What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Cotton powder company

A photograph album that came to light about twenty years ago is marked up:
Official German War Office Trials 'Hales' Patent Rifle and Hand Grenades
Spandau June 1911 [there is a question mark written alongside this date]
Please Return to
F Marten Hale
Furzedene, Kinnard Avenue, Bromley, Kent
 
Hi, just to add Cotton Powder is Gun Cotton/Nitrocellulose and not Tonite, Tonite 3 formulation is (approximately) 18% Gun Cotton, 70% Barium Nitrate and 12% Dinitrobenzol.
 
Last edited:
There is still some confusion over the exact number of people killed in the explosion, it seems to be around 106 to 109;as part of my reserch I searched the Births, Marriages and Deaths site for "Unknown" and 34 recorded Deaths for Faversham came up, very sad.
 
I always thought the total was 115 including those missing. 108 burials and the rest ---- gone. The exact total may be higher as some workers, maybe cleaners in at the weekend were not on the CPC payroll. (?)
 
I think it is a question of who you include, for example an ambulance man who attended the scene was so affected that he hung himself soon after.
 
More Craters

Crater of CPC building 218 Craterbuilding218CPC.jpg Crater of CPC 217 Craterbuilding 217CPC.jpg Both these buildings exploded simultaneously with building 833 ELC, I think they both produced Cordite and Nitroglycerine in the manufacturing process was sensitive to the shock.
 
That is incredible the depth the explosion caused in a building, pictures of the site taken January 2017.

Dave

Silted up DockDSC01223.jpg DSC01224.jpg DSC01225.jpg DSC01226.jpg DSC01227.jpg DSC01228.jpg
Looking towards Harty Ferry Public house my Grandfathers old PlaceDSC01229.jpg DSC01230.jpg
Road way going onto former siteDSC01231.jpg DSC01232.jpg
Apart from concrete huts this is the only building i could possibly say is original to site DSC01234.jpg DSC01233.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dan's Dock did not originally belong to the CPC but belonged to Sampson Dan who had a Brickworks, there is a Pottery shown on 1908 OS maps with a Tramway from it to the dock. The long building stands where the Pottery once was and may have been part of it, Uplees station was also built near there and the building could have been used by the Light RailwayDan'sDockAno1.jpg AnotA.jpg
 
Frederick Martin Hale became F. Marten Hale, Martin was his Mother's maiden name and at some point he changed it, he signed his (2nd) Marriage Certificate Marten. I have been unable to find out what happened to his first Wife but Census records show they had no Children.
 
Many thanks Dave. I've never been out there but will try to this summer.

John
 
Last edited:
I have the same Photograph labelled 1921 Memorial Service rather than the Tank enquiry, I don't know which is correct so I will keep an open mind. William Mills was Knighted but Hale was not, possibly due to Hale using the courts to protect his many patents while Mills was reportedly much more relaxed about his.
 
NitroGlynerine said:
I have the same Photograph labelled 1921 Memorial Service rather than the Tank enquiry, I don't know which is correct so I will keep an open mind. William Mills was Knighted but Hale was not, possibly due to Hale using the courts to protect his many patents while Mills was reportedly much more relaxed about his.
Click to expand...

First published in the Daily Mirror 10th October 1919. Source: Hale's own writing.
 
Last edited:
I was recently able to visit the Faversham Cemetery to see the mass grave. The names on the two memorials confirm that there were 108 burials with the majority in the mass grave but with over 30 buried elsewhere.

Here's a photo of the sadly neglected memorial which needs a good weeding, and the other memorial. The stonework is in good condition as is the separate stone which names those buried elsewhere.

Hope this is of interest.

John

DSCN8333.jpgDSCN8336.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top