Curtis and Harvey Explosive Factory

Hugh Jorgan;318588 A lot of buildings with a few questions attached to them. Especially the semi-circular building said:

As the shock waves from quite minor thunder storms have been known to cause individual nitro-glycerine production cells to detonate, the positioning of any artillery piece near this and similar sites was a definite NO! The circular nitrating cells came about because of a very early theory (soon proven!) that cylindrical structures will withstand internal explosions better than square or rectangular structures, even when supported by earth bunds. If there was a BANG, one wanted it to all go skywards. All archived operating procedures for this and other explosive works would indicate that Rail Company responsibility ended at the works gate - if the rail is marked, it will most likely be with the name of the rolling mill producing said rail as the explosive producer will have had their contractors purchase and lay all internal track work.

Although this site is vast,Anybody who knows and understands the chemistry involved will soon work out that what we have here is just a production 'line'. However, because of the quantity of into-glycerine involved production cells had to be small enough to prevent the whole site exploding should one detonate.

These are some of the best photographs I have seen of this place - they really give you the impression of the scale of this place. Nice one!

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Dirus_Strictus said:

As the shock waves from quite minor thunder storms have been known to cause individual nitro-glycerine production cells to detonate, the positioning of any artillery piece near this and similar sites was a definite NO! The circular nitrating cells came about because of a very early theory (soon proven!) that cylindrical structures will withstand internal explosions better than square or rectangular structures, even when supported by earth bunds. If there was a BANG, one wanted it to all go skywards. All archived operating procedures for this and other explosive works would indicate that Rail Company responsibility ended at the works gate - if the rail is marked, it will most likely be with the name of the rolling mill producing said rail as the explosive producer will have had their contractors purchase and lay all internal track work.

Although this site is vast,Anybody who knows and understands the chemistry involved will soon work out that what we have here is just a production 'line'. However, because of the quantity of into-glycerine involved production cells had to be small enough to prevent the whole site exploding should one detonate.

These are some of the best photographs I have seen of this place - they really give you the impression of the scale of this place. Nice one!

Click to expand...

Dirus_Strictus said:

I count myself lucky to have been born when I was - it has allowed me to indulge in certain hobbies before the State Law Makers, Police and other parties put a stop to some interesting, then legal pursuits. Looking through my old reloading and shooting records it seems that I am probably the only person here who has used Curtis and Harvey Black Powder. In the 70's and 80's, as more and more of the old gunsmiths closed down due to loss of custom, one occasionally found the odd tin or so of propellant listed in the clearance auction. My then local gunsmith was also a very good friend and it appears that I loaded up some C & H powder that he had obtained, into cartridges for a rare double barrelled game rifle. How any firearm propellant performs is all down to particle/grain size, this is particularly true for black powders and C & H produced one of the smoothest shooting powders I have ever come across. The modern equivalent produced by the ICI Nobel concern at that time was not a patch on the old stuff. It could be that the ever increasing safety demands in this industry, made the production of really uniform sized powder too hazardous for production to continue in that way.

Going back to my early working days with BRB, I used to test railway detonators - Fog Signals - for compliance to contract and function. These things, a small round metal container with a lead strap or tinplate holder were placed on the rail head by hand (lead strap versions) or machine ( tinplate holder) as signal warnings in fog or warnings of obstructions. Internally they contained a quantity of very course Black Powder and a circular anvil holding five percussion caps. One tested the caps individually and weighed the quantity of powder present, before igniting the heap with a small spark. A quite crude device that has saved many a life, even in the 'automatic' age.

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Derelictheart said:

I went there a few times in the Autumn, thing that struck me about the place was the amount of dead animals just laying around, a horse and quite a few sheep.

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