Depot = magazine

Note The Observation Test was intended to detect the initial decompn of propint, and was conducted at ail depots and posts where powder was stored. A 6oz sample of each lot of powder with a strip of methyl violet test paper was placed in a glass-stoppered bottle, with the paper not in contact with the powder. The test was conducted in the magazine in which the proplnt under test was stored. Bleaching of the test paper was taken as an indication that the powder had started to de-... 

For more than a decade, Picatinny (as variously named) was merely a storage and powder depot. The initial building, a magazine 200 by 50 feet, was built at a cost of 51,700. Four other magazines followed rapidly, as did officers quarters, stables for the horses and the necessary service buildings... 

At about 5=15 PM lightning struck in the southwest end of the Depot, and almost immediately thereafter, Hack smoke was seen issuing from the northeast side of Temporary Magazine No 8. An alarm of fire was sounded and the personnel of the Depot responded immediately to the fire call, and at least one stream of water was playing on die fire when at 5 20 PM a tremendous detonation occurred at die scene of die fire... 

Magazine, Surface Obertage-Lager depot superficiel... 

Magazine, Underground Untertage-Lager depot souterrain... 

Adjoining the Lake Denmark Depot was the Picatihny Arsenal of the US Army which lay about 150 ft below the point of the hillside which was the site of Temporary Magazines Nos 8 9. Approximately the slope of the ground on Lake Denmark Depot continued thru the Picatinny Arsenal down to Picatinny Lake. Bordering the Lake the ground was practically level, to the west the ground rises abruptly to a higher elevation than the hills... 

The need for air-conditioning at Eastlays was an important consideration from the earliest days, ever since its prime role as a cordite and TNT magazine had been established. Free of financial restraint, the War Office would have preferred to fully condition the whole depot, but, following a difficult meeting of the TISC in April, 1938, a more limited scheme was approved. This amounted to full-scale refrigerated air-conditioning of only one district, at a capital cost of 70,000. The running cost of this modest scheme was estimated at 35,000 per year. 

The general recommendation of the committee was that the existing surface depots should be used only for immediate issues and sites with good rail access should be found for underground magazines to hold the reserve stock. The repon concluded that ... 

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