THE DU PONT GUNPOWDER MILLS WERE ALREADY GRINDING away at six in the morning on April 14, 1847. To fill the rush of orders brought on by the Mexican War, in fact, the works along Delaware’s Brandywine Creek had been busy around the clock. Then, “in an instant, without the slightest warning,” wrote a family member, “there came a shock that seemed so terrific in its nature that I could only compare it to the meeting of heaven and earth. It appeared not to be local but a crash of the world.” A row of buildings exploded in a quick chain reaction. Stones and beams were hurled in the air. Doors burst in and glass shattered in nearby houses. Windows rattled in Wilmington, six miles away. The pungent smell of burnt powder choked the air.

The explosion killed 18 men and left many others broken and bleeding. Alfred V. du Pont, the company’s president, rushed to help the injured and console the widows and orphans. Besides leveling part of the plant, the explosion shattered his nerves. Some of the workers who had been blown to bits were men he had grown up with. Their fathers had worked for his father. A powderman to the core, he had carried the company’s administrative responsibility as an uncomfortable burden. With his health failing, he retired in 1850, passing the mantle to his younger brother, Henry.

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