38 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery, and, say, ten gunners, that would 
enable me to make quite satisfactory arrangements. 
A request for the loan of this small party for the day might perhaps be preferred 
to the War Office at the same time as the request is made for the ground. 
I may add that I hope to be able to arrange for the carrying out of the experi¬ 
ments about the last week in August. 
It is, perhaps, proper that I should explain that I do not propose to take any 
responsibility on the part of the Home Office as to the success or otherwise of 
these experiments. The experiments are not intended to be conducted by me at all. 
What is proposed is, that Messrs. Milner should be afforded an opportunity of 
experimentally satisfying me publicly, so as at the same time to satisfy the retail 
dealers, that they can make a small gunpowder magazine quite fire-proof; and for 
this purpose, seeing the importance of the question, I have the honour to solicit for 
them permission to make those experiments in my presence on the Government 
site which I have indicated, and for myself, permission to make use of a small 
fatigue party, to ensure the safety of experiments which otherwise might involve 
some risk. 
I have the honour to be, 
Sir, 
Your obedient Servant, 
(Signed), 
The Right Honourable 
The Secretary of State , 
Home Department , 
Whitehall. 
Y. D. MAJENDIE, Major R.A., 
II.M's Inspr. of Gunpr. Works. 
B. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH MILNER’S FIRE-PROOF GUNPOWDER 
MAGAZINES. 
The following experiments, instituted with the authority of the Home Secretary, 
will take place, by permission of the Secretary of State for War, on the War 
Department Practice Range, Plumstead Marshes (outside Woolwich Arsenal), on 
Wednesday, 9th October, 1872, commencing at 9 o’clock, a. m. 
Object of Experiments. 
To determine if a magazine or receptacle for small quantities of gunpowder, 
designed by Messrs. Milner and Co., of Liverpool, is capable of resisting fire and 
preserving its contents from explosion for several hours. 
The opinion of the Superintendents of the principal Eire Brigades in the United 
Kingdom has been taken as to the time for which a magazine, to be really safe, ought 
to be able to resist such a fire as it might be exposed to in the shop or warehouse 
of a retail dealer, or in an ordinary dwelling house. The highest time assigned by 
any of these officers in their replies is six hours. Accordingly, it is assumed that if 
