AMMUNITION FOR PEACE USES.

Shannon News, 5 January 1923, Page 3

AMMUNITION FOR PEACE USES.

CONVERTED FOR PEACE

GIGANTIC UNDERTAKING,

WORK OF DARING ENGLISHMAN

| To celebrate the completion of the 1 task of converting for peaceful uses 500,000 tons of ammunition left in

France and Belgium at the end of the war, a luncheon in honour of Mr F. N. Pickett was given at Prince’s Restaur

' ant, Piceadily, on November 7. Behind this function lies a romumv of organisation and daring, says a Lou- ' don paper. Mr F. N. Pickett is only

36 years old. He had no partners, except a 3ix-year-old son, to share respon sibility for his enterprise in buying, a* the cost of £2,030,000, ten of the larger ammunition depots which belonged to the English, French and Belgian Gov enuuents in France. His speculation n the moic astonishing when it is realise*that others had been unsuccessful i

making a commercial success of break ing down the 500,000 tons of high ex plosives, gas shells, and small arms ammunition. Mr Pickett, however, uw . daunted, got rapidly to work. In a ' short time he had 10,000 workers, including 800 women —Arabs, Moroccans, French, English, Algerians, Poles, and . even Abyssinians. They were all unskilled labourers with English foremen in charge. Ten men were killed and 30 injured—not a largo total for operations that involved the handling of 10 million shells, thousands of tons of gas, and ail almost incalculable number of small arms ammunition. “It. was an exhilirating job," said Mr Pickett. “The utmost precautions had to be taken. Even

then, however, there was always a chance of explosion. Steel, brsiss, copper and lead, which we sold chiefly to South Wales, were the chief metals we salved. Ammonium nitrate, valuable for manure, and T.N.T. for blasting charges were secured from the explos ives. Some of the English shells dated back to 1534. Others were the last word in 4.5 anti-aircraft shells, to be used against machines flying 25,000 ft. up.

“Our greatest difficulty was with the gas. One of my assistants suffered from severe boils all over his body a. a result of work at the dump. We reu derod the shells innocuous by removing the fuses and squirting in boiling water. This reduced the high explosive to a sealing-wax consistency and washed it out of the shell. Colonel Kostevitch, a brilliant Russian authority on explosives, was in charge. The attitude of the workmen towards the imminent danger they would arose by careless handling of the shells was perfect 1amazing. The French workmen, when remonstrated with, merely replied, ‘(Most la guerre.' " “Other nationalities seemed equal) • fatalistic. One Foiruguese. indeed, wa casual enough to light his pipe and throw the innsch on to cordite. Even this result produced little effect. “Explosives," Mr Pickett concluded are no more dangerous than cigarette—if only you know* how to liamlie them." Mr Pickett ’s work has saved the la » payor over £2,000,000 —for had he im bought the explosives they would have been thrown into the sea.