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Danville, PA as in past years has a celebration called the Iron heritage Festival a very nice event on its past. However, was just reading about the recreation of an explosion at the then Black Powder Mill in Danville.
An excerpt from the article...
Two of the more anticipated events this year, according to Hause, are the hot air balloon rides on July 18 at Danville Middle School and the black powder detonation on July 19 at the original site of Danville's powder mill behind Geisinger Medical Center along Powder Mill Road.
The black powder project is the latest experiment derived by Van Wagner, a Danville native and local historian, and his faithful volunteers, who have spent each year of the festival adding their own special touch to the heritage festival.
The group has done several living history recreations over the years, such as handcrafting an early 19th century log raft and floating it down the Susquehanna River, as well as setting up a week-long charcoal-making campsite last year to showcase the authentic process of turning wood into charcoal.
That same homemade charcoal will be used again this year to make black powder.
"Since black powder was one of the key ingredients behind the iron industry, we figured that would be a neat thing to try," Wagner said. "If you couldn't blast loose the iron ore, limestone and coal; there wouldn't be iron."
Wagner, a science teacher at Lewisburg Area High School, researched how to make black powder and tested the process at his Danville home. From the successful experiments, Wagner is now eagerly looking forward to putting the practice to use for the festival.
"We will lead a hike up to the site where we believe the mill was and have a short discussion on the techniques used then, and then detonate the powder,
" Wagner said. "It doesn't matter what age you are, there is something special about fireworks
This seems a little scary to me making and setting off black powder to resemble an explosion...I wonder how big they plan the explosion to be along with making black powder. Hope the insurance policy is good... a link to the complete article
An excerpt from the article...
Two of the more anticipated events this year, according to Hause, are the hot air balloon rides on July 18 at Danville Middle School and the black powder detonation on July 19 at the original site of Danville's powder mill behind Geisinger Medical Center along Powder Mill Road.
The black powder project is the latest experiment derived by Van Wagner, a Danville native and local historian, and his faithful volunteers, who have spent each year of the festival adding their own special touch to the heritage festival.
The group has done several living history recreations over the years, such as handcrafting an early 19th century log raft and floating it down the Susquehanna River, as well as setting up a week-long charcoal-making campsite last year to showcase the authentic process of turning wood into charcoal.
That same homemade charcoal will be used again this year to make black powder.
"Since black powder was one of the key ingredients behind the iron industry, we figured that would be a neat thing to try," Wagner said. "If you couldn't blast loose the iron ore, limestone and coal; there wouldn't be iron."
Wagner, a science teacher at Lewisburg Area High School, researched how to make black powder and tested the process at his Danville home. From the successful experiments, Wagner is now eagerly looking forward to putting the practice to use for the festival.
"We will lead a hike up to the site where we believe the mill was and have a short discussion on the techniques used then, and then detonate the powder,
" Wagner said. "It doesn't matter what age you are, there is something special about fireworksThis seems a little scary to me making and setting off black powder to resemble an explosion...I wonder how big they plan the explosion to be along with making black powder. Hope the insurance policy is good... a link to the complete article
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