In Firework Land.

Manawatu Herald, 5 January 1897, Page 2

In Firework Land.

» Apropos of Fireworks Day, in the Windsor Magazine for November Mr W. J. Wintle gives an account of a visit to Messrs C. T. Brock and Co.'s firework factory : -'• Imagine a field of many acre?, dotted over with about a hundred little wooden, brick, and iron buildings of peouliar construction placed at a good distance apart, and you have a rough notion of the great firework 'manufactory. There is no whir of machinery and bustling of many hands ; all is silent save for sundry tapping sounds which come from certain of the eheds. A large part of the field is carefully feooed off, and here the stilness is even greater. The seven iron buildings in this section are far more strongly built, and each is protected by a screen. Behind these Bcreem are stored 140,000 pounds . of explo. sives, and this is but a fraction of the quantity which the firm have stored in magazines elsewhere and in the floating hulks off Gravesend. Pass* ing to the wooden buildings which lie scattered over the great- green field, we learn something of the precautions which have rendered serious accident a remote con tin* tingency. Each structure is about sixteen feet by twelve, though some vary in size, and is lightly constructed of boards. The interior is varnished, and the floor covered with lead or linoleum fastened with copper nails. Any artificial light which may be needed is obtained from gas jets plaoed outside the windows, and the most scrupulous cleanliness U observed. Every part of the build* ing, floor, sides, and ceiling must be carefully dusted every day. Even the presence of a cobweb would render the firework manufacturer liable to a penalty. All this is to avoid the presence of grit. Similar precautions are takitf«w7ith the workpeople. Each is thoroughly searched on entering Uia premises, and dons a thick non-inflamimb'e guernsey and ov.rsboes of brown leather without nails. When the, workpeople nfjed anything they hang out a red fhg, an-i an attendant comes at one*. All fireworks have to be carried to the magazines in closed trunks covered with tavpauliicg^ Hydrants are placed at trfquen^P intervals throughout tha field, and buckets of water arc* everywhere."