A visit to Hagley

travel, sightseeing, photographs

DuPont employees anad their families get into Hagley Museum and Powder Yard free this month, so my wife and I took advantage of the chance to see it. We haven't been there for several years. We mainly walked along the powder mill buildings.

More than twenty of these blast-resistant structures remain, and another dozen or so are in ruins or just the foundations are left. Most of them are in pairs; the waterwheel or turbine would be between with a shaft going each way to power the mill wheels.

A rectangular building has five "sides", four walls and a roof. Powder mills have three solid walls, about three feet thick, as blast protection for the rest of the powder yard and dwellings that were rather nearby, including the E.I. DuPont mansion, Eleutherian Mills. The fourth wall, facing the Brandywine River, was very lightweight, or that side was left open, and the roof was also lightweight. Thus, if there was an accident, the explosive force would be directed across the river. "Going across the river" was a euphemism for dying in an explosion among the 19^th Century workers in the mills.

The earliest water wheels were "breast wheels" like this one; the water sluice hit the wheel on a level with the axle, at breast height, and pulled that side downward. This view is of the back of the wheel. It is about ten feet in diameter. Later wooden wheels were overshot, with about twice the efficiency of breast wheels. After about 1840 metal turbines, which are more efficient yet, were used.

To minimize the chance of accidental sparks, the walkways and rails in the vicinity of the powder mills were all of wood. Once metal turbines began to be used, they were enclosed in wooden barrel-like structures, and kept wet continually, so no sparks could ignite any powder dust, which was always in the air. Carrying metal on-site, even your wedding band, was grounds for dismissal.

I was told that, at the office and home of Mr. DuPont, there was a wash basin which had to be used upon entry, to make sure no powder remained on your hands. This was particularly important in winter, when anyone in the building might throw a log on the fire; invisible amounts of powder were enough to cause an accident!

Geared mechanisms like this one were used to raise and lower large gates, so you could start and stop the mill wheels as needed. I like mechanical stuff, and Hagley has a lot of it. This particular gate and its lift gears are still in use.

On a later tour of the DuPont mansion (no photography allowed), someone asked why the place is named Hagley. The guide answered that one of the larger properties that was purchased to make up the facility was bought from a Mr. Hagley, and much of the existing area (240 acres out of an original 1,000 acres) is composed of the land bought from him. However, it still could have been called "DuPont Powder Museum" or some such, so perhaps the wishes of company representatives entered into that decision.