gunpowder: its manufacture and conveyance. 
41 
Blackheath and Woolwich. Within a radius of from half-a-mile 
to a mile from the scene of the explosion houses were wrecked, 
windows blown in, doors burst open, ceilings shaken down, 
ornaments and furniture dashed to pieces. A massive bridge 
over the canal was destroyed, for hundreds of yards its embank- 
ment was displaced, and the house which stood nearest to it was 
so shaken that it had to he pulled down next day. The effect 
was more like that of a severe shock of an earthquake than 
anything else. Fortunately no lives were lost except those of 
the crew of the barge, but the destruction of valuable property 
was enormous. 
Much alarm has been caused not only in London but 
throughout the kingdom by this explosion in the heart of the 
metropolis, and it will have a useful effect in calling attention 
to the dangerous character of a material so largely employed as 
gunpowder, and the consequent necessity of carefully regulating 
its manufacture, storage, and transport, and seeing that these 
regulations are strictly enforced ; for no matter how perfect our 
precautions may be in theory, they are worse than useless if we 
cannot secure their practical efficiency. Without this, their 
only result must be to lull us into a false security. Gunpowder, 
and its manufacture and transport, are now subjects in which 
nearly everyone is interested ; and we purpose to devote the 
following pages to an account of the nature and action of this 
explosive, its manufacture, and the principles involved in it, and, 
finally, its transport, and the precautions necessary for our 
security against explosions like that of last October. We shall 
describe the process of manufacture in use at the Government 
mills, as these are probably the most perfect and efficient in the 
kingdom. 
Fifteen miles to the north-east of London, between the slug- 
gish stream of the Liver Lea and the northern heights of 
Epping Forest, stands the little village of Waltham, famous for 
its old abbey, founded by the last Saxon King of England, and 
destined to be his tomb after the fatal field of Hastings. On 
both sides of the high-road beyond the village extends a wide 
tract of flat alluvial ground, traversed by the branches of the 
Lea, and rich in plantations of willow and alder, with here and 
there stately rows of poplars. A tall chimney shaft, the roofs 
of scattered buildings, and a range of houses near the road, 
indicate that these well-planted fields are the site of the Royal 
Gunpowder Factory. 
The Waltham Abbey Mills are probably the oldest in Great 
Britain. They must have been established about the middle of 
the sixteenth century, for we know that before that time nearly 
all the powder used in England was imported from the Conti- 
nent. But in 1561 we hear of John Thomworth, of Waltham, 
