INDUSTRIES 



following year. 1 In their report they stated inter 

 alia that ' for all ground which is not of great 

 hardness or very wet the explosives of moderate 

 power, such as compressed powder and common 

 powder, are most advantageous,' and ' for ground 

 of extreme hardness or which is very wet, the 

 stronger explosives should be used, such as dyna- 

 mite, Liverpool cotton-powder and tonite.' Their 

 experiments proved that a piece of ground could 

 be driven more cheaply by powder than by dyna- 

 mite, but that in the use of the dynamite, by 

 reason of its being a more powerful explosive, 

 less of it was required for each hole that was 

 charged, and that it was not necessary to bore 

 such deep holes for it as for powder. Conse- 

 quently the miner preferred the dynamite, for 

 although it might be a little more costly per 

 fathom of ground, it entailed less labour, and the 

 ground could be driven more quickly. From 

 that time the use of powder in Cornish mines 

 decreased whilst that of dynamite increased. 

 Powder continued for some little time to be used 

 in the mines to a limited extent for driving in 

 soft ground, but the price of dynamite, which at 

 the time of the trials above referred to had been 

 200 per ton, fell during the next ten years to 

 j65, and the use of powder in the mines then 

 ceased almost entirely. In granite and other 

 quarries in the county powder continues to be 

 used because the nitro-compounds are too violent 

 for quarrying purposes and shatter the stone too 

 much ; but the depression in the granite trade, 

 owing to the import of granite from Norway and 

 other causes, renders the demand for powder in- 

 considerable. 



At the present time very little dynamite is 

 used or made, that particular form of explosive 

 having been superseded by improved forms of 

 nitro-compound explosives known as gelignite, 

 gelatine-dynamite, and blasting gelatine. 



For the manufacture of these high explosives, 

 as they are called, two factories of considerable 

 importance have been built in Cornwall. 



The factory of the National Explosives Com- 

 pany at Upton Towans, near Hayle, was opened 

 in 1889. Various considerations led to the 

 selection of this particular site, the chief of these 

 being the cheapness and extent of the land there 

 and then available, its isolation as a property, and 

 at the same time its comparative nearness to the 

 numerous mines in the county. It embraces 

 within its boundaries over a square mile of 

 downs, and includes several properties besides 

 Upton Towans. From the date of its inception 

 the factory has been uniformly successful. It is 

 now four times larger than it was in 1889 and 

 affords employment, in round numbers, to five 

 hundred men and two hundred women. To 

 guard against accidents numerous precautions are 

 adopted. Discipline, according to carefully de- 

 fined rules, is rigidly enforced ; the employes are 



1 Report of the R.C.P. Soc. 1880. Supplement. 



searched before commencing work for such 

 articles as may, under any circumstances what- 

 ever, cause ignition or explosion ; while the 

 buildings used for the making and storing of 

 explosives are kept scrupulously clean. As the 

 result of these precautions human life is shown, 

 by statistics, to be quite as secure within the 

 factory as outside. The most serious accident 

 which has occurred was on 5 January, 1904, 

 when four men lost their lives. This accident 

 is supposed to have been caused by the sudden 

 fall of a lead-lined wooden tank cover which 

 slipped from a workman's hands when engaged 

 in running off nitro-glycerine from the tank. 

 The products manufactured here are of various 

 kinds. Besides explosives for mining purposes, 

 including dynamite (No. i), haylite, gelignite, 

 gelatine-dynamite and blasting gelatine, and an 

 enormous quantity of raw materials in the shape 

 of sulphuric acid, nitric acid and nitro-glycerine, 

 the National Explosives Company contracts 

 largely with His Majesty's Admiralty and War 

 Office, and with many foreign governments, for 

 the supply of materials required for the purposes 

 of ammunition. These consist of the following 

 explosives : gun-cotton, collodion cotton, com- 

 pressed gun-cotton, cordite, and cordite M.D. 

 The cordite manufactured here is of very superior 

 quality and has recently received commendation 

 from a commission appointed to investigate War 

 Office contracts. 8 



Soon after the formation of the National Ex- 

 plosives Company, in the same year a second 

 company was founded with a similar object by 

 Mr. Thomas Pryor of Redruth and Mr. P. R. 

 Mackay of London. This was the British and 

 Colonial Explosives Company, who acquired a 

 tract of land and established a factory for the 

 manufacture of dynamite at Perranporth. For 

 four years this company maintained a fierce but 

 unequal struggle with Nobel's Explosives Com- 

 pany of Glasgow, who, for the purpose of de- 

 feating the new competition, lowered their prices 

 to such an extent as to render the manufacture 

 of explosives at Perranporth unremunerative. 

 Negotiations were opened between the two 

 companies, and resulted in the transfer of the 

 Cornish factory to Messrs. Nobel in November, 

 1893. At that time there were altogether 

 about too persons employed. Since the amalga- 

 mation, allowing for periods of depression, a profit- 

 able and progressive business has been carried on. 

 The Perranporth Factory, which covers about 

 1 50 acres, and now employs in round numbers 

 200 persons of both sexes, embraces five depart- 

 ments : (i) Blasting Explosives Department for 



* Of the National Explosives Company the Com- 

 missioners say, ' This firm has manufactured sizes (of 

 cordite) 50, 44, 30, 20 and 5, and has been very 

 successful all round, especially in the larger sizes, com- 

 pared with other contractors.' Blue Book entitled, 

 War Office Contracts, I August, 1 900, p. xxviii. 



515 



