Gunpowder Ordnance Explosions

The 1649 explosion of 37 barrels of gunpowder in London is reported to have destroyed 60 houses while the 1693 explosion of 218 barrels in Dublin was reported to have claimed 100 lives. ( Peter may know what a barrel of gunpowder weights ? )

The 1654 Gravelines and the 1739 Brescia explosions were reported to have each resulted in 3000 deaths. ( Brescia estimated at 90 tonnes of gunpowder )

The largest non nuclear underground explosion in the UK at RAF Fauld ( RAF No. 21 Maintenance Unit (M.U.) Bomb Storage dump on 27 November 1944 at 11.15 hours ) occurred when 4000 tonnes of the 12000 tonnes located at the site exploded resulting in approximately 100 dead, missing or injured.

The explosion released water from a local 100 million gallon reservoir and also resulted in the loss of 200 cattle who were grazing in the area.

The SS Richard Montgomery resting in shallow water in the Thames estuary off of the north Kent coast still contains an estimated 1400 tonnes of unexploded ordinance.

Does any one know if they ever recovered the remaining 8000 tonnes from RAF Fauld ?

it's actually RAF Fauld and there's a thread here /community/showthread.php?10514-Fauld&highlight=fauld

in essence no they didn't retrieve all of the other ordnance and the crater still contains some unexploded munitions but how much is not known. at least one of the members here has had professional dealings with the site

leftorium ~ many thanks for the link and also high lighting the typo which I've corrected.

Does anyone know if the tramway used the same rails known as ' delta metal ' that was reported as being an alloy of copper and zinc, (brass) plus a little iron, as a precaution against sparks as used at the Priddy's Hard location ?

Dave

Gunpowder kegs or barrels varied in size dependent on grain (powder) size so I have no idea what weights were involved. The charcoal in the powder was made by an old method at that time so would not have been as 'strong'

Yes, most of the buried stocks at Fauld were recovered but the final count was obscured by some stock accounting record discrepancies.

The tramway rails for Priddy's Hard were non-ferrous because the main stock was black powder highly susceptible to spark ignition but also to friction.

The RNAD at Trecwyn used standard gauge but I'm led to believe that the rail was non-ferrous on certain sections.

Latterday, the Decauville track in military munitions depots used steel rail but because of underground storage the narrow gauge locos had to be 'flameproof' resulting in a mix of steam (no firebox!), paraffin, electric and diesel. The Fauld locos were, as far as I remember, Ruston and Hornsby diesels with exhaust spark arresters.

I regularly use gunpowder & have a licence to store it, as Peter pointed out gun powder then would not be anywhere near as good as the modern version.

I've posted this picture before for Peters amusement, it is just half a kilo of modern blackpowder UN0027 being destroyed as the magazine could no longer keep it.

I know im pedantic, but please remember that a tonne is a metric unit of mass. The ordnance at Fauld would have been weighed in tons which is an Imperial unit of measure. A ton is of course 2240 pounds and a tonne is 1000 kilogrammes, and to be honest there isnt much difference between them,but it is important to remember they are different.

Yes, of all the explosives that exist today gunpowder deserves the most respect .It can 'bite' when you least expect it!

In my time, the Services had an item known as 'Puffs, Powder. A simple muslin bag with a cord-tied neck containing a small amount of high quality black powder. A tiny electrically initiated squib called a Fuzehead, Low Tension could be inserted into the bag through the neck or by making a small incision and the combo used as a remote means of ignition during explosives demolition. We always carried them carefully in a steel container. (how else could we be sure to have a god fire to boil the kettle)

Ah, the old powder puff. I seem to remember a time at Swanton Morley (6219 Flt) when we couldn't get hold of powder puffs. We made our own by filling small brown service envelopes with the powder. Don't know if it was ever authorized, but needs must.

canberra;145463 wrote:

I know im pedantic, but please remember that a tonne is a metric unit of mass. The ordnance at Fauld would have been weighed in tons which is an Imperial unit of measure. A ton is of course 2240 pounds and a tonne is 1000 kilogrammes, and to be honest there isnt much difference between them,but it is important to remember they are different.

Although not relevant to this but also wishing to appear pedantic, there is the US "Short" Ton of 2000lbs based upon the US cwt of 100lbs and can cause confusion particularly when talking explosives licensing.

I had wondered if all of the individual munitions and ordinance losses incurred during WW2 had any impacts on the total war effort running up to D-Day.

It appears not according to the introduction of the USAF Statistical Digest compiled for WW2 in 1945.( Confidential training document used in the 1950's and not unclassified until 1978.

It appears that a study of bomb tonnage dropped in 1943 would indicated that planned production had been in considerably excess of potential future bomb consumption that had been computed on the basis of their available airplanes, their bomb carrying capacity and their estimated rate of use which also included a liberal allowance for strategic reserves.

The conclusions reached were that bomb production was out of balance with the other elements in the Air Forces programs so that bomb production had been reduced and this resulted in billion dollar savings.