View WW2 Gunpowder Factory Houses Tyfors -S17

When war broke out in 1939, Sweden needed to increase its stocks of ammunition at a faster rate than Bofors could produce, and it became necessary to set up a war production. The village of Tyfors was chosen because of its strategic location deep in the Dalarna forests, but despite its isolated location it had good communications out into the country. The facility was built in collaboration with Hellefors mill, which could supply the factory with labor, and consisted of two separate factories: one above ground and one embedded in the original rock. Various paper mills delivered paper pulp to the underground part of the factory via the railway with unloading at Tyfors station. There it was refined into nitrocellulose, cotton gunpowder, which was then transported down in a wet state to Tyfors 1 for further processing into low-smoke gunpowder. In the dry state, cotton gunpowder is extremely volatile, so to minimize the risk of accidents, the gunpowder factory was built as fifteen separate units. During the years 1940 to 1945, around 100 to 200 people worked in the factory at a daily wage of approximately 10 kroner. It was primarily women who worked here in Tyfors 1, and it was dirty work with primitive manufacturing methods. Once finished, the gunpowder was packed in cartridges and sent on to ammunition factories to become a propellant charge in, among other things, the Bofors anti-aircraft gun m/40. When the war ended, production also ceased, although the plant remained for reserve production until 1973. When the agreement with Hellefors mill ended in 1981, the area was supposed to be restored, but instead it was left to its fate.