Disaster along the Brandywine: Explosions at the DuPont Powder Mills

The Milford Museum American History Series continues with a program titled Disaster along the Brandywine: Explosions at the DuPont Powder Mills presented by Dick Templeton on Saturday, January 10, 1:00 p.m. at the Milford Public Library in Milford, Delaware. In its 124-year history, the DuPont black powder mills, run by the power of water from the Brandywine Creek, produced millions of pounds of materials that helped build America. The mills produced wealth for a family whose name would become synonymous with innovation in chemicals. However, the mills along the peaceful, bubbling creek also created widows and orphans. During most of the 19th and the first part of the 20th centuries, 288 explosions tore apart mill buildings, the surrounding flora, and the lives of the workers whose job it was to work with the volatile and unpredictable powder.