Editing Cordite (section)

=== MoS Agency Factories and ICI Nobel in World War II ===
The British Government set up additional cordite factories, not under Royal Ordnance Factory control but as Agency Factories run on behalf of the [[Ministry of Supply]] (MoS). The company of [[ICI Nobel]], at Ardeer, was asked in 1939 to construct and operate six factories in southern Scotland. Four of these six were involved in cordite or firearm-propellant manufacture. The works at MoS Drungans ([[Dumfries]]) produced guncotton that was converted to cordite at MoS Dalbeattie (triple-base cordite) and at MoS Powfoot (monobase granulated guncotton for small-arms). A smaller site at Girvan, South Ayrshire, now occupied by Grant's distillery, produced cordite and [[Trinitrotoluene|TNT]].<ref name=cocroft-gaz>{{Harvnb|Cocroft|2000|loc=Gazetteer}}</ref> The ICI Ardeer site also had a mothballed World War I Government-owned cordite factory.<ref name="reader-2-14">{{Harvnb|Reader|1975| loc=Chapter 14: "Warlike Supply"}}</ref>

35% of British cordite produced between 1942 and 1945 came from Ardeer and these agency factories.<ref name="reader-2-15">{{Harvnb|Reader|1975| loc=Chapter 15: "War Production"}}</ref> ICI ran a similar works at Deer Park (which was also confusingly known as Ardeer after the adjacent suburb) near Melbourne in Australia and in South Africa.<ref name="reader-2-15"/>