This book is a facsimilie reproduction, including 26 illustrations, of the original 1870 manuscript held in the Archive of the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey. It contains information pertaining to the industrial archaeology and historical significance of the Royal Gunpowder Mills. It is the 4th volume in the Royal Gunpowder Mills Historical Reprint Series. For more information about the Archive, visit: http: //www.royalgunpowdermills.com/history-heritage/archives/

Description - from the Preface:

The following short treatise is intended as a guide to officers who wish to make themselves acquainted with the manufacture and proof of gunpowder, as now carried on in the Royal Gunpowder Factory. With the exception of a pamphlet written in 1867 by the late Major J. Fraser Baddeley, then Captain-Instructor in the factory, and a brief series of notes compiled by Captain O. H. Goodenough from an unpublished pamphlet of Colonel Boxer's and other sources, for the use of the gentlemen cadets, there is no work which gives an account of the system of manufacture and proof now practised at Waltham Abbey.

It must be admitted that there are many points connected with the manufacture and proof of gunpowder which are as yet imperfectly understood. But there is every reason to believe that the labours of the Committee on Explosives, who have at their command new and delicate means for proof and examination, will throw sufficient light on all matters of practical importance. The following pages have, however, been specially written with the view of showing not only what has been done, but what still remains to be done in each department of the manufacture and proof of gunpowder for Her Majesty's service.

Royal Gunpowder Factory, 24th December 1870