found employment with the
Oriental Powder Company and vert to work
yesterday morning as usual in the kernell-
ing mill. AT about $50 o'clock the second
foreman went into the mill and found every
thing running smoothly and in good order.
he soon left the house and went on down
the plank walk to one of the other mills. He
had been gone but moment when there
rose from the mill that he had just left a
great cloud OF smoke, flash of fire and then
terrific explosion and mighty crash This
was followed by the sound of falling timber,
splinters and debris. A number of the
workmen who were not far away and the
foreman as soon as they realized what had
from where the mill had once Stood they
found among the debris the body of Mr..
Bamblet who was the only man in the mill
at the time, He was unconscious when
found, and died before he could be taken to
MS boarding place near by. Drs. Marshall,
Harper and Bailey and Undertaken Nichols
soon arrived. and an examination of the body
showed thatit was horribly burned and mu-
tilated. Apparently every bone In the body
was broken. Fortunately nobody else was
hurt.
The PRESS reporter visited the scene of
the terrible accident, and carefully examined
the premises where 1t occurred. Leaving
the main road he passed down the lower
towpath of the canal, passing a powder
house, then two barricades. then the ruins of
the the mill that was destroyed by an explo-
sion which killed Edward Williams and
Walter Childs just month before; then sew
eral more mills, until he came to spot sew
eral hundred yards from the main road,
where the mill in which the last explosion
took place once stood All that remains
standing is number of heavy timbers. on
which rests a part of the machinery that
was once in the centre of the powder mill.
The Ice on the canal was covered with de-
brls; pieces OF boards, six feet long, were
thrown into tree tops 200 feet distant, and
there they remained. couple of good sized
slrch trees, 90 feet away, were broken short
| off just above the ground, and numerous
branches Of other trees were blown off. Sew
| eral pieces OF cloth were blown into trees
near by, aud splinters and slabs covered
the ground for a considerable distance ON
| all sides. One would know that mill once
| stood there only by the few timbers and
machinery that still remain on the spot A
shoe black with powder and other parts of
clothing once worn by the unfortunate work
| man were found in the debris Like all the
other EXPLOSIONS that have here taken place
nobody knows what caused 1t. Mr.. New
hall, superintendent of the works said when
asked what caused the explosion