The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-06
WooLMIcH ARSENAL.

The terrible accident at Woolwich ar senal, the seventh and worst that has happened there within the last hundred years, calls to mind the fact that but for a grave disaster we should never have had the great ordnance. establish ment at Woomich. When. i'll 1I16, it was discovered by the military authori- ties that there were but two twelve pounders and not one eighteen or twen- ty-four- -pounder for land service it was determined to hastily make good the lack of defensive weapons. By way of carrying out the scheme it was resolved to recast certain old guns which had been taken from the French by Marl- borough. The foundry for casting the guns was then in Upper Moorfields, hard by Wesleys Tabernacle. As a matter of fact, the evangelist preached at times to the workmen in their sheds, Here, for the remaking of the guns 3 great company of notables was invited, galleries for their accommodation erect ed and elaborate preparations made for their entertainment.
 One of the onfookers was Andrew Schalch, a Swiss journeyman founder, who was staying in this country picking up such information as was available about our dockyards, even as more il- lustrious persons than he had done. He detected latent dampness in the moulds and. recognizing that there must be an explosion, addressed himself to the first person who could understand his French. This happened to be Colonel Armstrong. surveyor general of ord- nance. The officer. satisfying himself that the young man knew what he was talking about, removed the members of his own family and as many about him as he was able to persuade to retire. The prophecy of the foreigned proved only too true, There was a terrible ex- plosion: molten metal scattered like. spray on those around. the galleries were shattered, the buildings destroyed, many lives lost and number of per sons injured. The guns remained un- cast, and still England lacked adequate weapons for land defense.
 The tradition runs that schalch, by way of reward, was appointed by the ordnance department to select a site for and erect and equip an arsenal; that he chose Woolwich and lived happily af- rewards turning out the best of possi- ble ammunition in the best of possible ways That he did become with credit to himself and profit to the country, Master Founder. at salary of five pounds per day, is beyond dispute, but the selection of the site did not lie with him. Woolwich has been our chief na- val and military repository since the time of Henry VIII. Prince Rupert commanded a battery of sixty guns there, and ships were sunk in the tide- way and others placed on guard to de- fend the London of those days from fr- vasion by the Dutch. Under. Schalch the new foundries were established, the site added to that occupied by the then existing stores being known for a great number of years as The Warren. from the fact that 1t was in reality rabbit warren before conversion to it's present use. Convict labor built the new, works. Huge melancholy three-decker hulks were moored in the river and were the homes of the shackled sinners who toil- ed in the arsena1s. the foundries and dockyards.
 We spend roughly six pounds min- ute day and night throughout an ordi- nary year upon our ordnance factories. The explosives come from Waltham, the small arms from Enfield and Spark brook Fifteen thousand men find en- ployment at Woolwich, and, with their families, make up a population squaling that of fair-sized provincial city. The staff can turn out 10000 tons of shot and shell each year. not an extravagant to- tai when it is remembered that the al- lies threw 30,000 tons of these pr6jec- lives into Sebastopol in the course of the siege of that place. But in addition to shot and shell the royal arsenal has a reputed capacity for the supply of 150,000,000 cartridges annually, num- Der much more than sufficient to oblit- crate the male population of Europe As to guns of heavy calibre, an output of ten thousand tons per year is men, tioned as within the capacity of the ar senal.-St. James Gazette.