The packinghouse had, like all of the building, large high windows to allow lots of natural light in, for people to work by; this is a good safety feature because it meant that the men didn’t need to use flames near the finished gunpowder. It also had 2 doors are for powder in to be packed into barrels and one for the barrels to exit through. This is a good design feature because it meant there would be no confusion and no collisions. Along with the large windows and 2 doors it is also located close to the road probably so that they could have a steady and large amount of trade. There is evidence that they have attempted to the storage abilities by adding shelves this is a good safety feature because it meant that they could ensure that the powder would stay dry and it also means that when it came to taking inventory life would be a lot simpler because the packing house would be very organised.
The granulating mill, like many buildings, was plastered to prevent gunpowder getting into cracks in the walls also it had a raised floor, this is a good design feature because it means that he gunpowder will remain dry and they will may have to repeat any part of the process. Like all the building the granulating mill was powered by water but it was built away from the river this meant that they had to use aqueducts that links to the river higher up and because of this they had to use an undershot wheel. The idea of the aqueduct was a good safety feature because it meant that they could build the Granulating mill out of ‘harms way’. This particular building had shutters probably for the prevention of theft because this building was used for sieving and sorting the gunpowder. The shutters were a good safety feature because they could bolt down the windows and doors and this could prevent a massive explosion and control the direction. This would be useful because it is very close to one of the blast walls which separate the granulating mill from the kennel vale paper factory.
The change house is the odd building because it has an open fire which would normally be a safety issue but because the change house is where the workers change into there strict uniform: woollen overalls with no pockets. This uniform is a good safety feature as it prevents the workers taking objects in or stealing gunpowder and wood is very fire resistant also the change house was extended to house for making bread this is a good design feature because the workers wouldn’t need to travel far for bread but this means it will be cooked on site and transported to the workers and sparks might linger on the clothing and start in an explosion and it did happen to Mrs Rutter.
Almost all of the buildings in the Kennall Vale were powered by water because it is free and very safe around explosive items. Even though water is free the workers had to devise very imaginative ways of getting water to go where they wanted and they managed to come up with a leat system that connected the river with buildings higher up this meant using large amounts of Granite and bricks but they could use one load of water over and over again by turning the tailrace of one building into the headrace of another. Also they could make the mills more productive by using overshot wheels (water falls down onto the wheel.) but in some instances this wasn’t possible because the building was to high up or to far away from the river, this happened with the granulating mill, in which case they needed to use different methods and there answer was to use aqueducts that were connected to the river higher up. When they had to use aqueducts, that ran underground, it made sense to use an undershot wheel this wasn’t quite as powerful as the overshot wheel because it didnt have the added force of gravity. Even with the idea of leats they couldn’t control how the river rose and fell in different times of the year which meant they couldn’t control the amount of water running down the leats. For that they needed something else and the answer came in the form of a sluice gate which could be opened and closed. If there was a lack of water it could be opened to allow more water through in winter when there was an increase in the water level it could be closed to let the correct amount of water through but at a controlled route.
Typically leats adopted a U shape because it has troth at the bottom and tall sides like this:
The leats normally had a slanted side so that water could run over it and turn a wheel.