Step Four: The Dry House
The Powder was dried at 100 to 110 degrees for two or three days, then poured into sausage-shaped containers about three inches in diameter and about four feet long.  Then these sausages were folded and set into cans about four feet high and covered.  These cans were assembled by the “can house brats” paid 75 cents a day.  These “brats” were teenaged boys and worked in the Cooper House, sometimes called the cooper and can house (or just “can house”).  Jack Stout, father of Forest Stout of Nescopeck was the boss of the Can House. 

Step Five: The Pack House
Fred Hess (of Nescopeck township) was one of the last to work in the Pack House along with two Shadle boys.  Fred Hess lived in his homestead and walked down over the hill into the Powder Hole daily and back.  Every day at noon, the Powder Car came and took the cans to the Magazine.  There the cans were loaded on the railroad car under the watchful eye of the railroad inspector (who was there all the time).  Cans were never set on top of one another and a one-inch wooden board was placed between each can and the one next to it.
 

I hope everything in this article is accurate.  I know that the previous article I had written had a number of errors in it. I have corrected those errors for this edition, but as you may have guessed, many of the things related above are things I learned from other people and they may have made mistakes.  I may have made other mistakes in what I remember.  I am sure, however, that I have given you a short look into something which is long on details and things to see.  If you want further information, feel free to call on me...I’ll help you all I can.