Buildings

In a large establishment four separate buildings are required.

No. 1 should have a porch, and contain at least four rooms.

Cartridge room, for making paper and cartridges of all kinds.

Filling room, for filling cartridges.

Packing room, for putting up ammunition for transportation or storage.

Store room, for materials and tools.

No. 2. Furnace or smith shop should have three rooms, two entirely cut off from the third by a partition wall.

* For some portions of the information contained in this and subsequent chapters, we are indebted to "The Ordnance Manual."

Driving room, for driving rockets, fuses, etc.

Mixing room, for mixing compositions.

Furnace room, for casting fuses or bullets, and making compositions requiring the use of fire.

No. 3. Carpenter's shop.

No. 4. Magazine for powder, fixed ammunitions, etc.

All these buildings should be at a distance from inhabited buildings, apart from each other, and protected by trees or traverses of earth placed between them.

The size of the rooms is regulated according to the number of men to be accommodated.

Precautions Against Accidents

Avoid, as much as possible, the use of iron in the construction of the buildings, fixtures, tables, benches, boxes, etc., of the laboratory; sink the heads of all iron nails if used, and fill over them with putty, or paste several thicknesses of paper over them. Before the men go to work, cover the floor with carpets or tarpaulins, which are taken up carefully after the men leave, and carried at least 50 yards from the building, and there shaken thoroughly and swept.

Place the stores in cloth bags in the windows, exposed to the sun. Prevent persons from entering with iron instruments or with matches about their person. All those who work where there is powder must wear moccasins or socks. The workmen should not drag their feet while walking.

The doors and windows must open and close easily, without friction, and they must be open whenever the weather permits.

Never keep more powder in the laboratory than is necessary, and have the ammunition and other products taken in the magazine as fast as finished.

Powder barrels ought to be carried on hand-barrows, made with leather, and the ammunition in boxes.

Never drive rockets, etc., in a room where there is any powder or composition, except that used at the time. Loading shells, driving rockets, pulverizing materials, etc., ought to be done in all cases in the open air, or under a tent far from the laboratory and magazine.

Never enter the laboratory at night, unless it is indispensable, and in that case use close lanterns.

Applications for burns. - Exclude the air by applying fresh lard to the burn; or bathe the part burned, and cover it with linen soaked in a mixture of 8 parts of sweet oil and 1 of ammonia well beaten together.

Materials

As in different chapters of this work we have entered into explanations of the different materials used in fireworks, we think it unnecessary to recall them here. We would then refer the reader to those different chapters.