EFFECTS OF ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSIONS OF GUNPOWDER.
Considering the combustible nature of the materials, accidents very seldom occur; when they do, it is more frequently in the process at the Mill while under the runners.
On one occasion at Waltham Abbey Mills, when the powder exploded, after having been two hours under the runners, the doors and windows of the Mills on the opposite side of the stream, were forced open outwards, and the nails drawn. A similar effect took place when the Dartford Mills blew up, January 1833, in consequence of an accident in the packing house. A window which had been recently fitted up in Dartford Town, about a mile and a half distant from the works, was blown outwards into the street, and a considerable quantity of paper was carried as far as Eltham and Lewisham, distances of eight and ten miles. The sudden rarification of the air may account for this circumstance, the atmospheric pressure being removed in the vicinity of the doors and windows, they were forced open outwards by the expansive force of the air contained within the buildings.
ON ANCIENT ENGINES OF WAR.
War a painful topic.
The Utopian may shrink from the contemplation of so painful a subject as War, the Moralist may raise his voice against the justice of it, but the practical philosopher can see very little chance of its cessation, and actuated with the very best intentions, Advantages of war being destructive.will endeavour to render War as terrible as possible, well knowing, that as soon as certain death awaits two rival armies, princes must fight their own battles, or war must cease.