Stowmarket Guncotton Company

Stowmarket Guncotton Company
Company type	Limited company
Industry	Chemicals
Founded	1863;161 years ago in Stowmarket, England
Founder	Messrs Thomas Prentice & Co
Fate	Acquired by Nobel Enterprises (1907)
Successor	ICI
Products	Explosives ; Paint
Number of employees	2000 (1918)

Last updated May 25, 2024

The Stowmarket Guncotton Company was an explosives company established in the 19th century by Messrs Prentice that operated a gun-cotton factory in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England.^[2] The factory was the scene of an explosion in 1871 that claimed the lives of 28 people.^[3]

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.^[4] British War Office chemist Sir Frederick Abel began thorough research at Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills leading to a manufacturing process that eliminated the impurities in nitrocellulose making it safer to produce and a stable product safer to handle.^[2] Abel's patented method was used at the Stowmarket factory.^[2]

Thomas Prentice & Company began manufacturing guncotton in Stowmarket in c. 1863^[5] at a newly built factory on the banks of the River Gipping.^[2] The Prentice family was prominent in Stowmarket at the time and operated a number of other businesses including a gasworks, corn and coal merchants, maltsters and a Chemical Works (producing fertiliser).^[6]

On 11 August 1871 an explosion destroyed the factory killing 28 people.^[3] The factory was under the control of Patent Safety Gun-Cotton Company at the time of the explosion.^[2]

Rebuilding and later history

After the explosion the factory was rebuilt in 1872 and the new company operated as the Stowmarket Guncotton Company, Ltd.^[2] 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, Limited (NEC).^[5]

Between 1896 and 1898 the factory was again expanded and began to manufacture other explosives such as cordite.^[2] In the following years the factory expanded further partly due to government safety regulations and the introduction of more products including smokeless powder for shotguns, rifles and revolvers.^[2]

In 1907 the company was acquired by Nobel Explosives following a decline in the business from a price collapse in explosives.^[2] During World War I 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.^[2]

In 1918 following the war demand for explosives again dropped and the factory began producing industrial lacquers and was again renamed as Necol Industrial Collodions Ltd.^[5] Nobel later merged with a number of other companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) who continued to use the factory site.^[5] 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".^[7]

Legacy

Parts of the site are still currently used as paint factories operated by AkzoNobel (who acquired ICI)^[8] and PPG Industries.^[9] The AkzoNobel factory manufactures Dulux brand paint and the PPG site produces automotive paints.^[9]

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.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 1st Baronet 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 firearms.

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 Millbank in London. ICI was a constituent of the FT 30 and later the FTSE 100 indices.

Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance. These produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, but not so quickly as to routinely destroy the barrel of the gun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nitrocellulose</span> Highly flammable compound

Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid. One of its first major uses was as guncotton, a replacement for gunpowder as propellant in firearms. It was also used to replace gunpowder as a low-order explosive in mining and other applications. In the form of collodion it was also a critical component in an early photographic emulsion, the use of which revolutionized photography in the 1860s. In the 20th century it was adapted to automobile lacquer and adhesives.

A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. A shell can hold a tracer.

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 150 countries. AkzoNobel is the world's third-largest paint manufacturer by revenue after Sherwin-Williams and PPG Industries.

Smokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. Because of their similar use, both the original black powder formulation and the smokeless propellant which replaced it are commonly described as gunpowder. The combustion products of smokeless powder are mainly gaseous, compared to around 55% solid products for black powder. In addition, smokeless powder does not leave the thick, heavy fouling of hygroscopic material associated with black powder that causes rusting of the barrel.

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Ballistite is a smokeless propellant made from two high explosives, nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. It was developed and patented by Alfred Nobel in the late 19th century.

Stowmarket is a market town and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district, in Suffolk, England, on the busy A14 trunk road between Bury St Edmunds to the west and Ipswich to the southeast. The town lies on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) between Diss and Needham Market, and lies on the River Gipping, which is joined by its tributary, the River Rat, to the south of the town.

An explosive ROF was a UK government-owned Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF), which specialised in manufacturing explosives during and after World War II. In World War I, the name used in the UK for government-owned explosives factories was National Explosives Factory; the cordite factory at Gretna was known as HM Factory, Gretna.

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Hammerite is a brand of hammer paint made by Hammerite Products, a subsidiary of AkzoNobel.

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The Stowmarket Guncotton Explosion happened on 11 August 1871 at the Prentices Guncotton Factory in Stowmarket, Suffolk. It was blown up by two massive explosions, that occurred within the factory, killing 28 people and injuring approximately 70 others.

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References

↑ Malster, Robert (2000). Stowmarket. Budding. ISBN 978-1-84015-153-4 . Retrieved 15 July 2021.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Durrant, Mike (2017). The Stowmarket Gun Cotton Explosion 1871.
1 2 Black, Don (5 May 2018). "Abiding mystery of the Stowmarket gun cotton explosion". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
↑ "Explosives History" (PDF). U.S. Naval Academy. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
1 2 3 4 "ICI Paints Division, Stowmarket". The National Archives. 1871–1979. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
↑ "The Prentice Family". Stowmarket History and Heritage. Archived from the original on 12 August 2007.
↑ Hunter, Matt (22 May 2012). "Stowmarket: Paint factory celebrates 40th anniversary". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
↑ "ICI agrees to be bought by Akzo". BBC News. 13 August 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
1 2 Reason, Matt (8 May 2017). "Third bid for Stowmarket Dulux paint factory rebuffed – fears of PPG hostile takeover of AkzoNobel". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 6 July 2021.

52°10′56″N1°00′30″E / 52.182152°N 1.008327°E / 52.182152; 1.008327

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[1] Malster, Robert (2000). Stowmarket. Budding. ISBN 978-1-84015-153-4 . Retrieved 15 July 2021.

[durrant-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Durrant, Mike (2017). The Stowmarket Gun Cotton Explosion 1871.

[edp24-3] 1 2 Black, Don (5 May 2018). "Abiding mystery of the Stowmarket gun cotton explosion". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 5 August 2020.

[4] "Explosives History" (PDF). U.S. Naval Academy. Retrieved 4 June 2021.

[natarch-5] 1 2 3 4 "ICI Paints Division, Stowmarket". The National Archives. 1871–1979. Retrieved 4 June 2021.

[stowhist-6] "The Prentice Family". Stowmarket History and Heritage. Archived from the original on 12 August 2007.

[7] Hunter, Matt (22 May 2012). "Stowmarket: Paint factory celebrates 40th anniversary". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 4 June 2021.

[8] "ICI agrees to be bought by Akzo". BBC News. 13 August 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2021.

[thirdbid-9] 1 2 Reason, Matt (8 May 2017). "Third bid for Stowmarket Dulux paint factory rebuffed – fears of PPG hostile takeover of AkzoNobel". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 6 July 2021.

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