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Kynoch Works Witton Explosion 1870

L

lpowell6

proper brummie kid
This famous explosion was on 17th November 1870, and I believe one of my distant relatives was killed in it, either this one or the one at Ludlow and Co on 9th December 1870. Does anyone have any further information on these events, and does anyone know if there was a list of casuaties published. In fact any further information about these events would be most interesting
 
A 1962 history of Kynoch discusses the remarkable Mrs McNab who was made forewoman or the percussion cap department in 1872 when she was 22 and served for 30 years in this capacity. (Her peak annual output in the 1880s came to no less than 449 million caps). The history continues as follows:

Not the least remarkable of Mrs McNab's achievements was a safety record of almost incredible spotlessness - not a single serious accident in 30 years of supervising an inevitably dangerous operation, often carried on at extreme pressure. Kynoch was less fortunate in this respect with his cartridge making operations, particularly loading, which was still done by hand and largely by young children. In November 1870 the local newspapers carried a grim tale of "another blow up at Kynoch's" - the fourth serious explosion in two years. On this occasion 28 people were injured, at least eight of whom subsequently died including a boy of 10 and a girl of 12.

Kynoch was swift to respond to the understandably critical comments of the press. Two days after the publication of a leader demanding government control of ammunition factories and a ban on the employment of children, he wrote to explain that "the loading of cartridges has been entirely suspended and will not be resumed again until a safe method of performing the process has been determined by a series of experiments". He went on to describe one such experiments, in which a large quantity of gunpowder was detonated "but spent its force upwards, nothing being disturbed in the shed". With a nice instinct for public relations, he offered to repeat the experiment at any time "in the presence of gentlemen representing the press". Apparently the invitation was not accepted.​

I imagine that your best source of information will be the local press reports of the time. I hope you will report back on this if you make progress.

Chris
 
Hi i came across this photo of workers leaving the Kynoch's works in 1912



Image5_Kynocks_at_Witton.jpg




Stars
 
Great picture. I have a map of the area from 1917, but the area of Kynoch's is missing due to security reasons.

I would presume that the picture is taken from the railway bridge, but would welcome other interpretations!

All the best Peter
 
I remember reading about the 1870 explosion some years ago, it seemed to me that Kynoch's were a bit lax on Health and Safety!


Earlier...Fatal Explosion Witton...B'ham Daily Post July 1st 1868


"Enquiry adjourned in order to procure further evidence, more especially relating to the precautions taken for the safety of the workpeople employed there, and the general custom in dealing with such dangerous compounds."


All the best Peter
 
I am reading a relevant section of the Birmingham Daily Post (13th December 1870) for the first day of the coroner's Inquest the previous day. Their is a list of the 14 bodies that had been identified at that time.

Due to the copyright of the National Archives I cannot copy to the sight, but if you can give me the surname I will look out for info as I read about the explosion.

All the best Peter
 
lpowell6 said:
This famous explosion was on 17th November 1870, and I believe one of my distant relatives was killed in it, either this one or the one at Ludlow and Co on 9th December 1870. Does anyone have any further information on these events, and does anyone know if there was a list of casuaties published. In fact any further information about these events would be most interesting
Click to expand...

There is a list od dead and missing on the Rootsweb site here...


https://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WARWICK/2000-09/0969530662


Regards Peter
 
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