Girls Weekend 25. Monday, October 17. Back to Hagley

Lori on the bank of the Brandywine River

When we were mapping out our plan for our week here, we planned on today being a "rest" day. Partly because we just don't have the energy and stamina that we had in our younger years and partly because rain was in the forecast for today.  Instead, we opted to return to Hagley Museum because we felt that we missed so much there when we went on Friday, so that became the plan for the day. Ultimately, we were so glad we made that change in our plans because, while a bit cooler, it turned out to be a beautifully stunning day. We are often blessed with amazing weather while on these trips and today was no exception.

The morning was spent catching up on e-mails as well as catching up with the rest of the world on our laptops.  After another round of cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast, courtesy of Lori, we showered and got ready for our further exploration of the grounds of Hagley.  Kathi made the turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch today, packed them up along with some potato chips and Chips Ahoy chunky chocolate chip cookies and out the door we went.

Upon arrival, we first went into the gift shop for a browse around since we were able to spend so little time there on our original visit. We agree that museum gift shops are often the best because they tend to have unique and unusual items for sale. This one proved that theory to be true.  Lori bought a couple of packs of photo-sensitive paper, sold under the name of "Suntography" that can be used to produce cyanotypes. Basically you place the object of your choice on the paper (leaves, for example) expose it to several hours of sunlight, rinse with water and you will have a bluish toned print of the object on the paper.  Lori bought a kit for both herself and her 4 year old grandson Beckett and looks forward to playing around with it.

We left the gift shop, and after dropping off our purchases in the car, started walking up the road. This was the same road that the shuttle used on Friday to take us to the mansion. The road passes the powder yard where E.I. du Pont founded a gunpowder works along the shore of the Brandywine River in 1802. This was the part of this site that we returned for.  Between the company’s founding in 1802 and 1840, the yards expanded twice to include three dams, upper and lower mill races, dozens of mill buildings, and over a mile of infrastructure, much of which can still be seen today.  Throughout the walk through the yards one can see 19th century machinery in the machine shop, waterwheels and turbines powered by the river and the historic stone structures where the powder was manufactured. 

the row of stone structures where the powder was manufactured

The stone for these structures was all quarried from the property and is beautiful blue gneiss. So the powder works employed not only powder men, but also quarry workers, farmers and teachers, to name a few.  It was essentially a small community unto itself.

We walked along the river exploring all of the buildings that were open and available to us. Most of the buildings no longer house the equipment used to produce gunpowder as the federal government came in and took nearly all of the metal they could get their hands on in order to produce weapons for World War 2.  There is a quiet, haunting quality and beauty to these empty stone structures.

There is one black powder roll mill left on the property which is currently down for maintenance, but when working they run for demonstrations. The roll mill utilizes two 8 ton rolling stones in a large wooden bowl where the ingredients to make the black powder, (charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter) were ground together.  Producing black powder was a dangerous business and during the years that the powder yard was in operation there were 288 explosions and 228 deaths.

the roll mill

the tools used to add the ingredients to the bowl

In 1920 an explosion involving 50,000 to 75,00 pounds of powder caused major structural damage throughout the site and the resulting shockwave was felt in Northern Delaware, Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia.  For reference, one ounce (30 grams; think a tube of hydrocortisone cream) of black powder could hurl a 24 pound cannon ball 225 yards or more. The damage wrought by this explosion was too much to overcome and brought about the demise of the powder mill.  While the DuPont company continued to make explosives until 1981, it was no longer the focus of the company whose products now include Kevlar, Tyvek and Styrofoam to name a few.

Due to the danger and risk involved with working in the powder mill, most locals were too afraid to work there so DuPont brought many workers to this country from Ireland and Italy, offering good wages, affordable housing, savings plans and insurance for the workers' families.  Uphill from the powder yard are several residences as well as a school in the Workers' Hill Community, where many of the workers lived.

After looking around many of the powder yard buildings we went back to the car to grab our sack lunches and eat at picnic tables near the gift shop.  While there, a couple joined us at the picnic tables for their lunch and we struck up a conversation with them.  They were visiting from New Jersey and told us of many great places to visit in New Jersey should we have time.  They mentioned Cape May, Lewes as well as Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.  Unfortunately we don't have enough time to visit any of these places, but will definitely keep in mind for any future travels to this area.

We then returned to the powder yard via a path that was further up the hill but paralleled the riverside trail so we could continue our exploration and attend the demonstrations.  This trail took us through the woods above the powder yard, affording us a different view of both the powder yard and the Brandywine River.  

We arrived just in time for the 3 o'clock demonstration at the machine shop.  Many of the machines used during the productive years of the powder mill are still here and it was fascinating to see them and how they were powered by water.  After looking around the shop itself for a bit, the guide pointed out the main power shaft that was overhead in the building from which all of the machines in the shop were made operational through various levers, pulleys, gears, inclined planes, and wheels and axles once the main shaft was set into rotation by opening the mill race and allowing water in to turn the turbines.  We stepped outside where he showed us the mill race and how it was connected to the shaft which was set in motion by the water. 

the machine shop

the mill race

the rope and wheel system that power the shaft

Once the demonstration was over, Kathi and another young woman stayed behind to ask questions of the guide regarding how some of the mechanisms worked.  The young woman, Megan, then joined us for the rest of the demonstration which included an explanation of how the mill race at the powder mill operated a turbine, which in turn operated the rolling stones that mixed the ingredients that the powder was made of. Unfortunately the turbine is not currently working, likely due to debris from recent flooding being stuck in it, so we were not able to see a working demonstration of this process.  We were, however, able to see a demonstration of the explosion that one ounce of black powder can produce when lit.  Not only was the explosion loud, but it also created quite a bit of smoke!

 

With about 30 minutes left before the buildings all closed we made our way back to the visitor center where the "Nation of Inventors" exhibit is located. We HAD to browse here, since that was what first peaked our interest about this place!  The small working models of various inventions was quite fascinating.  As we were being shooed out of the building at closing time, we mentioned to Megan that we were doing an escape room at 6pm and asked if she would like to join us.  She said that she had never done one, had always wanted to do one and agreed to become part of our team.

Our new friend, Megan!

The Escape Room: Criminal Capture-The Zodiac Killer

Any of you who follow Girls Weekend and read our journals from year to year know, that while we really enjoy doing escape rooms, we seem to be not so great at getting out of them! With the advent of COVID, most escape rooms no longer just throw a bunch of people together to reach the maximum number of people allowed in the escape room.  We have found, however, that the more people who are working the clues and who work as a team, the greater the chance for success. This being said, we were very excited that Megan accepted our invitation and agreed to join us so we would have three brains working on the clues rather than just two and she proved to be a HUGE asset!  While Kathi and I seem to have spent the majority of the hour decoding four ciphers that we found (that proved to be mostly useless!), Megan was solving most of the clues using tidbits of information that we were able to throw her way along with finding answers on her own.  The premise of this escape room was to thwart a serial killer, who had already claimed 4 victims, using the clues scattered about and hidden away in his cabin where he hid out and kept "trophies" from his kills.  We were ONE clue away from breaking the case when we ran out of time.  So, once again, even with the help of our new friend, Megan, we failed, but we still had fun trying!!

the crime stopping team

While chatting with Megan and learning more about her while waiting for our escape room experience to begin, we learned that she lives in New York City where she works wardrobe on Broadway shows.  This, of course, was very exciting because of Kathi's background in theater and the fact that she is an Equity member.  Megan also shares our love and travel and has the same goal that we do of visiting all 50 states.  No wonder we like her so much!  In fact we enjoyed her company so much that we invited her to join us in tomorrow's excursion to the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Maryland, and she said yes!

We parted ways with plans to meet tomorrow for our trip to Maryland and we made our way back to our temporary home.  There, we had leftovers of pork chops, couscous and asparagus, did some typing and tossed the states.  Once again, both states landed face down so we are still in suspense over next year's destination.   Then lights out to rest up for tomorrow's adventure.