THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
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time become impressed with the necessity for the exercise of some 
amount of care in handling explosive substances. 
It does not admit of dispute, however, that the recklessness of the 
miner has actually been fostered hitherto by the utter disregard of all 
ordinary precautions which they must but too frequently witness at 
the stores where the powder is sold or issued to them. The practices 
of small dealers in gunpowder present illustrations of ignorance and 
recklessness, if anything even more appalling than those which the habits 
of the miners furnish. The manner in which powder is often dealt with 
by those in charge of the stores or magazines in quarries or mines, and 
who have to issue supplies to the men, may be illustrated by one or 
two examples from a Report to the Home Office by Major Majendie. 
At a quarry in Scotland, he was conducted by the man in charge to a 
magazine containing about 6 cwt. of powder. For this purpose the 
man lit a naked candle; as they entered the door it was blown out by 
the draught, but the man produced some matches from his pocket and 
rekindled it. When asked how he issued the powder to the men, he 
held the candle with his left hand, and ladled the powder out with the 
other hand. The practice of smashing in the head of a powder-barrel 
with an iron crow-bar is stated to be a very common one, or else a 
large stone is used, or a hole is bored into the head with a steel bit; 
and, as an extreme instance of recklessness, the case of a man is quoted 
who was in the habit of boring into the barrels with a red-hot poker. 
On one occasion, the lid of the barrel being thinner than usual, the 
heated iron was thrust into the contents of the barrel, and the man 
fell a victim to his very original mode of dealing with packages of 
gunpowder. 
In some mining districts it has been customary to pay no regard 
whatever to the suitability, in point of safety, of the localities selected 
for the storage of powder. It has not unfrequently been kept in large 
quantities (e.g. 5001b.) in ordinary buildings, quite close to dwelling 
houses. An instance is quoted in an official Report by a chief con¬ 
stable of about 3 cwt. of powder being kept in a colliery lodge 
constantly used by workmen, and in which a fire was regularly kept. 
Even where magazines have been provided, in connection with extensive 
mines and quarries, many instances are on record of gross ignorance or 
carelessness in regard to the precautions essential to the safe handling 
of gunpowder. The men who go to the magazines for supplies of 
powder, and even the man who is in charge, are allowed to enter the 
building in their iron-shod dirt-covered boots, often coming to the 
store smoking, the pipe being merely put into the waistcoat pocket 
when they get close to the building; the barrels containing loose 
powder are often left unheaded, and powder grains lie upon the floor; 
the door of the magazine in some instances opens inwards, scraping the 
floor as it is pushed open. A magazine in which this utter want of 
precautions was observed in the most extreme degree contained several 
tons of gunpowder. In illustration of the way in which explosions 
occur at such stores, it may be mentioned that some children saw some 
loose powder outside a store (in Cornwall), and set fire to it; the 
contents of the building were thus exploded, there being a train of 
