Powder mills in the Helenenthal

They lie hidden away from the roadside, but along the Black Powder Route. A guided tour with the Landscape and History Association (www.lugev.deYou will learn where the remains of the blown-up production facilities are located and follow the trail of black gold.

Black powder production in a powder mill
A gunpowder mill consists of several buildings where black powder is produced in multiple stages. All equipment and machinery are powered by water. In the mixing plant, alder buckthorn charcoal is first mixed with saltpeter and sulfur using stamping mills and then pressed into lumps in the runner mill. The more compressed the mixture, the greater the explosive power of the powder. In the stamping mill, the lumps are then crushed into powder, which is subsequently dried in the drying house and polished with graphite in a rotating wooden drum in the polishing mill. In the packing house, the powder is packed into linen sacks and barrels and stored in a magazine secured with earthen embankments. The charcoal kiln, where the necessary charcoal was produced from the shrub-like alder buckthorn, was located—usually at a safe distance from the production and storage facilities—in the forest by a small stream. The buildings of a gunpowder mill were constructed using lightweight materials: only two or three sides consisted of solid stone walls, the rest of which were made of planks. This allowed the pressure wave to spread more easily in the event of an explosion, thus limiting the damage. Despite all precautions, serious accidents involving worker fatalities continued to occur.