lding.

The finished gunpowder was taken to the next building, one thousand five
hundred feet beyond, up the canal, where it was weighed out and put into
strong wood boxes about two and a half feet long, by one foot square,
having the ends let into grooves; one of the ends had a strong wood
screw, two inches diameter, with an octagonal head. Experience proved
that these powder boxes, a devise of my own from necessity, were
superior to barrels, being stronger, occupying less room, standing
transportation better, and safer in use. No explosion ever occurred in
their transportation, notwithstanding the occasional Railroad accidents,
and the many thousands that were sent from the Powder Works during the
war.

The powder boxes being filled, were then transported to the magazine,
three quarters of a mile still further up the canal. This wood structure
was on a rising ground one hundred yards from the canal, enclosed by a
high fence. Its capacity was about one hundred tons of gunpowder.

At this, and every other separate building of the Powder Works, a
sentinel was stationed day and night, and the utmost vigilance used.
Also, each of the separate buildings along the canal, except the
magazine, containing large amounts of gunpowder, were enclosed with high
brick walls, having a single entrance.

At the Waltham Abbey Works, in England, the gunpowder cake after being
crushed, is subjected to compression by the hydraulic press to give it
sufficient density. I found that by using five ton rollers, the proper
compression could be given in the powder mills during the incorporation,
thus saving much labor and time. The hydraulic press, consequently was
only used to compress the powder dust into thin cakes, which were sent
to the granulating department to be used for fine grain powder only.

The press house was located between the Cooling Magazines and the
granulating building on the same side of the canal as the former. It was
a large brick structure provided with two hydraulic presses, cranes, and
other appliances, with a turbine water wheel to supply the required
motive power. After the discovery that the proper density could be
better given to the powder cake, by using sufficiently heavy rollers
during the incorporation, this department was used only for the purpose
above stated.

The interval of ninety feet between the Refinery building and the
Incorporating Mills, was mainly occupied by a fine building called the
Laborator