i88i.] 
Offensive Manufactures, 
137 
west of Durham and Northumberland, all Westmoreland, 
the greater part of Cumberland, Lonsdale beyond Sands in 
Lancashire, a considerable part of Cheshire, Derbyshire, 
Worcestershire, Hereford, and Monmouth, besides the mid- 
land counties bordering upon the Thames. 
It is by no means suggested that all manufacturers should 
be proscribed in the A districts. To paper-mills and print- 
works, so long as they consume their smoke and run no 
refuse into the rivers, I see no reasonable objection. The 
same may be said of such chemical works as prepare fine 
products for photographic and pharmaceutical purposes. 
Nor need soap-works be banished so long as they do not 
melt raw tallows or use animal offal. The chief objection 
is to the alkali manufactories, to iron-, copper-, and lead- 
smelting works, large foundries, locomotive works, woollen 
and cotton mills, and all establishments which sulphurise 
the air by the sheer quantity of coal consumed. 
The most rigid limitation should be placed upon the 
manufacture of explosives, which should be strictly confined 
to lonely places. It is too often overlooked that when a 
magazine explodes the shock does not travel merely through 
the air, but underground, producing in faCt a veritable earth- 
quake. In the great gun-cotton explosion at Stowmarket, 
in August, 1871, windows were observed writhing and falling 
to pieces at places distant about three-quarters of a mile 
from the magazine, before the sound reached the ears of the 
amazed spectators. Hence belts of timber, mounds of 
earth, &c., are of very little value as a protection to any 
adjacent property in case of a severe explosion. If we con- 
sider what havoc was wrought by the explosion of about 
50,000 lbs. of gunpowder at Erith, we may feel astonished 
that the Home-Office should propose to sanction the storage 
of 10,000 lbs. of an explosive alleged by the patentee to be 
“ from three to four times as strong as gunpowder,” at the 
distance of about half a mile from a valuable dwelling- 
house. 
Those who have had the painful opportunity of observing 
the effects of a severe explosion can scarcely come to any 
other conclusion but this, that no manufactory or magazine 
of explosives, save in the hands of Government, should exist 
within a clear mile of any human habitation, and that such 
establishments should moreover be so situated that the pro- 
ducts maybe delivered to shippers or consumers without the 
necessity of passing through London or any large city. 
For such branches of industry special parts of the B district 
should be set aside. 
VOL. III. (third series) l 
