THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
291 
(barrels, &c.) in which powder is transmitted to distant places are often 
so imperfectly constructed that the grains escape into the cart, or the 
hold of a vessel in which the powder is stowed, where they may become 
mixed up with grit and be eventually trampled upon. As regards the 
vehicles in which the powder is transported, some regulations exist with 
respect to the employment of covered or uncovered carts with reference 
to quantities of powder exceeding considerable limits; but there is no 
law requiring carts or barges to be specially constructed or employed 
so as to exclude sources of danger (such as grit, employment of iron 
fastenings, &c.) In the mining districts, and even in towns, powder is 
constantly conveyed in dangerous quantities in ordinary carts, which 
may have been used for carrying stones,, coal, or road rubbish. ,< It may 
be and frequently is conveyed in carts with other goods, such even as 
lucifer matches and petroleum; there is no regulation to prevent the 
person in charge from smoking while in his cart, or stopping at a public 
house, leaving the powder standing at the door, and Major Majendie 
reports that such occurrences are frequent. 
Public conveyances often carry packages of powder without any 
precautions, other than perhaps a caution to a passenger who may 
unwittingly be exposing himself and companions to immediate danger. 
Thus there is a case officially recorded of a man who, on getting on to 
an omnibus at Wigan, Was requested to put out his pipe, as the passenger 
next to him had 100 lb. of powder in a barrel beside him. The convey¬ 
ance of large quantities of gunpowder in a number of wagons passing 
close together through towns has been no uncommon occurrence; thus 
Major Majendie discovered that it was a practice in Edinburgh to convey 
as much as twenty tons and upwards of powder at one time through the 
streets, the public having thereby incurred the greatest possible risks, 
through smoking going on while the carts have been standing in 
crowded places. A similarly extensive conveyance of powder through 
the most populous districts of London for transfer to ships at wharves 
has often taken place ; and it may be quoted, as one of many instances 
mentioned by the police authorities, that a train of fifteen vehicles loaded 
with about twenty tons of gunpowder passed from Camden Town to 
Blackwall Stairs (a densely populated place) to be shipped off, the whole 
of the loaded vans being detained in the street for some time for the 
arrival of the barge to which the consignment was to be transferred. 
Railway companies, as a rule, adopt comparatively efficient precautions 
with respect to the transport of powder and explosives. The former is 
conveyed, when in sufficient quantities, in vans specially constructed, 
and more or less well adapted to the purpose, or, when the quantities 
are comparatively small, in barrels separately packed in specially con¬ 
structed metal cylinders. With regard to the conveyance of other 
explosives and of small packages of fireworks, the regulations and charges 
adopted are in most instances so restrictive that they lead to much 
surreptitious carriage of such goods, whereby passenger- and goods- 
trains are often exposed to great risk. 
The carriage of powder and other explosives by water should be the 
safest mode of conveyance, if proper regulations could be enforced; but 
here again the Regent's Park catastrophe has afforded a terrible example 
38 
