Lapua State Cartridge Factory
Lapua is also home to a large ammunition factory, which commenced operations in 1927 as the State Cartridge Factory. This factory was the primary supplier of ammunition to the Finnish Army during the Winter War and World War II. An explosion occurred in a warehouse of this factory on 13 April 1976, resulting in the deaths of 40 employees, mainly females. Sixty children lost a parent in the disaster. This is the worst accidental disaster in Finland's modern history. After the explosion, the factory was relocated 5 kilometres (3 mi) away from the town centre and continues production today as part of the Nordic Ammunition Group (Nammo) as Nammo Lapua. The original site of the factory and the surviving buildings are now an arts centre, a library and a theater.
Read more about this topic: Lapua
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or factory:
“Utah is the only State that gives condemned men a choice between death by hanging or before a firing squad. Most prisoners prefer the firing squad, but one obstinate convict in 1912 elected to be hanged because “hanging is more expensive to the state.””
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The medieval university looked backwards; it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge.... The modern university looks forward, and is a factory of new knowledge.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)