THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
237 
“Whereas a Brass Foundery is now building at Woolwich for his Majesty’s 
Service, all Founders as are desirous to cast Brass Ordnance are to give in their 
Proposals forthwith, upon such Terms as are regulated by the Principal Officers of 
His Majesty’s Ordnance, which may be seen at their Office in the Tower.” 
A month later, it was ordered that, if the results of enquiry proved satis¬ 
factory, Mr Andrew Schalch should “ be employed in Building the Furnaces, 
and providing of the Necessary Utensills for the Royal Foundry at Woolwich 
at £5 a Day, untill Everything is provided and his performances approved.” 
It is then recorded :— 
“ Veneris 5° die Oetobris , 1716. The Board having rec d . a Lfe. from 
Mr Leathes, his Majesty’s Minister at Brussells, giving an accoh that Mr Andrew 
Schalk (sic) bears a good Character at Doway and was an able Founder. Ord d . 
That the said Mr Schalk be employed in the Royal Foundry at Woolwich at £5 
per diem from the 20 th of Sep r . last.” 
The foregoing particulars have been stated with a minuteness greater 
than their subject may seem to demand, because they tend to disprove the 
popular tradition that to Mr Andrew Schalch belongs the credit of selecting 
the site of, and virtually founding, the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. 
The following is the generally received, but erroneous, account of the 
events which are said to have resulted in the establishment of a Government 
Foundry at Woolwich, as related in all pamphlets, encyclopsedise, guide 
books, and periodicals (even so respectable an authority as the Quarterly 
Review), which profess to treat on the ArsenaFs history.* Andrew Schalch, 
a native of Schaffhausen in Switzerland, happened in the year 1716 to be 
travelling in England, as a journeyman founder, according to the laws of 
his canton. Attending at the Moorfields foundry on the 10th of May to 
witness the great castings of ordnance, he noticed a dampness of the moulds 
and, foreseeing that the steam which must be generated by their contact 
with molten metal would cause an explosion, warned Colonel Armstrong 
(then Surveyor to the Ordnance) to retire from the building with all whom 
he could persuade to accompany him. As Schalch predicted, an explosion 
took place, and a few days afterwards an advertisement appeared in the 
papers inviting the young foreigner—who, addressing Colonel Armstrong 
in French at Moorfields, had given him such timely warning—to call at the 
Tower, where he would hear of something to his advantage. Schalch called 
accordingly and was informed (after giving proofs of his abilityand experience 
in the art of casting metals) that the Government had decided to move their 
cannon foundry from London, and entrusted him with the important com¬ 
mission of selecting a site for the new buildings. After examining all the 
eligible spots within a reasonable distance of the metropolis, Schalch 
(as the story goes) recommended the “Rabbit Warren,” or “ Tower Place,” 
at Woolwich, as fulfilling all the required conditions of a site for the 
projected foundry. Being close to the river, it was conveniently situated 
for the purposes of transport; from its inland position, it was unexposed to 
* The earliest authority for this error which I have been able to find is Joseph Moser’s 
Yestiges,” No* IY. dated October 1802, in the British Museum. 
