This part of the process is more dangerous than any other, and explosions in the incorporating-mills are very frequent. The houses are built of light planking, nailed on a strong framework, so as to diminish the force of the explosion by yielding easily before it. The men are forbidden to remain in them while the mill is in motion, and a very simple arrangement has been devised for preventing an explosion from extending from one mill to another. A shaft runs horizontally through the upper part of the walls of each row of mill-houses. A shutter, balanced by a weight on the other side of the shaft, projects from it over each mill, and this shutter supports one side of a water-tank, the other resting on a pivot. Now, if an explosion takes place in any of the mills, the shutter above it will be blown up, turning the horizontal shaft, and raising all the shutters attached to it; so that the tanks, being left unsupported, turn over, and drench the contents of the mill-beds below.
On leaving the mill, the gunpowder is in the form of a soft cake, which easily breaks up into meal and dust. The old plan for making gunpowder, still followed in some places, was to moisten this mill-cake and force it through fine sieves, so as to break it into grains; but the moisture partly dissolved the saltpetre, and thus, to some extent, destroyed the previous incorporation, and the result was an inferior gunpowder, which, on account of the softness of the grains, often broke up into dust in transport. In the modern process, the mill-cake is first presssd in layers between plates of copper or gun-metal, to increase its hardness and density, and then made into grains of the required form by machinery. As a preparation for the press, the mill-cake is roughly broken down into meal and dust by being passed between grooved gun-metal rollers. It is then ready to be poured into the press-box.
This is a large box of gun-metal, lined with oak, and capable of holding about 800 pounds of powder. The sides are hinged to facilitate unloading, and by means of a small crane it can be swung into or out of the hydraulic press. To be loaded it is turned on one side, a wooden cover placed on the top, and the uppermost side is turned back on its hinges. Then, by means of gun-metal racks, the plates are arranged in the box, with the proper intervals between them to produce a thick cake for cannon-powder, or a thin one if rifle powder is to be made. The powder-meal is then poured in between the plates, the racks withdrawn, the side closed and bolted down. It is then swung by the crane on to the table of the press, and the cover taken off. The press is an ordinary hydraulic one; the table which supports the box is placed on the head of the ram, and as it rises a block of oak fixed overhead enters the box, and presses the powder, the amount of the pressure being measured by the extent to which the block enters the box. The pumps which supply the press with water are fixed in an adjoining room, and worked by a water-wheel; and, in order that the men may know when the pressing is complete without having to
