Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead - Judicial Enquiry

Judicial Enquiry

Two inquests were held into the events, one on the Gateshead side and the other on the Newcastle side. The main points of consideration for both were the causes of the fire, and the cause of the explosion. Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister appointed one Captain Ducane of the Royal Engineers to attend on the government's behalf, and dispatched Alfred Swain Taylor FRS to investigate the chemical causes of the explosion.

The inquest juries found that no direct evidence as to the origin of the fire was presented. Mill hands responsible for various of the upper floors gave testimony that at the end of the day, all gas lights had been extinguished, and the gas supply isolated at a main tap; no cause was suggested and no progress made in this line of enquiry. The Gateshead jury found that there must have been "some want of caution displayed" at the mill to occasion the fire.

Evidence in respect of the explosion was of more interest. A statement of the contents of the warehouse was given, the most interesting features of which were 2800 tons of sulphur and 128 tons of nitrate of soda. These goods lay on various floors, and in the vaults, arranged so that in the event of a destructive fire, they might mix. Evidence given suggests that there were no other obvious candidates as fuel for the explosion; no oils, no naphtha nor oils of vitriol. Great lengths were taken, including the posting of a reward for information, to ascertain whether gunpowder was stored in the warehouse; but all evidence pointed against it. A number of chemists, including the government chemist, tested residues found on the scene, as well as black dust which fell on the spectators, looking for the remains of combusted gunpowder; but none was found.

A mixture of sulphur and nitrate of soda is not considered to be explosive, although the addition of carbon to the two forms black powder.

Two scientific theories were advanced to explain the cause of the explosion. Hugh Lee Patterson, a partner in a chemical company at Felling and Washington examined the evidence and ran tests; and offered a theory that a sudden water inundation onto burning sulphur would have had sufficient energy to cause the explosion. His theory, meticulous in its calculations, estimated that 52.5 cubic feet (1.49 m3) of water would have been necessary, having a power equivalent to 8 tons of gunpowder. However no satisfactory mechanism was advanced for the sudden ingress of such an amount of water, amounting to a couple of tons. Neither were victims of the explosion scalded, as might have been anticipated.

Professor Taylor offered a gas theory of the explosion, in which he contended that deflagration would cause a pressure of gas to build up sufficiently quickly in the vaults - the entrance to which was small and through the roof—to cause the explosion. The difficulty with this explanation was in believing that the vaults were well enough sealed as to result in an explosion, when a more gradual forcing up of the cellar roof might more reasonably be anticipated.

The Gateshead jury found that the explosion was caused by the interaction of sulphur and nitrate of soda, but were unable to determine a mechanism. They did make the recommendation that the two should not be stored together in future. They found a complete want of evidence for gunpowder.