National Smelting Company

The National Smelting Company was a nationalised zinc smelting company in Avonmouth, England. It was established by Minister of Munitions Winston Churchill to produce mustard gas during World War I.

After World War I, it was bought by private business interests. From 1929 it became part of Australia's Imperial Smelting Corporation. The site – also known as the Britannia smelting works – was where the Imperial Smelting Process was developed. From 1967, the Avonmouth Works was home to the largest and most efficient zinc blast furnace in the world.{{cite web|url=http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/bhr/Main/industry/13_industry.htm|title=Downstream innovation – chemical and zinc production at Avonmouth|publisher=University of the West of England|accessdate=12 May 2014}}

The site remained operational until 2003 when the production of zinc, cadmium, lead and sulphuric acid ceased.

The site is being redeveloped as a {{convert|485000|ft2}} supermarket distribution centre for Asda and a recycling plant for SITA UK.

Background

During the later part of World War I, it was proposed to make Avonmouth Docks the UK centre of production of dichloroethyl sulphide, also known as mustard gas. However, its production was against the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEH7KcpN-OcC&q=poison+gas+violated+1907+Hague+Convention&pg=PT34 |title=The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir |author=Telford Taylor |date=1 November 1993 |publisher=Little, Brown & Company |isbn=978-0-3168-3400-1 |accessdate=20 June 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PYx0j3wRvAC&q=poison+gas+Declaration+1899+WW1+1907&pg=PA7 |title=Cornerstones of Security: Arms Control Treaties in the Nuclear Era |author=Thomas Graham, Damien J. Lavera |date=May 2003 |pages=7–9 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-2959-8296-0 |accessdate=5 July 2013}} Hence covered by the Official Secrets Act, as a cover the Ministry of Munitions under its minister Winston Churchill nationalised many small smelting works under the new National Smelting Company (NSC). Before the outbreak of World War I, much of Britain's zinc had originated in Australia, but had been smelted in Germany. The NSC was hence publicly commissioned to build a new zinc smelting works and sulphuric acid plant at Merebank, Avonmouth Docks.

Mustard gas

Having already built the nearby No.23 filling factory at Chittening, operated by Nobel Explosives, shells there were already being filled with chloropicrin.{{cite book|author=Haber L.F.|date=1986|title=The Poisonous Cloud|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198581420|chapter=10}}

Construction of the chemical plant began in 1917, but did not finish until 1923, costing £800,000. The plant came into operation from Spring 1918, producing {{convert|20|tonne}} of dichloroethyl sulphide using the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process per day. The chemical product was than shipped to the main filling factory production site at Banbury, plus secondary sites at Chittening and Hereford. Although the first shells did not arrive in France until September 1918, two months before The Armistice, it was used that same month during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line within the Hundred Days' Offensive. By November 1918, Chittening had produced 85,424 mustard gas shells.

The human cost of producing mustard gas was high. In December 1918 the chemical plant's medical officer reported that in the six months it was operational, there were 1,400 illnesses reported by its 1,100 mostly female workers – all medically attributable to their work. Three people died because of accidents, four died from associated illnesses, and there were 160 accidents resulting in over 1,000 burns.{{cite book|title=The Port of Bristol, 1848–1884|author=David Large|publisher=Bristol Record Society}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bristolpast.co.uk/#/avonmouth/4546933962|title=Photographic Archive of Avonmouth Bristol BS11|publisher=BristolPast.co.uk|accessdate=12 May 2014}} At Chittening there were reported 1,213 cases of associated illness, including two deaths which were later attributed to influenza.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCtRAgAAQBAJ&q=Chittening+munitions+factory&pg=PT38|title=The Home Front 1914–1918: How Britain Survived the Great War|author=Ian F.W. Beckett|accessdate=13 May 2014|isbn=9781472908896|date=2013-12-31}}

Operational history

After World War I, demand for zinc and sulphuric acid greatly fell, and after running into commercial difficulties it was taken over by a group of British industrialists with interests in metals and chemicals, who succeeded in reviving its business under the name Commonwealth Smelting Company.{{cite web|url=http://rpec.co.uk/rpec_new/pages/_Art-14.html|title=Bristol and the Zinc Industry|author=John Green|publisher=Retired Professional Engineers' Club, Bristol|date=11 March 2009|accessdate=15 April 2009}} In 1929 the NSC was bought by Australia's Imperial Smelting Corporation, which in 1949 merged with Zinc Corporation to become Consolidated Zinc.{{cite web|url=http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/109192/cobars-mining-history.pdf|title=Cobar's Mining History|date=February 2007|work=Primefacts|publisher=Department of Primary Industries (New South Wales)|accessdate=15 April 2009}}

Throughout the consolidation, the smaller NSC plants were closed down to concentrate production on Avonmouth – now known as the Britannia smelting works – where the Imperial Smelting Process was developed. From 1967, the Avonmouth Works was home to the largest and most efficient zinc blast furnace in the world.

Consolidated Zinc, having failed to develop suitable new mining projects, merged from 1962 with the Rio Tinto Company, a mining company. The resulting company, known as The Rio Tinto – Zinc Corporation (RTZ), and its main subsidiary, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA), would eventually become today's Rio Tinto.{{cite web|url=http://www.riotinto.com/documents/Investors/dlcsep06.pdf|title=RTC-CRA: United for Growth|date=September 2006|work=Rio Tinto Review|publisher=Rio Tinto|accessdate=13 April 2009|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327021733/http://www.riotinto.com/documents/Investors/dlcsep06.pdf|archivedate=27 March 2009|df=dmy-all}} With smelting cheaper elsewhere in the world, the site ceased production in the 1990s, but remained open as a stock-holding and distribution centre until 2003.

Plants and support services in operation during the late 1960s include:

12. The Sulfuric Acid Plant

3. The Vertical Retort Plant – a zinc plant

4. The Sinter Plant

5. The Cadmium Plant

6. The Beryllium Plant

7. The Works Laboratory

8. The General Stores

9. The Changing Rooms

10. The Hydrofluoric Acid Plant

11. The Isceon Plant – a hydrocarbon refrigerant plant

12. The Aluminum Sulfate Plant

13. The Plant Investigation Department

14. The Sample House

15. Yard and Traffic

16. Vehicle Shop

17. Main workshop

18. Water Fitters Shop

19. Ammonium Sulfate Plant

20. The Works Study Department

21. The Model Shop

22. The Works Estimators Department

23. The Medical Department

24. The Fire Department

25. Security

26. The Instrument Shop

27. The Instrument Development Shop

28. Battery Acid plant

29. The Zinc Stores

30. Personnel Office

31. Main office block

32. Works Pay Stations

33. The Research Pilot Plant.

34. The Green Ore Store.

35. Works Labs

36. Zinc road canteen

37. Works canteen

38. Training Centre

39. Phosphate Plant

40. Staff canteen

41. Main gate entrance.

42. Zinc Ore bucket overhead delivery line - from ships at the docks.

43. Main employee car park.

Redevelopment

In 2012 SITA UK started redevelopment of the site, but after construction workers were affected by mustard-gas type symptoms, the Ministry of Defence were called in to test and approve the site. However, after MoD approval, a few months later construction workers found a mustard gas shell, which was disposed of by the 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment RLC at Porton Down.{{cite web|url=http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bomb-squad-old-mustard-gas-factory/story-16623618-detail/story.html#0CI4rYk28kAsQEiZ.99|title=Bomb squad at old mustard gas factory|publisher=Bristol Post|date=1 August 2012|accessdate=12 May 2014}} The site was closed off for a year while experts from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory conducted a series of tests. In late 2013 MoD clearance was given, allowing the site to be redeveloped as a {{convert|485000|ft2}} supermarket distribution centre for Asda, and a recycling plant for SITA UK.{{cite news|title=Work suspended after mustard gas scare on Avonmouth site|url=http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Work-suspended-mustard-gas-scare-Avonmouth-site/story-16095351-detail/story.html|accessdate=4 December 2015|work=Bristol Post|date=16 May 2012}}{{cite web|title=New Asda distribution centre on former mustard gas site|url=http://medical-diet-table.7legend.net/2015/09/26/nice-respiratory-photos-35/|publisher=Consumer Health Resource Centre|accessdate=4 December 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208143313/http://medical-diet-table.7legend.net/2015/09/26/nice-respiratory-photos-35/|archivedate=8 December 2015|df=dmy-all}}