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HM Factory Gretna (Site 3: Eastriggs)
Date 22 May 2023
Event ID 1158804
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1158804
NITROCOTTON PRODUCTION AREA
NY26NE 140.1 Waste Bale Stores
NY26NE 140.2 Picking, Teasing, Drying and Willowing House
NY26NE 140.3 Nitrating House
NY26NE 140.8 Boiling House
NY26NE 140.10 Beating and Potching House
The Nitrocotton Production area (NY26NE 140) is located immediately to the NNE of the Acids section (NY26SW 38) and the standard gauge railway line (NY26NW 46.10) leading SE to the Nitroglycerine Hills (NY26SE 16.1-16.5) in the First World War National Factory, Gretna (Site 3: Eastriggs). The Nitrocotton Production plant comprised cotton waste bale stores (NY26NE 140.1), the Cotton Picking, Teasing, Drying and Willowing House (NY26NE 140.2), a cotton Nitrating House (NY26NE 140.3) with its Acid Storage and Refrigerating plant, the Nitrocotton Boiling House (NY26NE 140.8), together with the Nitrocotton Beating and Potching House (NY26NE 140.10) (MMW 1919, 21-2).
Cotton waste was delivered by the Glasgow and South Western railway to two cotton waste bale stores situated at the WNW end of the plant (MMW 1919, 117-138, 141). Cotton bales were transferred from there to the Cotton, Picking, Teasing, Drying and Willowing House where they were broken open, any foreign bodies removed and the fibres teased out. The cotton was then dried and weighed before being sent to the Nitrating House. Here the cotton waste was soaked in mixed acids and washed before being sent onto the Boiling House (Vat House). Here, the soaked cotton, now termed Nitrocotton Rag, was heated in acid and alkali liquids, before being sent to the Beating, Potching and Screening building. The boiled rag was finely cut in the beating machines and any further foreign bodies removed. It was then ‘potched’ by being agitated in large washing machines to which calcium carbonate was added as a stabiliser. Thereafter, the Nitrocotton was run into blending tanks and spun in order to remove excessive water content before being conveyed to the Screening House (NY26NE 140.12), where the material was further refined, dried and bagged.
The plant that blended the acids employed in these processes was situated S of the Nitrating House, while the Nitrocotton Compound (NY26NE 140.17-19) lay to its N.
Information from HES Heritage Recording (MMD, ATW), 22 May 2023.
