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42-730: Joseph Warren King purchased the Austin & Carleton powder mill on the Little Miami River in 1855 and expanded it as the Miami Powder Company including the company town of Goes Station, Ohio . King sold the Miami Powder Company in 1877 to build the Great Western Powder Works with the company town of Kings Mills at a more favorable hydropower location downstream of Goes Station. A wooden dam diverted water into

84-443: A shaped charge the explosive forces are focused to produce a greater local explosion; shaped charges are often used by military to breach doors or walls. The speed of the reaction is what distinguishes an explosive reaction from an ordinary combustion reaction. Unless the reaction occurs very rapidly, the thermally expanding gases will be moderately dissipated in the medium, with no large differential in pressure and no explosion. As

126-621: A cottage industry until the Industrial Revolution brought improved product quality through the following procedures: 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. Successful mills were typically built as an arrangement of separate buildings to minimize

168-403: A magnetic explosion . Strictly a physical process, as opposed to chemical or nuclear, e.g., the bursting of a sealed or partially sealed container under internal pressure is often referred to as an explosion. Examples include an overheated boiler or a simple tin can of beans tossed into a fire. Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions are one type of mechanical explosion that can occur when

210-505: A power canal through the gorge in a narrow valley between steep adjacent hills. 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. Machinery

252-688: A large "P" became a local landmark. Remington Arms purchased the Peters Cartridge Company in 1934. Facilities were expanded during World War II to include the federally owned Kings Mills Ordnance Plant manufacturing military ammunition on an adjacent hill south of the Peters factory complex. Production of military ammunition ended in March 1944, and Remington sold the Kings Mills factory to Columbia Records . Columbia manufactured 78 rpm phonograph records at Kings Mills until 1949. When 45 rpm records became more popular

294-679: A merger signal of about 100 ms duration, during which time is it estimated to have radiated away nine solar masses in the form of gravitational energy. The most common artificial explosives are chemical explosives, usually involving a rapid and violent oxidation reaction that produces large amounts of hot gas. Gunpowder was the first explosive to be invented and put to use. Other notable early developments in chemical explosive technology were Frederick Augustus Abel 's development of nitrocellulose in 1865 and Alfred Nobel 's invention of dynamite in 1866. Chemical explosions (both intentional and accidental) are often initiated by an electric spark or flame in

336-401: A result, even a nuclear weapon with a small yield is significantly more powerful than the largest conventional explosives available, with a single weapon capable of completely destroying an entire city. Explosive force is released in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the explosive. If a grenade is in mid air during the explosion, the direction of the blast will be 360°. In contrast, in

378-447: A slower combustion process known as deflagration . For an explosion to occur, there must be a rapid, forceful expansion of matter. There are numerous ways this can happen, both naturally and artificially, such as volcanic eruptions , or two objects striking each other at very high speeds, as in an impact event . Explosive volcanic eruptions occur when magma rises from below, it has dissolved gas in it. The reduction of pressure as

420-537: A small portion of the mass of the explosive material. A material in which the first three factors exist cannot be accepted as an explosive unless the reaction can be made to occur when needed. Fragmentation is the accumulation and projection of particles as the result of a high explosives detonation. Fragments could originate from: parts of a structure (such as glass , bits of structural material , or roofing material), revealed strata and/or various surface-level geologic features (such as loose rocks , soil , or sand ),

462-407: A vessel containing a pressurized liquid is ruptured, causing a rapid increase in volume as the liquid evaporates. Note that the contents of the container may cause a subsequent chemical explosion, the effects of which can be dramatically more serious, such as a propane tank in the midst of a fire. In such a case, to the effects of the mechanical explosion when the tank fails are added the effects from

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504-641: A wood fire burns in a fireplace, for example, there certainly is the evolution of heat and the formation of gases, but neither is liberated rapidly enough to build up a sudden substantial pressure differential and then cause an explosion. This can be likened to the difference between the energy discharge of a battery , which is slow, and that of a flash capacitor like that in a camera flash, which releases its energy all at once. The generation of heat in large quantities accompanies most explosive chemical reactions. The exceptions are called entropic explosives and include organic peroxides such as acetone peroxide . It

546-422: Is absorbed during the formation of the compound from its elements; such a reaction is called an endothermic reaction. In explosive technology only materials that are exothermic —that have a net liberation of heat and have a negative heat of formation—are of interest. Reaction heat is measured under conditions either of constant pressure or constant volume. It is this heat of reaction that may be properly expressed as

588-424: Is formed from its constituents, heat may either be absorbed or released. The quantity of heat absorbed or given off during transformation is called the heat of formation . Heats of formations for solids and gases found in explosive reactions have been determined for a temperature of 25 °C and atmospheric pressure, and are normally given in units of kilojoules per gram-molecule. A positive value indicates that heat

630-483: Is not allowed to expand, so that when whatever is containing the expansion is broken by the pressure that builds as the matter inside tries to expand, the matter expands forcefully. An example of this is a volcanic eruption created by the expansion of magma in a magma chamber as it rises to the surface. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel through shock waves . Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through

672-407: Is the rapid liberation of heat that causes the gaseous products of most explosive reactions to expand and generate high pressures . This rapid generation of high pressures of the released gas constitutes the explosion. The liberation of heat with insufficient rapidity will not cause an explosion. For example, although a unit mass of coal yields five times as much heat as a unit mass of nitroglycerin ,

714-699: The American Powder Mills of Maynard, Massachusetts , the Austin Powder Company of Glenwillow, Ohio , and the Miami Powder Company of Goes Station, Ohio . Most smaller mills were unable to compete with this trade association, popularly known as the powder trust ; although regionally important mills including the California Powder Works of Santa Cruz, California , the Equitable Powder Company of East Alton, Illinois , and

756-529: The Great Western Powder Works of Kings Mills, Ohio successfully transitioned to manufacture of smokeless powder cartridges . As smokeless powder and high explosives replaced gunpowder for most purposes, DuPont became the major manufacturer of United States gunpowder until discontinuing production in 1971. Subsequent production for use in pyrotechnics and antique firearms has been undertaken by smaller firms whose operations are often ended by

798-710: The Oriental Powder Company of Windham, Maine , and the Laflin Powder Company of Newburgh, New York . The Confederate Powderworks of Augusta, Georgia produced 6,000 tonnes of gunpowder from 1862 to 1865, but was dismantled after the war. The Laflin company merged into the Laflin & Rand Powder Company after the war, and with the other three large northern mills formed the United States Gunpowder Trade Association in 1872 including

840-566: The Tunguska event of 1908 is believed to have resulted from a meteor air burst . Black hole mergers, likely involving binary black hole systems, are capable of radiating many solar masses of energy into the universe in a fraction of a second, in the form of a gravitational wave . This is capable of transmitting ordinary energy and destructive forces to nearby objects, but in the vastness of space, nearby objects are rare. The gravitational wave observed on 21 May 2019, known as GW190521 , produced

882-442: The "heat of explosion." A chemical explosive is a compound or mixture which, upon the application of heat or shock, decomposes or rearranges with extreme rapidity, yielding much gas and heat. Many substances not ordinarily classed as explosives may do one, or even two, of these things. A reaction must be capable of being initiated by the application of shock, heat, or a catalyst (in the case of some explosive chemical reactions) to

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924-613: The Sun, and presumably on most other stars as well. The energy source for solar flare activity comes from the tangling of magnetic field lines resulting from the rotation of the Sun's conductive plasma. Another type of large astronomical explosion occurs when a meteoroid or an asteroid impacts the surface of another object, or explodes in its atmosphere , such as a planet. This occurs because the two objects are moving at very high speed relative to each other (a minimum of 11.2 kilometres per second (7.0 mi/s) for an Earth impacting body ). For example,

966-904: The United States. In 1802, the DuPont family started their industrial enterprises in the United States by building the Eleutherian Mills on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware . Four mills were manufacturing 69 percent of United States gunpowder when gunpowder production peaked during the American Civil War . They were the DuPont mill, the Hazard Powder Company of Hazardville, Connecticut ,

1008-592: The buildings were subsequently leased to Seagram distillers as warehouse space until 1968, when the site permanently closed. Many of the site's structures, including building R-1 and the brick shot tower, survived into the 21st century. Following its abandonment, the area fell into disrepair and was eventually added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on October 10, 1985. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted an investigation between 1994 and 1999 for possible contamination at

1050-410: The burning substance into heat released to the surroundings, while in the latter, fast combustion ( i.e. detonation ) instead converts more internal energy into work on the surroundings ( i.e. less internal energy converted into heat); c.f. heat and work (thermodynamics) are equivalent forms of energy. See Heat of Combustion for a more thorough treatment of this topic. When a chemical compound

1092-429: The casing surrounding the explosive, and/or any other loose miscellaneous items not vaporized by the shock wave from the explosion. High velocity, low angle fragments can travel hundreds of metres with enough energy to initiate other surrounding high explosive items, injure or kill personnel, and/or damage vehicles or structures. Classical Latin explōdō means "to hiss a bad actor off the stage", "to drive an actor off

1134-414: The coal cannot be used as an explosive (except in the form of coal dust ) because the rate at which it yields this heat is quite slow. In fact, a substance that burns less rapidly ( i.e. slow combustion ) may actually evolve more total heat than an explosive that detonates rapidly ( i.e. fast combustion ). In the former, slow combustion converts more of the internal energy ( i.e. chemical potential ) of

1176-428: The explosion resulting from the released (initially liquid and then almost instantaneously gaseous) propane in the presence of an ignition source. For this reason, emergency workers often differentiate between the two events. In addition to stellar nuclear explosions , a nuclear weapon is a type of explosive weapon that derives its destructive force from nuclear fission or from a combination of fission and fusion. As

1218-505: The factory's lifetime. One writer stated, "Later they became of such frequency as to cause little comment, unless they were especially violent." In 1942, an explosion of unknown origins shattered windows 30 miles away. Powder mill A powder mill was a mill where gunpowder is made from sulfur , saltpeter and charcoal . Crude grinding and mixing operations such as the Frankford Powder-Mill of Philadelphia were

1260-468: The loss from any single building explosion. Buildings were separated by enough distance to minimize the risk of being damaged by an explosion in an adjacent building. Buildings were usually built of stone with one weak wooden wall and roof to direct the force and debris from an accidental explosion toward a river or an open field. Powder mills were originally powered by windmills , water mills or horse mills . Despite later availability of steam engines ,

1302-411: The magma rises causes the gas to bubble out of solution, resulting in a rapid increase in volume, however the size of the magma chamber remains the same. This results in pressure buildup that eventually leads to an explosive eruption. Explosions can also occur outside of Earth in the universe in events such as supernovae , or, more commonly, stellar flares. Humans are also able to create explosions through

Peters Cartridge Company - Misplaced Pages Continue

1344-474: The next. The power canal offered a supply of firefighting water, and the adjacent river was a relatively safe direction to focus explosion debris. Where water transport was impractical, intermediate products were often transported in wagons pulled by draft animals . The wagons were often built entirely of wood held together with wooden pegs, and draft animals were usually unshod to avoid sparks from steel shoes or nails. The 1810 census reported 208 powder mills in

1386-444: The older power sources did not require a fire to generate steam , and avoided the possibility of sparks which might ignite the gunpowder. Some 20th-century powder mills used electric power. Before the availability of safe electrical power, some of the most successful mills were built along rivers where water could be distributed through a power canal to individual buildings and intermediate products could be floated from one building to

1428-611: The opposite side of the river from the old powder works at 1415 Grandin Road, which included a large shot tower completed in 1895. The last wood-frame structures were machine shop building R-3 and shotgun shell loading building R-21 built in 1907. With the approach of World War I the company received large ammunition orders from the Russian Empire and from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . Bullet manufacturing building R-6

1470-420: The persistent hazard of accidental explosions. Notable European mills include: Explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume of a given amount of matter associated with an extreme outward release of energy , usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases . Explosions may also be generated by a slower expansion that would normally not be forceful, but

1512-419: The presence of oxygen. Accidental explosions may occur in fuel tanks, rocket engines, etc. A high current electrical fault can create an "electrical explosion" by forming a high-energy electrical arc which rapidly vaporizes metal and insulation material. This arc flash hazard is a danger to people working on energized switchgear . Excessive magnetic pressure within an ultra-strong electromagnet can cause

1554-515: The property and build the brewery, along with an apartment complex, were eventually able to begin construction in January 2020. The brewery, Cartridge Brewing, opened to the public on October 31, 2020. Its logo and tap handles resemble bullet casings and shotgun shells, respectively, and several beer names carry a military theme. Framed photos honoring the history of the Peters Cartridge Company are on display as well. Explosions happened multiple times in

1596-525: The property prior to redevelopment. Cleanup efforts cost $ 5 million and began in April 2015, taking nearly a month to complete. A group of local business partners signed a letter of intent in 2017 to renovate the property and open a brewery. Government officials, ranging from the local mayor to members of Congress, spent years acquiring federal approval to remove the Superfund designation. Contractors hired to renovate

1638-560: The site. In 2009, they formally declared the soil contaminated with copper, lead, mercury, boiler ash, and slag, caused by the manufacturing of cartridges. They issued an order calling on DuPont , an American company that owned Remington Arms when the manufacturing took place, to remove the hazardous waste. The site was later designated a Superfund cleanup site when it was added to the EPA's National Priorities List in April 2012. The Superfund designation required that all hazardous waste be removed from

1680-430: The use of explosives , or through nuclear fission or fusion , as in a nuclear weapon . Explosions frequently occur during bushfires in eucalyptus forests where the volatile oils in the tree tops suddenly combust. Among the largest known explosions in the universe are supernovae , which occur after the end of life of some types of stars . Solar flares are an example of common, much less energetic, explosions on

1722-557: Was built of brick; and money from wartime contracts was used to replace most of the old wooden framed buildings with brick and reinforced concrete structures including the main R-1 building in 1916, the R-17 power house in 1917, metallic cartridge loading building R-2 in 1918, primer assembly building R-9, and the R-23 indoor shooting range and ballistics laboratory in 1919. A taller brick shot tower painted with

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1764-443: Was manufacturing four-thousand cartridges per hour by 1889. A collision of loaded railway cars being shunted at the powder works on 15 July 1890 triggered an explosion killing twelve people and starting fires destroying the railroad station, the freight house, two Peters Cartridge Company office buildings, the shell factory, the cartridge loading plant, a large warehouse and six employee residences. Wood-frame structures were rebuilt on

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