In the days before OSHA...

[USS ALASKA]

From the Richmond Dispatch,
7/8/1861, p. 1

Caution Necessary. - A correspondent says "Some two weeks ago I visited Thomas' factory, where they were making cartridges, (some two or three hundred men, women and minors,) with powder sprinkled all over the floors, and the workmen passing in and out with nails in their shoes. Don't be astonished to hear of that part of the town blowed to the devil - see about it."

From the Richmond Whig,
7/9/1861

THE CARTRIDGE FACTORY. - The cartridges used by the Confederate Army, in Virginia, are made in a large factory building, near the Petersburg Depot. From one hundred to two hundred a fifty white women and girls, we learn, are employed to this important and dangerous business, and while we feel assured that those in charge have taken every precaution to prevent the occurrence of an accident, our apprehensions for the safety of the employees will not suffer us to remain silent. It is reported that particles of gunpowder are dropped upon the floor, and that men, with nails in the soles of their shoes, walk freely through the building. Be this as it may, we entertain the decided opinion that it is risking too much to bring several hundred persons together in one building, to work upon gunpowder. Cartridges must be made, but we are unable to understand that it is necessary they should all be made at one place. To avert the horrible calamity which would result from an explosion at the factory now occupied by the cartridge makers, we trust that the proper authorities will at once make arrangements for employing the operatives at as many different localities as their safety may render expedient. Not more than fifteen or twenty, it seems to us, should be employed in one building, and the cartridges should be removed as fast as they are made. In saying this much, we feel that we have discharged a duty, and should anything untoward now happen, we will have the consciousness of knowing that we did our part towards averting it.


USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

...and then the quick retraction...

From the Richmond Dispatch,
7/13/1861 , p. 1

The Manufacture of Cartridges, &c. - The preparation of all implements for the destruction of human life involves a certain degree of peril, which, however, is generally readily obviated by timely precautions, else they would not be made at all. We find that we were led by an over-cautious friend, a few days since, to perpetuate, an injustice towards the Confederate officers having in charge the cartridge manufactory, located in Thomas' tobacco factory, near the banks of James River , east of the Petersburg Depot. On a visit thither, our informant thought he had discovered powder scattered on the floor, over which hundreds walked with iron nails in their shoes, rendering the liability great for a blow up at any moment. The fact stated by him was produced by an ocular delusion. He could not have seen that which is not allowed to exist. A visit to the building has convinced us that an explosion there is an impossibility unless by spontaneous combustion, and that exigency no human foresight could provide against. The utmost care is taken to prevent accidents, and the stringent regulations governing such places are rigidly enforced by the officers in charge. No more powder is kept in the building than suffices for immediate use, and when put in the desired shape it is directly removed thence to the magazine provided for its reception. While we should deeply regret, by a misstatement of facts, to put any of our citizens in peril of life or limb, we can but feel equal regret if we had, by mistake, so represented the state of things existing at the cartridge manufactory as to have caused injury to the public service - at this time especially. Parties who have worked at the factory (and who certainly are good witnesses) assure us that the greatest pains are likely to occur under the present system of management.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[redbob]

From the Richmond Dispatch,
7/8/1861, p. 1

Caution Necessary. - A correspondent says "Some two weeks ago I visited Thomas' factory, where they were making cartridges, (some two or three hundred men, women and minors,) with powder sprinkled all over the floors, and the workmen passing in and out with nails in their shoes. Don't be astonished to hear of that part of the town blowed to the devil - see about it."

From the Richmond Whig,
7/9/1861

THE CARTRIDGE FACTORY. - The cartridges used by the Confederate Army, in Virginia, are made in a large factory building, near the Petersburg Depot. From one hundred to two hundred a fifty white women and girls, we learn, are employed to this important and dangerous business, and while we feel assured that those in charge have taken every precaution to prevent the occurrence of an accident, our apprehensions for the safety of the employees will not suffer us to remain silent. It is reported that particles of gunpowder are dropped upon the floor, and that men, with nails in the soles of their shoes, walk freely through the building. Be this as it may, we entertain the decided opinion that it is risking too much to bring several hundred persons together in one building, to work upon gunpowder. Cartridges must be made, but we are unable to understand that it is necessary they should all be made at one place. To avert the horrible calamity which would result from an explosion at the factory now occupied by the cartridge makers, we trust that the proper authorities will at once make arrangements for employing the operatives at as many different localities as their safety may render expedient. Not more than fifteen or twenty, it seems to us, should be employed in one building, and the cartridges should be removed as fast as they are made. In saying this much, we feel that we have discharged a duty, and should anything untoward now happen, we will have the consciousness of knowing that we did our part towards averting it.


USS ALASKA

This is the basic story of what happened on September 17th 1862 at the Allegheny Arsenal when an explosion in the cartridge manufacturing area killed 78 people, mostly teenaged women.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Along with DuPont's mill in Wilmington, DE in 1863...

https://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/01/...nts-powder-mills-full-particulars-of-the.html
15

USS ALASKA

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

Well with wood floors with "particles" of powder scattered about I think nailed shoes would only be an issue a nail was sticking up ever so slightly, before a big risk of a kaboom, and there'd have to be a lot of powder scattered on the floor to really create a kaboom, if it were small pinches of powder everywhere, it'd be nothing a broom couldn't handle. Me personally I'd be more concerned of the lighting of the era to create a last word of "uh-oh" or "oops".

If my memory is correct it was a candle to close to a the combustibles that was responsible for the up at the laboratory in Richmond in 1864. Personally, I'd be more worried of loose percussion caps laying about the floor in a "ammo" factory than some loose powder and shoes with nails, good example is the Fort Derussy magazine explosion in 1864. One of the theories of its blow up is an account of caps and powder spread about after the battle, and quite possibly a soldier walking in, with big boom following shortly afterwards.

I guess my ultimate point is that period shoes worn by usually very poor people wouldn't be a big issue if enough people with brooms, and a hammer were going through the facility before, during a lunch break, and after work, keeping the floors clean and anything like floor nails kept nailed down would have been a cost effective solution for the desperate times, than having poor under paid workers buy shoes they couldn't afford, or the government buying them shoes, when they were needing to supply the armies with shoes. Plus they used another pre-OSHA innovation, child-labor, keeping the place clean would have been a good job for them, probably better than using kids to make cartridges, (that was the case in Richmond, I think it was a young girl who made the mistake that blew it up, my memory is fuzzy and I'm looking for the reference).

 

[Championhilz]

On November 5, 1862, the arsenal at Jackson, Mississippi, exploded, killing about 30 men, women and children. A newspaper account wrote, "The two story brick building used as the laboratory was blown to the smallest atoms, and the debris were scattered for several hundred yards around. All the men and women employed in the building at the time had been huried to instantaneous destruction. Shockingly mangled bodies of both sexes lay around in the most frightful and horrible positions, besides blackened and disfigured so as to almost defy indentity as human beings! One man had a leg torn off and his brains literally blown out. The body of a poor girl was hanging by one foot to the limb of a tree, she was evidently dead, but her clothes were still burning. Other bodies were blown to the distance of from fifty to one hundred and fifty yards and presented a mutilated and most shocking appearance." - The Daily Mississippian, November 7, 1862

 

[Tin cup]

Browns Island C.S. Laboratory in Richmond had a terrible explosion:
http://rgkellerman.blogspot.com/2011/02/explosion-at-browns-island-confederate.html

Also see here:http://www.mdgorman.com/Other_Sites/CS_laboratory.htm

Kevin Dally

 

[USS ALASKA]

Thinking about this, I wonder about the 'retraction'. Was it published because the initial info was inaccurate or because they were worried about scaring the bejesus out of the locals and casting a bad light on Confederate armament programs...wouldn't be the first time outside pressure caused a story to die...or the last.
50

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Tin cup]

Thinking about this, I wonder about the 'retraction'. Was it published because the initial info was inaccurate or because they were worried about scaring the bejesus out of the locals and casting a bad light on Confederate armament programs...wouldn't be the first time outside pressure caused a story to die...or the last.
50

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

Government/Military officials don't like public complaints.

Kevin Dally

 

[USS ALASKA]

From the Richmond Dispatch,
1/28/1862, p. 2, c. 4

Terrible Explosion. - We regret that we have this morning another accident to record from the handling of materials of war, though so far as at present advised there is no loss of life. At quarter past 11 o'clock yesterday morning an explosion occurred at the Government Laboratory, at the foot of Seventh street, which, though not fatal, is very painful in its results. It appears that at the hour named there was an explosion of a very serious character, involving the serious injury of several human beings immediately in the vicinity. In the rear of the establishment, in what is generally known as the sea-coast ammunition room, a number of boys were sitting in a corner filling and ramming fuses. Probably from the fact that a vent was not properly secured the foul air got between the drift and the composition, and an explosion ensued, fearful in its effects, and quite destructive to property. Immediately after it occurred men were seen leaping from the windows, every one of which was completely shattered by the concussions, and the building itself was seen to be on fire from its effects. The boys who sat in the circle of some twelve feet square, surrounding the place of operation, were very badly burnt. One, named John Fitzgerald, was burnt about the face, and legs, and one eye seemed nearly gone. Others of the boys were injured nearly as bad; their names are Robert Coleman, Robert Robinson, Charles Shope, Michael Byron, John Harman, and Peter Branders. We are informed that one or two others are necessary to complete the list, but were unable to obtain names. Two of the boys ran in flames to the river and plunged in, and another ran up the street with every particle of clothes burnt off. At the time of the explosion they were driving fuse; yet strange to say, while a large quantity of fixed ammunition was close by, there was but little damage done to material except in the immediate neighborhood. - Boxes and kegs of Forseco's wooden fuses were close by, and numbers upon numbers of loaded bombs, and shrapnel shot, and all remained unharmed. The men of the establishment, after slightly recovering from their alarm, rushed for the water sources, and finding the building on fire, poured in bucket after bucket of water, and succeeded in extinguishing the flames. The magazine is situated within some six or eight feet of the house, and yet it was not injured in the least. It is, indeed, remarkable, considering the number of males and females who were working there at the time, and the large amount of explosive material all around, that the loss and suffering was so little.

The excitement in the neighborhood was intense. The spectacle of men and women rushing from the building was exceedingly exciting; but still we are gratified to state that the accident is by no means so great as at first reported.

It was this affair that occasioned the alarm of fire between eleven and twelve o'clock.
122

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[JOHN42768]

One place the Smoking Lamp is never lite

 

[Carronade]

Along with DuPont's mill in Wilmington, DE in 1863...

https://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/01/...nts-powder-mills-full-particulars-of-the.html
15

USS ALASKA

I've toured the old Dupont works, now part of the Hagley Museum. The buildings where they ground the powder had thick stone walls on three sides. The roof and the side facing Brandywine Creek were of wood, just to keep the weather out, so that an explosion would vent away from the rest of the complex. Workers killed in such explosions were said to have "gone across the river".