INDUSTRIES following year. 1 In their report they stated inter alia that ' for all ground which is not of great hardness or very wet the explosives of moderate power, such as compressed powder and common powder, are most advantageous,' and ' for ground of extreme hardness or which is very wet, the stronger explosives should be used, such as dyna- mite, Liverpool cotton-powder and tonite.' Their experiments proved that a piece of ground could be driven more cheaply by powder than by dyna- mite, but that in the use of the dynamite, by reason of its being a more powerful explosive, less of it was required for each hole that was charged, and that it was not necessary to bore such deep holes for it as for powder. Conse- quently the miner preferred the dynamite, for although it might be a little more costly per fathom of ground, it entailed less labour, and the ground could be driven more quickly. From that time the use of powder in Cornish mines decreased whilst that of dynamite increased. Powder continued for some little time to be used in the mines to a limited extent for driving in soft ground, but the price of dynamite, which at the time of the trials above referred to had been 200 per ton, fell during the next ten years to j65, and the use of powder in the mines then ceased almost entirely. In granite and other quarries in the county powder continues to be used because the nitro-compounds are too violent for quarrying purposes and shatter the stone too much ; but the depression in the granite trade, owing to the import of granite from Norway and other causes, renders the demand for powder in- considerable. At the present time very little dynamite is used or made, that particular form of explosive having been superseded by improved forms of nitro-compound explosives known as gelignite, gelatine-dynamite, and blasting gelatine. For the manufacture of these high explosives, as they are called, two factories of considerable importance have been built in Cornwall. The factory of the National Explosives Com- pany at Upton Towans, near Hayle, was opened in 1889. Various considerations led to the selection of this particular site, the chief of these being the cheapness and extent of the land there and then available, its isolation as a property, and at the same time its comparative nearness to the numerous mines in the county. It embraces within its boundaries over a square mile of downs, and includes several properties besides Upton Towans. From the date of its inception the factory has been uniformly successful. It is now four times larger than it was in 1889 and affords employment, in round numbers, to five hundred men and two hundred women. To guard against accidents numerous precautions are adopted. Discipline, according to carefully de- fined rules, is rigidly enforced ; the employes are 1 Report of the R.C.P. Soc. 1880. Supplement. searched before commencing work for such articles as may, under any circumstances what- ever, cause ignition or explosion ; while the buildings used for the making and storing of explosives are kept scrupulously clean. As the result of these precautions human life is shown, by statistics, to be quite as secure within the factory as outside. The most serious accident which has occurred was on 5 January, 1904, when four men lost their lives. This accident is supposed to have been caused by the sudden fall of a lead-lined wooden tank cover which slipped from a workman's hands when engaged in running off nitro-glycerine from the tank. The products manufactured here are of various kinds. Besides explosives for mining purposes, including dynamite (No. i), haylite, gelignite, gelatine-dynamite and blasting gelatine, and an enormous quantity of raw materials in the shape of sulphuric acid, nitric acid and nitro-glycerine, the National Explosives Company contracts largely with His Majesty's Admiralty and War Office, and with many foreign governments, for the supply of materials required for the purposes of ammunition. These consist of the following explosives : gun-cotton, collodion cotton, com- pressed gun-cotton, cordite, and cordite M.D. The cordite manufactured here is of very superior quality and has recently received commendation from a commission appointed to investigate War Office contracts. 8 Soon after the formation of the National Ex- plosives Company, in the same year a second company was founded with a similar object by Mr. Thomas Pryor of Redruth and Mr. P. R. Mackay of London. This was the British and Colonial Explosives Company, who acquired a tract of land and established a factory for the manufacture of dynamite at Perranporth. For four years this company maintained a fierce but unequal struggle with Nobel's Explosives Com- pany of Glasgow, who, for the purpose of de- feating the new competition, lowered their prices to such an extent as to render the manufacture of explosives at Perranporth unremunerative. Negotiations were opened between the two companies, and resulted in the transfer of the Cornish factory to Messrs. Nobel in November, 1893. At that time there were altogether about too persons employed. Since the amalga- mation, allowing for periods of depression, a profit- able and progressive business has been carried on. The Perranporth Factory, which covers about 1 50 acres, and now employs in round numbers 200 persons of both sexes, embraces five depart- ments : (i) Blasting Explosives Department for
- Of the National Explosives Company the Com-
missioners say, ' This firm has manufactured sizes (of cordite) 50, 44, 30, 20 and 5, and has been very successful all round, especially in the larger sizes, com- pared with other contractors.' Blue Book entitled, War Office Contracts, I August, 1 900, p. xxviii. 515
