About: California Powder Works   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A dam was built on the San Lorenzo River upstream of the powder works on what is now Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. A 4-foot by 6-foot tunnel 1200 feet long was dug in 1863 to bring water from the dam through the powder works. Water powered powder mill machinery and was used to dissolve and purify the crude potassium nitrate from Chile. Water was distributed through the powder works by a system of flumes later dismantled when electricity became available to power the wheel mills. Charcoal was manufactured locally using redwood fuel to char willow, madrone and alder. To facilitate transport and shipping, the company built a covered bridge across the river, still in use today, and a wharf off the main Santa Cruz beach. The wharf was used to receive shipments of potassium nitrate and sulfu

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • California Powder Works
rdfs:comment
  • A dam was built on the San Lorenzo River upstream of the powder works on what is now Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. A 4-foot by 6-foot tunnel 1200 feet long was dug in 1863 to bring water from the dam through the powder works. Water powered powder mill machinery and was used to dissolve and purify the crude potassium nitrate from Chile. Water was distributed through the powder works by a system of flumes later dismantled when electricity became available to power the wheel mills. Charcoal was manufactured locally using redwood fuel to char willow, madrone and alder. To facilitate transport and shipping, the company built a covered bridge across the river, still in use today, and a wharf off the main Santa Cruz beach. The wharf was used to receive shipments of potassium nitrate and sulfu
sameAs
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:military/pr...iPageUsesTemplate
abstract
  • A dam was built on the San Lorenzo River upstream of the powder works on what is now Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. A 4-foot by 6-foot tunnel 1200 feet long was dug in 1863 to bring water from the dam through the powder works. Water powered powder mill machinery and was used to dissolve and purify the crude potassium nitrate from Chile. Water was distributed through the powder works by a system of flumes later dismantled when electricity became available to power the wheel mills. Charcoal was manufactured locally using redwood fuel to char willow, madrone and alder. To facilitate transport and shipping, the company built a covered bridge across the river, still in use today, and a wharf off the main Santa Cruz beach. The wharf was used to receive shipments of potassium nitrate and sulfur from Sicily. Horse-drawn wagons moved raw materials and gunpowder between the wharf and the powder works until the South Pacific Coast Railroad was built. Two Victorian mansions were built on a bluff overlooking the powder works as homes for the powder works superintendents. Company housing was available for powder mill workers, and a school opened nearby for their children. California Powder Works began producing smokeless powder for firearms ammunition in the early 1890s. Peyton Powder, prepared at Santa Cruz under the direction of assistant superintendent William Peyton, had an unusual addition of ammonium picrate to the conventional double-base formulation of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. Peyton Powder was selected by the United States Army in 1893 for early cartridges for the new Krag-Jørgensen service rifle. The powder works also produced CPW Smokeless powder and loaded shotgun ammunition marketed as Native Son Cartridges after the army adopted W.A. powder in 1896 to avoid cartridge case corrosion caused by picric acid in the Peyton Powder. California Powder Works manufactured powder for naval artillery. Initial production was prismatic brown powder, and the works later obtained a license to produce The United States Navy's patented nitrocellulose smokeless powder. Both powders were used by the Pacific and Asiatic Fleets, and for Pacific harbor and coast defense. The powder works operated a proving ground at Santa Cruz beginning 1892 using guns provided by the United States Inspector of Ordnance. Individual powder lots were test fired in the guns for which they were intended, including a 57mm QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss, a 6"/45 caliber Quick-Fire Rifle Model 1897, and an 8"/32 caliber Breach-Loading Rifle Model 1888.
Alternative Linked Data Views: ODE     Raw Data in: CXML | CSV | RDF ( N-Triples N3/Turtle JSON XML ) | OData ( Atom JSON ) | Microdata ( JSON HTML) | JSON-LD    About   
This material is Open Knowledge   W3C Semantic Web Technology [RDF Data] Valid XHTML + RDFa
OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3217, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu), Standard Edition
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2012 OpenLink Software