Powder mill Steffisburg

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A powder mill has been documented in the municipal ban of today's Steffisburg municipality since 1586 . It was shut down, dismantled and partially demolished in 1862.

history

In 1586, the city of Thun no longer wanted black powder to be produced within the city walls . Mr. Hans Zuber then built a powder mill in front of the gates. Like all of his later successors, he received a stipulation from the city ​​and republic of Bern that black powder could not be sold abroad. Over the centuries, Mühle changed hands several times and was finally taken over by the state of Bern in 1760. The area was only assigned to the districts of the municipality of Steffisburg around 1830.

  • Relics of the former Steffisburg powder mill

  • Residence of the former powder mill (after renovation around 1910)

  • former coal distillery

  • The mill stream in front, the powder mill in the back

In 1852 the powder mill was taken over by the newly created federal powder administration, the monopoly authority for black powder and explosives. On May 8, 1861, a serious accident occurred when 3395 kg of black powder exploded. There was great damage, two people lost their lives. After a whole series of accidents, this was the most violent and so the Federal Council decided in November 1862 to shut down the Steffisburg powder mill. The production of black powder was continued from 1863 in the other companies of the Swiss Confederation ( powder mill Aubonne and powder mill Chur ) under more modern and safe conditions and the production facilities were demolished and the site was sold to the Thun community for CHF 41,000 in 1864 . A few individual company buildings and the powder miller's house are still standing today. Instead of the powder mill, on the other side of the river Aare, only a few hundred meters away, the federal ammunition laboratory in Thun was put into operation in 1863, which later became the Swiss ammunition factory and is now part of RUAG . The impending technological change from powder to cartridge ammunition promoted this decision. Thus, the Thun ammunition factory is probably the oldest still in operation in the world.

literature

  • Georg Frank: The black powder: The production in the powder mill Steffisburg 1586–1864 [brochure], Association of the Swiss Army Museum Thun, 2nd edition. 2006, ISBN 3-03300-455-5
  • Colonel Bruno Campiotti; From private and cantonal powder to federal powder, [Brochure, hectographed], Bern, 1973, self-published?