(Updated February 2018) The process shown appears to be grinding or 'corning' gunpowder or related combustibles under supervision of an overseer on the left, with a number of stages in reducing it from the lumps resulting from drying out the original damp paste in which it was made. With the exception of the brass mortar at centre, all the tools in use are wooden to prevent sparks and the men all wear standard protective overdress, including over their heads, presumably to prevent build-up of explosive powder dust on their clothes and hair. The coverall coats have identifying numbers on the back, as shown by one on the right numbered 'L. No. 38' ('L' probably for 'Laboratory'). Gunpowder does not appear to have been made at Woolwich Arsenal, at least in major quantities, so if this is what is being processed here it is in small amounts possibly for use in fuses or something similar. The Royal Laboratory at Woolwich was constructed in 1696 for the purpose of manufacturing munitions and became centre of a larger site formally renamed the Royal Arsenal in 1805. This drawing is one of 11 of which the numbers are non-sequential owing to the different boxes in which they are stored (by mount size): PAG9664, PAH4071-72, PAI0744-46, PAI7701-03, PAJ2303 and PAJ2312. Four (including this one) were reproduced as a double-page spread in the 'Illustrated London News' of 1 January 1916, pp.14-15, as having recently appeared at auction by Messrs Hodgsons' and been bought by the ILN for that purpose. This makes it likely that they were later given to the NMM by Sir Bruce Ingram, managing proprietor and editor of the ILN and an early supporter of the Museum. They have been attributed to Gamaliel Massiot, an obscure artist of probably Huguenot French ancestry who was drawing master at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich from 1744 to 1768, after which he continued in a secondary position under Paul Sandby to shortly before his death early in 1782 (see further notes to PAI0746).