The Stowmarket Guncotton Company was an
explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
s company established in the 19th century by Messrs Prentice that operated a
gun-cotton
Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
factory in
Stowmarket
Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket
Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 road (Great Britain), A14 trunk ...
, Suffolk, England.
The factory was the scene of an
explosion
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...
in 1871 that claimed the lives of 28 people.
History
Establishment and explosion
Gun cotton was developed as an explosive in the mid-19th century and many of the initial factories discontinued production soon after due to the volatility of the substance during manufacture. British
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
chemist Sir
Frederick Abel
Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 1st Baronet (17 July 18276 September 1902) was an English chemist who was recognised as the leading British authority on explosives. He is best known for the invention of cordite as a replacement for gunpowder in f ...
began thorough research at
Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills
The Royal Gunpowder Mills are a former industrial site in Waltham Abbey, England.
It was one of three Royal Gunpowder Mills in the United Kingdom (the others being at Ballincollig and Faversham). Waltham Abbey is the only site to have survive ...
leading to a manufacturing process that eliminated the impurities in nitrocellulose making it safer to produce and a stable product safer to handle.
Abel's
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
ed method was used at the Stowmarket factory.
Thomas Prentice & Company began manufacturing guncotton in Stowmarket in
at a newly built factory on the banks of the
River Gipping
The River Gipping is the source river for the River Orwell in the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, which is named from the village of Gipping, and which gave its name to the former Gipping Rural District. The name is unrelated to the ...
.
The Prentice family was prominent in Stowmarket at the time and operated a number of other businesses including a
gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space.
Early gasworks
Coal ...
, corn and coal merchants,
maltster
Malting is the process of steeping, germinating and drying grain to convert it into malt. The malt is mainly used for brewing or whisky making, but can also be used to make malt vinegar or malt extract. Various grains are used for malting, most ...
s and a
Chemical Works
A chemical plant is an industrial process factory, plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological ...
(producing
fertiliser
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
).
On 11 August 1871 an explosion destroyed the factory killing 28 people.
The factory was under the control of Patent Safety Gun-Cotton Company at the time of the explosion.
Rebuilding and later history
After the explosion the factory was rebuilt in 1872 and the new company operated as the Stowmarket Guncotton Company, Ltd.
In 1881 the company became The Explosives Company Limited after being sold by the Prentice family in 1880, and in 1885 it was again renamed as The New Explosives Company, Limted (NEC).
Between 1896 and 1898 the factory was again expanded and began to manufacture other explosives such as
cordite
Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...
.
In the following years the factory expanded further partly due to government safety regulations and the introduction of more products including
smokeless powder
Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to a ...
for shotguns, rifles and revolvers.
In 1907 the company was acquired by
Nobel Explosives following a decline in the business from a price collapse in explosives.
During
first world war
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the factory made Stowmarket a target, and on 31 March 1916 was the intended destination for the German
Zeppelin L13; it was hit with anti-aircraft fire prior to reaching the town and retreated.
In 1918 following the first world war demand for explosives again dropped and the factory began producing industrial
lacquer
Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity.
Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...
s and was again renamed as Necol Industrial Collodions Ltd.
Nobel later merged with a number of other companies to form
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain.
It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926.
Its headquarters were at M ...
(ICI) who continued to use the factory site.
The cordite works, located on the east side of the railway line, became disused. In 1972 ICI invested in the Stowmarket site to create its "Premier Whites Plant".
Legacy
![Gipping Way and Stowmarket industry - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Gipping_Way_and_Stowmarket_industry_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1715330.jpg)
Parts of the site are still currently used as
paint
Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...
factories operated by
AkzoNobel
Akzo Nobel N.V., stylized as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings for both industry and consumers worldwide. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, ...
(who acquired ICI)
and
PPG Industries
PPG Industries, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. By revenue it is ...
.
The AkzoNobel factory manufactures
Dulux
Dulux is an internationally available brand of architectural paint originated from the United Kingdom. The brand name Dulux has been used by both Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and DuPont since 1931 and was one of the first alkyd-based pa ...
brand paint and the PPG site produces automotive paints.
The significance of the produce of the factory in the town has led to a street in a 21st-century-built housing estate near to the site of the factory to be named Gun Cotton Way.
See also
*
Prentice Brothers Limited
Prentice Brothers Limited was an English fertiliser manufacturer founded in Stowmarket, Suffolk during the mid-1850s. The company produced a number of " chemical manure" products that used coprolites and rock phosphates among other ingredients.
...
References
{{coord, 52.182152, 1.008327, region:GB, display=title
Stowmarket
19th century in Suffolk
20th century in Suffolk
Explosives manufacturers
British companies established in 1863