73 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



der-storm approaches, the men have orders to stop the machinery, 

 leave the houses, close the doors, and cease all work'until it has passed 

 over. But the best security for the safety of the factory is that the 

 workmen are a body of steady, industrious, intelligent men, and bear 

 so high a character that a dismissal is a rare event, though it is the 

 penalty of any breach of a necessarily strict code of rules. 



The powder manufactured at Waltham is carried down the river 

 Lea to be stored in the great magazines at Purfleet. A useful lesson 

 can be learned from the method of transport. The gunpowder is con- 

 veyed in barges specially constructed for the purpose. They are about 

 half the length of an ordinary canal-boat, and are covered with a semi- 

 circular roof, with a door at the side, which is kept closed, except 

 when the boat is being actually loaded or unloaded. Every powder- 

 barge is considered a magazine, and the same rules apply to it as to 

 the Government magazines. No fire or light is allowed on board ; 

 nothing but powder is to be placed in the hold ; and no one is allowed 

 to enter it without wearing the ordinary magazine shoes. In this way 

 it may be said that every chance of an explosion is carefully guarded 

 against. It would be well if the same method of transport were used 

 on canals where (as on the Regent's Canal) gunpowder is being con- 

 tinually carried to and fro. The extra expense of having special 

 barges would not amount to one-hundredth j:>art of the loss caused by 

 an explosion. 



We have also to consider the transport of gunpowder by road. It 

 is said that it is a common thing for cart-loads of gunpowder to pass 

 through the crowded streets of London, sometimes several carts closely 

 following each other, and crowding together if there is a block in the 

 traffic. This is unquestionably a very dangerous practice. It would 

 be well if carts laden with any considerable quantity of gunpowder 

 could be prevented from entering the streets of a town ; but in many 

 cases this would be impossible. The transport, however, might easily 

 be rendered much safer, by forbidding gunpowder-carts to pass along 

 the streets except during a few hours in the morning, allowing only 

 covered vans to be used, and fixing certain intervals within which no 

 van should approach another. Finally, powder should never be packed 

 in the light kegs used by some manufacturers, Avhich are continually 

 liable to leak, for loose powder is always exposed to ignition by any 

 one of a hundred accidents. There are cases recorded of explosions 

 having taken place through powder leaking from a tumbril, and form- 

 ing a train upon the ground, which was fired by a spark struck from 

 the shoes of one of the horses drawing it. Good, strong barrels 

 should always be used, and they could of course be returned when 

 empty. 



After the Regent's Park explosion there were some fears expressed 

 as to a possible explosion at Purfleet, where about 50,000 barrels of 

 gunpowder are stored in five large magazines. If five tons on board 



