I have been looking at Wheal Par, a fairly insignificant tin
mine to the north of St Blazey in Cornwall, that worked from about
1860-66. In a cost book of 1864 is reference to purchases from the
"Patent Safety Powder Co." and also from the "Nancekuke Powder
Company".
Neither of these names are familiar to me and they do not
appear in Bryan Earl's exhaustive study "Cornish Explosives".
Bryan thinks that the patent Safety Powder Co might be an company set up in the
Wadebridge area by Messrs Kellow and Short in 1862, who were making an explosive
which included potassium chlorate. The works were wrecked by an huge
explosion in July 1865.
Nancekuke is near Portreath, recently famous or infamous as
part of the Porton Down "biological" warfare establishment. We
know that there was a manufactury there, close to Factory Farm, but have no
details.
I would welcome any information on these explosives companies
or the mine.