MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OE 
This view is so far sound, that an explosion near the top of a 
house would unquestionably do less harm than one near the 
bottom ; but such an explosion would be far from harmless, and 
powder so stored is exceedingly difficult to get at in the event of fire, 
while the carrying of it up and down stairs is objectionable. In 
many places that I have visited, the powder is kept in cupboards 
at the back of the shop, and with no sort of special protection; 
and in the mining districts the miners are very fond of keeping 
a barrel (frequently not “ headed-up ”) under their beds ! 
As the law at present stands, it is open to any dealer (and no 
license is required to deal) to keep up to 200 lbs. of gunpowder 
anywhere and anyhow, and without supervision of any description. 
As stated by me in my Report of 16th May, 1872, on the 
Revision of the Gunpowder Law, “ the amount of damage which 
may be done in a crowded neighbourhood by the explosion of 
this amount of powder—or even of one-half this amount—is very 
great indeed. 200 lbs. of gunpowder exploding in a dwelling- 
house would almost certainly destroy it completely, and probably 
seriously damage neighbouring houses. In the case of the explo¬ 
sion which took place last November at Stubshaw Cross, two 
cottages were destroyed, one person was killed, and eight persons 
were seriously injured by the explosion of about 27 lbs. of blasting 
powder. At the explosion which occurred at Messrs. Young’s 
shop at Stirling, last September, an explosion of about 80 lbs. 
destroyed a house, and did damage estimated at about £2000. 
At the explosion which took place in Manor Street, Chelsea, in 
October last, about 20 lbs. of powder exploded (as far as I could 
ascertain when collecting materials for my Report upon the 
subject), destroying a storehouse, and blowing down one or two 
brick walls, besides breaking the windows and injuring the roofs 
of adjoining houses. 
At an experiment which I made a few months ago at Chatham, 
50 lbs. of powder, placed against a brick wall in the open, not 
merely blew a large breach in the wall, but destroyed the windows 
of a cottage about 40 to 45 yds. off, and stripped some of the 
blinds from the rollers. 
To these instances I may add the case of a recent explosion of 
gunpowder at Stowmarket, when two persons were killed and the 
back of a house blown out by about 5 or 6 lbs. of powder only. 
It cannot* therefore, be disputed that the quantity (200 lbs.) 
which may now be kept by a dealer without a license—or, indeed, 
the quantity (50 lbs.) which may be kept by any person, whether 
a dealer or not—is sufficiently formidable to make it a matter of 
importance that the powder so kept should be stored in some 
place where it is not exposed to the risk of fire. 
This can only be done in one of two ways :— 
(a) Providing a magazine so well isolated that it is not liable 
to be fired by a conflagration in adjacent buildings. 
(b) Providing a fire-proof magazine. 
