Field Visit

Date 1995

Event ID 1182384

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1182384

The Ardeer Factory was the first site in the UK to manufacture nitro-glycerine blasting explosives, the first batch being produced in 1873. As the site expanded and diversified in subsequent years, it was inevitable that capacity for the manufacture of detonators was also developed.

Having pacified nitro-glycerine by mixing it with substances such as diatomite and gelatine to produce stable high explosives (e.g. Dynamite), detonators were necessary.

The detonator department at Ardeer dated from the 1940s, and in addition to producing the detonators themselves, also manufactured electric fuse assemblies. The detonator department closed in 1995.

The buildings which composed the department ranged from brick-built, north-lit structures (e.g. Tube shop), through to reinforced concrete ranges with protective compartments designed to isolate hazardous and sensitive processes both from the operators and from neighbouring processes. Safety is essential, with strict regulations determined both by the Explosives Acts, and by the specific requirements of the many processes involved. Designated clean areas (often coated with non-conductive rubberised 'Veitchie' coating required clean, non-conductive footwear and other specialised clothing. There were sprinkler/drenching systems, and magazines required for storage at several stages of the manufacturing process which were protected by turfed baffle walls and used lightening conductors.

Sensitive processing buildings has lightly constructed rear walls and roofs also sometimes had containment areas to harness and defect blasts restricting damage in the event of an explosion and preventing chain reactions. Notable features of the site included a matrix of wooden covered gangways connecting the various buildings, and extending in the open to more remote buildings of the department. Materials were pushed along these gangways in bogeys specially designed to transfer each substance or product safely. A variety of services were supplied locally or centrally such as electricity, heating, ventilation, compressed air and hydraulic power. There were also laboratories designed to assist production at various stages and impose quality control.

See also MS8304

Visited by RCAHMS (MK Oglethorpe), 1995.