Ardeer, Ici Works, Nobel's Explosives, Detonator Department, Fusehead Production
Explosives Factory (19th Century) - (20th Century)
Site Name Ardeer, Ici Works, Nobel's Explosives, Detonator Department, Fusehead Production
Classification Explosives Factory (19th Century) - (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Nobel's Explosives Factory
Canmore ID 89360
Site Number NS23NE 1.01
NGR NS 294 399
NGR Description Centred NS 294 399
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/89360
- Council North Ayrshire
- Parish Stevenston
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Cunninghame
- Former County Ayrshire
NS23NE 1.01 centred 285 396
Explosives Factory (Detonator Department, Fusehead Production).
(Undated) information in NMRS.
The detonator department/factory area covers a large area - see also Canmore ID 89062, Site Number NS24SE 47.08.
Publication Account (28 January 2021)
This factory manufactured detonators. The detonator was the most important of Alfred Nobel’s inventions (early 1860s) and is the trigger essential for a safe and controlled initiation of the explosive. A detonator is a small device consisting of a metal tube containing a small quantity of primary explosive, which is initiated by a ‘spit’ of flame. This flame can be provided by means of a Blackpowder Safety Fuse or an electronically fired, match-like fuse-head. Conventional Delay Detonators were, as of the 1990s, being augmented by a new generation of highly accurate electronically operated Delay Detonators for some applications.
Detonators were originally manufactured at Westquarter near Falkirk from 1876. Westquarter was eventually closed in the 1930s and the manufacturing of detonators transferred to Ardeer. Alfred Nobel also opened another detonator factory at Redding Muir near Falkirk. Both Westquarter and Redding Muir closed before the the Second World War.
J E Dolan and MK Oglethorpe 1996; 'Nobel’s Factory Transference,’ Linlithgowshire Gazette, Friday 22 December 1933 [https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001907/19331222/011/0003: accessed 28/01/2021].
