The DUPONT Powder Press Compression Detonation That Killed 31 on the Brandywine, 1818

Between 1802 and 1921, there were 288 explosions at the DuPont powder works on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware. 228 dead. When a man was killed, the other workers didn't say he died. They said he went across the creek. It wasn't a metaphor. The mill walls were built to blow outward toward the water, and the men inside went with the debris. On March 19, 1818, the hydraulic press detonated and killed 34. A woman whose name the company records don't preserve died running toward the gate to find her husband. He was already dead inside the mill. Three children were orphans before noon. The cost of relocating the press house was three times the cost of rebuilding it in the same spot. They rebuilt. The powder kept pressing. The creek kept running. #IndustrialHistory #AmericanHistory #DuPont #Brandywine #GunpowderHistory