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California Powder Works
California Powder Works (1861–1914) was the first American explosive powder manufacturing company west of the Rocky Mountains. When the outbreak of the Civil War cut off supplies of gunpowder to California's mining and road-building industries, a local manufacturer was needed. Originally located near Santa Cruz, California, the company was incorporated in 1861 and began manufacturing gunpowder in May 1864. For 50 years, it was a major employer in the county, employing between 150 and 275 men. The powder works was located on a flat adjacent to the San Lorenzo River, three miles upstream of Santa Cruz, which is now the Masonic residential community of Paradise Park, California.
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 by 6 feet (1.2 m × 1.8 m) tunnel 1,200 feet (370 m) 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 bridge across the river (the first bridge can be seen in an early panoramic lithograph, viewable online) and purchased a wharf off the main Santa Cruz beach.
The first bridge collapsed in 1871 and was replaced the following year by the covered bridge (now a National Historic Landmark) still in use today built by the Pacific Bridge Company. 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. The powder works wharf was unused after 1882 when railroad freight rates encouraged use of wharves in San Francisco Bay. A railroad wharf constructed near the powder works wharf in 1875 was made available for powder works freight until at least 1892 and was not demolished until 1922. 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 Fleet and the Asiatic fleet, 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 Breech-Loading Rifle Model 1888.
Shortly after the invention of dynamite by Alfred Nobel in 1867, the newly-formed Giant Powder Company of San Francisco acquired the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell it in the U.S.
A special formulation of dynamite was patented in 1874 by J. W. Willard, superintendent of the California Powder Works in Santa Cruz. He called his invention "Hercules powder", a competitive jab at rival Giant Powder Company, as the mythological Hercules was known as a giant slayer.
The California Powder Works thereafter became the only manufacturer of Hercules powder. In 1877, J.W. Willard moved to Cleveland, Ohio to oversee the opening of a new California Powder Works plant there, dedicated to the manufacture of Hercules powder. In 1881, the California Powder Works moved its Hercules powder manufacturing in California to a new site along the northeast shore of San Francisco Bay. The company town that grew up around the facility became known as "Hercules", later (1900) incorporated as Hercules, California.
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California Powder Works
California Powder Works (1861–1914) was the first American explosive powder manufacturing company west of the Rocky Mountains. When the outbreak of the Civil War cut off supplies of gunpowder to California's mining and road-building industries, a local manufacturer was needed. Originally located near Santa Cruz, California, the company was incorporated in 1861 and began manufacturing gunpowder in May 1864. For 50 years, it was a major employer in the county, employing between 150 and 275 men. The powder works was located on a flat adjacent to the San Lorenzo River, three miles upstream of Santa Cruz, which is now the Masonic residential community of Paradise Park, California.
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 by 6 feet (1.2 m × 1.8 m) tunnel 1,200 feet (370 m) 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 bridge across the river (the first bridge can be seen in an early panoramic lithograph, viewable online) and purchased a wharf off the main Santa Cruz beach.
The first bridge collapsed in 1871 and was replaced the following year by the covered bridge (now a National Historic Landmark) still in use today built by the Pacific Bridge Company. 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. The powder works wharf was unused after 1882 when railroad freight rates encouraged use of wharves in San Francisco Bay. A railroad wharf constructed near the powder works wharf in 1875 was made available for powder works freight until at least 1892 and was not demolished until 1922. 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 Fleet and the Asiatic fleet, 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 Breech-Loading Rifle Model 1888.
Shortly after the invention of dynamite by Alfred Nobel in 1867, the newly-formed Giant Powder Company of San Francisco acquired the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell it in the U.S.
A special formulation of dynamite was patented in 1874 by J. W. Willard, superintendent of the California Powder Works in Santa Cruz. He called his invention "Hercules powder", a competitive jab at rival Giant Powder Company, as the mythological Hercules was known as a giant slayer.
The California Powder Works thereafter became the only manufacturer of Hercules powder. In 1877, J.W. Willard moved to Cleveland, Ohio to oversee the opening of a new California Powder Works plant there, dedicated to the manufacture of Hercules powder. In 1881, the California Powder Works moved its Hercules powder manufacturing in California to a new site along the northeast shore of San Francisco Bay. The company town that grew up around the facility became known as "Hercules", later (1900) incorporated as Hercules, California.