Bellifortis
Well-Known Member
Hallo,
in 1972 a patent US3660546 "Process for the preparation of Black Powder" was issued to the norwegian K.Loevold. The US army decided to use this revolutionary new process. Many investigations, tests, reports were prepared in the 70s. The result was, that any type of specification Black Powder could economically be produced by this process. In the second half of the 70s the worlds most modern factory was built at Indiana Ammunition Plant, near Charlestown, for 35 Million $ . The factory was set to produce 8 different specification Black Powders with a volume of 500 000 pounds/month. Only in 1982 production started, but was shut down a short time later in 1983 and the whole factory put on Standby. The reason given at the time was OVERPRODUCTION. This is the only time I ever heard of a factory being closed down because it produced too much. Black Powder consumption has been steadily decreasing for the last 170 years and the downward trend is continueing even today. But, it is still indispensible in certain applications. After 1985 one heard nothing more about this revolutionary new process. Today some info is available that tells about some hitches in the factory. But these could have been removed. Does anybody know if this process is used anywhere in the world to produce Black Powder and what the real reason for the shutdown were ?
Regards,
Bellifortis.
in 1972 a patent US3660546 "Process for the preparation of Black Powder" was issued to the norwegian K.Loevold. The US army decided to use this revolutionary new process. Many investigations, tests, reports were prepared in the 70s. The result was, that any type of specification Black Powder could economically be produced by this process. In the second half of the 70s the worlds most modern factory was built at Indiana Ammunition Plant, near Charlestown, for 35 Million $ . The factory was set to produce 8 different specification Black Powders with a volume of 500 000 pounds/month. Only in 1982 production started, but was shut down a short time later in 1983 and the whole factory put on Standby. The reason given at the time was OVERPRODUCTION. This is the only time I ever heard of a factory being closed down because it produced too much. Black Powder consumption has been steadily decreasing for the last 170 years and the downward trend is continueing even today. But, it is still indispensible in certain applications. After 1985 one heard nothing more about this revolutionary new process. Today some info is available that tells about some hitches in the factory. But these could have been removed. Does anybody know if this process is used anywhere in the world to produce Black Powder and what the real reason for the shutdown were ?
Regards,
Bellifortis.