Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Gunpowder is very easily ignited by static electricity or lightning strikes, and most powder mills experienced occasional accidental explosions. Powder mill explosions typically destroyed an entire building and killed those working in the vicinity of the building. Explosions might throw flaming debris which could ignite other buildings.
American Powder Mills (1883–1929) was a Massachusetts gunpowder manufacturing complex on the Assabet River. It expanded to include forty buildings along both sides of the river in the towns of Acton , Concord , Maynard , and Sudbury .
The Sibley cotton mill was built on the site as a private venture in 1880–82, using bricks from the demolished powder works, and became one of the largest and most successful cotton mills in the region. [5] It manufactured denim until 2006, and the mill's water-driven turbines still generate electricity which is sold to Georgia Power.
The Frankford Powder-Mill is a historic gunpowder factory in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time it was built in 1774 by Oswald Eve, it was the only such mill in the American colonies. Other powder mills operated in the 17th and 18th centuries but stopped production after the French and Indian war.
From 1802 to 1921, Eleutherian Mills was a gunpowder mill site used for the manufacture of explosives founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, which grew into the DuPont company. The name also refers to the house on the hill above the mills, which was the first du Pont family home in America.
Oriental Powder Company was a gunpowder manufacturer with mills located on the Presumpscot River in Gorham and Windham, Maine. The company was one of the four largest suppliers to Union forces through the American Civil War .
Manufacturing facilities were dispersed along the 2-mile (3.2 km) power canal to minimize damage during infrequent explosions. King's son-in-law Gershom Moore Peters began working at the powder mill in 1881 and became president of the powder company when King died in 1885. Peters formed the Peters Cartridge Company at Kings Mills in 1887.
The Continental Powder Works at French Creek is a historic gunpowder manufacturing complex in East Pikeland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.Constructed on French Creek in early 1776 and intended to supply the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the mill was the only powder mill and gun factory commissioned by the Continental Congress.