Chemical Laboratory, Arsenal

 This week’s article does not come from ‘The Archaeology of South-East London’ nor is the site on the Charlton Riverside. It does however feature in the Gazetteer of Darrel Spurgeon’s “Discover Woolwich and its Environs”.  It is a Grade 2 listed building on the Royal Arsenal site and like so many has been turned into a block of flats. But the building has no name only a number and apparently the road in which it stands in has no name.  So it is not an easy building to identify despite being of great importance.

The entry in Darrell’s book says “Chemical Laboratory.  Classical building of 1864. Look through the windows on the west side. The large room with its gallery extends the full height of the two-storey building. This was the room used for chemical experiments”. Unfortunately the closed roads and barriers around it make it almost impossible to see the building clearly on Google Street view and absolutely impossible to look at it from the west side.  You will have to go there in person.

I must also make it quite clear that this is not the building on the Arsenal site which is called ‘The Royal Laboratory”.  That is a different building, 200 years older than this ‘Chemical Laboratory’. 

Michael Faraday himself had been Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy between 1813 and 1851 – although for him this must have been a part-time appointment since he was also Director of the Royal Institution and doing much else. He was succeeded by Frederick Abel who in 1854 was appointed War Department chemist – indicating an increasing awareness at the Board of Ordnance of the importance of chemistry in the production and use of weapons.

Abel was an academic chemist who had trained at the Royal College of Chemistry under Professor August von Hoffman and had later become his assistant.  It is perhaps important to note that Hoffman’s appointment in London from Germany led to the training of many young chemists who were to lead research into many new compounds and open factories to manufacture them. It has been said that the Great War - some 60 years later - was the ‘Chemists War’. 

The appointment of Frederick Abel is described in the ‘Survey of Woolwich’ as ‘a pivotal moment in the technological development of arms and ammunition’. The Survey describes how Abel through his new role became close to other innovators in the Arsenal, including William Armstrong. The Initial work of the new department was to evaluate metal from the cannon foundry – I suppose what we would describe as ‘quality control’. 

This work at Woolwich Arsenal was carried out in close co-operation with the government factory at Waltham Abbey. I don’t know if people reading this know the site of The  Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey which is now open to the public to explore and learn about – and If not,  you really should see it. It’s a huge site on the banks of the River Lea and much of it left to nature. They take you round in a special vehicle and I will never forget seeing a real live wild deer at one of the stopping places.

Because of the explosives made at Waltham Abbey, for safety transport throughout the site was by water - since both horses hooves and wheels can make sparks! It was originally a private gunpowder mill acquired by the Crown in 1787 and evolved into a major centre where explosives manufacture and research could be in much safer conditions.

A short way down the River Lea at Enfield is the Royal Small Arms factory where weapons –guns - were developed and manufactured using new technologies and materials.  Along with Waltham Abbey they were to develop new weapons as the result of continuing research into materials during the 19th century.  

Initially at Woolwich Abel had a work space at the back of the Model Room – the old Royal Military Academy.  He lived in a house in Dial Square - noted as the second largest there.  Before long his department had subordinate staff and a purpose-built headquarters was built - which is our subject this week, the Chemical Laboratory.  Abel was involved in the specifications for this building in polychromatic brick. At the west end there was a work space with a cast iron balcony at the upper level and a ventilated roof carried on arched ribs.  There are stories of Abel lowering a baskets from this balcony for an assistant to deal with the contents.  There was also an early photographic department there. 

Historic England comments “this is a very early purpose-built laboratory exemplifying the role of the chemist as the most significant factor in the advance of research and development in the post-1850s period in Europe.”

Over many  many centuries gunpowder had been used as the main explosive for a wide range of uses but an alternative was needed. A great deal of research took place in on the Continent - in France, Germany and elsewhere - and what was called ‘gun cotton’ was developed.  In the 1840s there were attempts to make it at the commercial gunpowder mills at Faversham. In the early 1850s Frederick Abel was instructed by the Secretary of State for War to investigate it and it was made on a small-scale at Waltham Abbey in 1863.   Gun cotton was very unstable and Abel introduced newer and safer methods of dealing with it. It is thought that Abel was inspired by machinery used in the Arsenal’s Paper Cartridge factory... Gun cotton was useful but it did not entirely replace gunpowder and in time cordite was developed in European research laboratories - in particular by Alfred Nobel.  

In 1887 the War Office asked James Dewar, who worked with Abel, to investigate smokeless propellants.  Dewar was not an employee at the Arsenal; he is best known for the invention of the vacuum flask.. His work with Abel at the Arsenal is only one example of cooperation between chemists from many different backgrounds in the late 19th century.

Cordite was patented in Britain in 1889 but later there was a legal action by the Nobel Company against the British Government for infringement of their explosives patents.  This became known eventually as the ‘cordite scandal’ and was one issue said to been involved in the fall of the Liberal Government in 1895. Both Abel and Dewar held foreign patents which were also the subject of criticism. 

Did any of this have any effect on the immediate area of Woolwich beyond the Arsenal? In 1883 there was a massive explosion where rockets flew all over the area. These were rockets manufactured and stored in the Arsenal and not directly to do with the Abel except in his role in the inspection of storage facilities.   It was reported in the press that 780 rockets had been in the store and 453 were missing.  One rocket had landed at Crossness Sewage Works and was handed to the authorities by Bazalgette himself. In the papers it is described as a ‘bombardment of Woolwich’. Two workers  had been killed; one of whom was a young boy and several thousand apparently attended his Plumstead funeral.  The newspaper paper article said ‘not even Sir Frederick Abel himself could account for the terrific explosion. In fact the learned chemist seems perfectly amazed at anything occurring without the orthodox rules of science... the explosion he evidently thinks should not have occurred because he cannot account for it”.  They continued to say that the two killed were labourers – “perhaps if it was a couple of generals or colonel the enquiry would be more exhaustive”.  

Abel was also involved in a number of educational initiatives in Woolwich and we have a report of, for instance, Royal Arsenal science classes where he attended the prize giving. He talked about his own progress in the industry and said that “if they did not bestir themselves they would find that this important branch of manufacture would fail, in comparison with the success obtained in other countries”.  

Abel retired in 1888 and the newspaper reports tell us “he has been relieved of routine duties with the Department which was founded and developed by him”. He continued with other roles as an adviser and as an inspector and similar activities.  He died in 1902 and was considered important enough for the King to send a representative to his funeral.   

The laboratory building was used as offices until 1994 and has since been converted by Berkeley Homes into 10 flats.

Abel and his laboratory are good examples of how the Arsenal was moving on with changing technologies and wasn’t just about bigger and bigger guns. When I was a student in Woolwich the 1970s we had some lectures in what was known as ‘The Vogel Laboratory”.  This commemorated Alfred Vogel and his work promoting the teaching of chemistry at Woolwich Polytechnic – in the days when that was one of the most prestigious centres of technical education in the world.  I don’t know what goes on now in that old, and very, very interesting building, but is Vogel’s Lab still there?    

As I pointed out at the start of his article the chemical laboratory building in the Arsenal, now flats, does not have a name and nor does the road that runs in front of it. Research into the nature of materials – including those used in warfare – is important, and sometimes to do with safety. Perhaps we should at least acknowledge that it took place. 

Thanks to Ian Bull