{"id":314,"date":"2009-06-22T18:38:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T18:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/?p=314"},"modified":"2013-11-19T23:12:05","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T23:12:05","slug":"ici-nobel-explosives-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/explosives\/ici-nobel-explosives-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"ICI Nobel Explosives Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A second visit to see more of this huge site. First to the very overgrown Gunpowder Section, and in a concrete incorporating mill in the woods I found three edge mills:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651416564\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3569\/3651416564_f9397d0221_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Edge runner mills were only used for gunpowder which wasn&#8217;t made seriously after WWI, so they&#8217;re pretty rare &#8211; the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.royalgunpowdermills.com\/incorporatingmill.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Waltham Abbey<\/a> museum only has a replica, so to find three mint ones is remarkable.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651428512\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3638\/3651428512_37d6eb03b1_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The mills were driven from below &#8211; the motors are mostly gone, and frogs swim in the pools:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651449520\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3400\/3651449520_5ae1b5f5be_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next on to the derelict power plant, which provided steam and electricity to the entire site:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3650700169\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3415\/3650700169_6cfb123379_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651512978\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3417\/3651512978_6ba59ae67c_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The control room is a bit small and skanky:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651519560\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2480\/3651519560_c4c05baffb_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651527794\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2464\/3651527794_84b0c18d31_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651549644\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3537\/3651549644_c18e31d9a9_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651567762\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3332\/3651567762_3240ef9f1f_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651575678\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3355\/3651575678_222ca8d8fd_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another big Hopkinson gauge, just like the one at Carrongrove:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651601644\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2476\/3651601644_603def5b02_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now on through the woods, and fighting through acres of spiky gorse, to a detonator test building &#8211; I think this one went off a bit too violently&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651644684\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3618\/3651644684_7c7ee3ea67_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A building with water-cooled storage cylinders &#8211; not sure what this is for:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3650860705\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3387\/3650860705_5499a98992_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then this machine &#8211; I think it was for some kind of drying as it had heaters and a gas supply:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651668808\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2484\/3651668808_62e63ff1e9_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Onto the testing laboratories &#8211; this is like a wee street, with each building containing a different testing machine:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651801330\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3660\/3651801330_ddfa649009_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the far right, you can see a large test mortar &#8211; this faced a set of rails which probably had a moving target:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3650974957\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3569\/3650974957_884a0a51a6_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the middle black-painted metal building, another test mortar:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3650963779\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3332\/3650963779_79dcf0bc32_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next building along, and some high-speed plate cameras for capturing explosions:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651783436\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2474\/3651783436_65dcc4713f_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The bigger building at the end faces a test area, viewed through a blast wall with viewing slits:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651738286\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3232\/3651738286_d114616ff9_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This building had a bunch of offices with stacks of plans (mostly for high-speed cameras it seems), and shelves and shelves of plates from the cameras.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651726248\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3297\/3651726248_82495c4161_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There were also some test samples:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3650933523\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3413\/3650933523_9be308bde5_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally, onto a lead casting workshop:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cycleologist\/3651811172\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3578\/3651811172_2f83df697c_z.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/?p=316\" target=\"_self\">Go to the next installment&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>All images:<\/p>\n<p>[fsg_gallery id=&#8221;1&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A second visit to see more of this huge site. First to the very overgrown Gunpowder Section, and in a concrete incorporating mill in the woods I found three edge mills:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explosives","category-industrial"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/3651416564_f9397d0221_z.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3yGoo-54","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1351,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/1351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}