THE EXPLOSION AT MADAME COTON’S FIREWORK FACTORY, WESTMINSTER ROAD.
From “The Illustrated London News,” 1858.
Considered from the point of view of modern practice, the wonder is that there were not more accidents than actually took place.
The Gunpowder Act of 1860 was an attempt to place the manufacture and storage of explosives generally on a more satisfactory footing. It laid down regulations to be “observed with regard to the manufacture of loaded percussion caps, and the manufacture and keeping of ammunition, fireworks, fulminate of mercury, and any other preparation or composition of an explosive nature”; and makes it lawful for Justices of the Peace in Quarter Sessions to license places for the manufacture and storage of such articles, and to grant licenses to persons to sell fireworks.
It also provided for the installation of lightning conductors in explosive magazines.
This Act, although far from perfect, was a step in the right direction; it had the effect of bringing some makers out from the back streets of crowded districts, to construct properly arranged factories, or at any rate, factories planned with some regard to their use.
Four years after the passing of the Act, public attention was sharply drawn to the matter by an explosion on an unprecedented scale at Erith, where several of the gunpowder manufacturers had magazines. Enormous damage was done, and many lives lost, over an area ten miles in radius. Lieutenant-Colonel Boxer, R.A., Superintendent of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich, in his report on this explosion, draws attention to the need for a system of inspection of explosive establishments, with the result that he was himself authorised to make such inspection.
Lieutenant-Colonel Boxer was succeeded in 1870 by Captain (afterwards Colonel) Sir V. D. Majendie, K.C.B., who recommended the appointment of permanent Explosives Inspectors.
The late C. T. Brock, who commenced the long run of Crystal Palace displays in 1866, found his works insufficient for the large supply of material required for such displays, and commenced the construction of a factory on new lines at Nunhead. It was here in 1872 that the Royal Commission witnessed a series of experiments, the programme of which is here reproduced.
It was upon the results of these experiments that the provisions of the Explosives Act of 1875, in so far as they relate to fireworks, are based.
This Act is still in force, and is unlikely to be superseded for many years to come. There can have been few Acts which have, since their inception, proved so satisfactory to the industry controlled by them, either in the results achieved, or in the manner of their administration.