Dangerous Energy: The Archaeology of Gunpowder and Military Explosives Manufacture (review)

In reviewing this book, I was tempted to begin by suggesting a further subtitle, one offset by an asterisk: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gunpowder But Were Afraid to Ask. Ostensibly written as an extensive guide to the recently opened Royal Gunpowder Mills Site and Museum at Waltham Abbey in Essex, England, Wayne D. Cocroft's book is actually much more than a tour through the buildings and surroundings. It is an extensive history of gunpowder and its explosive descendants (and the military and nonmilitary technologies that employed them) that uses the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey as a framework. Some scholars might criticize certain details or comment on what they feel are omissions, but I daresay that few will find a better survey of the history of this very important subject. Nor will many quibble with the number and selection of illustrations and maps that blanket the text, making this one of the most completely illustrated histories of technology ever published, a book that adds greatly to an understanding of how gunpowder was manufactured and used.

Cocroft begins his study by reviewing the history of gunpowder in the centuries prior to the opening of the Waltham Abbey gunpowder mills. In a chapter titled "Success to the Black Art!" he moves briskly from the origins of gunpowder to the beginnings of its "official" manufacture, the effects on gunpowder production of the English Civil War, and the establishment of the first royal gunpowder mills, including the one at Waltham Abbey. Interspersed throughout the main text are shaded subsections that provide explanations necessary for an understanding of the chronological story: "Ingredients," "Processes," and a "Summary of the Development of Gunpowder Technology in the Most Advanced Works By the Late Seventeenth Century." This approach allows readers to fill in gaps in their knowledge of the science and technology of the subject without disrupting the historical flow. It is an effective pattern, which Cocroft follows throughout the rest of the book.

Once he has reached the founding of the royal gunpowder mills, Cocroft slows his narrative pace; the remainder of the book is devoted to the period following 1759, with particular focus on the manufacture of gunpowder during the nineteenth century and its evolution into new propellants and high explosives. Of course, the world wars play a major role in the story, but one of the attractions of Cocroft's book is that it is not solely a history of military technology. He examines the administrative history of gunpowder manufacture, especially the reorganization of the royal gunpowder mills under William Congreve, comptroller of the Royal Laboratory in the late eighteenth century, and also considers the architectural design of the mills, a discussion informed primarily by the archaeological work undertaken at Waltham Abbey, Faversham, and other royal gunpowder mills. In the course of his discussion of the architecture of the mills, Cocroft introduces social-historical questions about workers, facilities, and safeguards. Though he remarks that "the explosives industry employed comparatively few people" (p. 96), they still had to be housed and protected. Cocroft presents a detailed treatment of the workers' and managers' accommodations in bungalows and cottages, many of which still house families. Safeguarding receives an extremely detailed examination in terms of legislation, apparel, lightning conductors, and building and manufacturing materials—corrugated iron and galvanized sheeting, Willesden paper (chemically treated, waterproof, and fire-resistant heavy paper or cardboard)—concrete, lighting, and electricity.

Cocroft also discusses the manufacture of gunpowder, propellants, and explosives as a business. Acquiring materiél, especially saltpeter, was a perpetual problem, and although controlled by the government the various royal gunpowder mills were rivals. Finally, there was the immensely important problem of stockpiling enough gunpowder, propellants, or explosives to supply the British war machine when it entered a conflict and to keep up the supply while the conflict was being fought.

Cocroft's penultimate...