Projectile factory
Built in 1956, municipal monument
Past
In the wake of World War Two, the construction of this iconic factory by the water was financed from the American Marshall Plan. The Americans helped rebuild Europe by providing financial and material assistance, to counter the expansion of the communist Soviet Union. The building is a full 200 metres long, and has three floors. It was opened in 1957 by Prince Bernhard. Shells and bullets of various calibres were produced in the factory. Of those, the .50 shell was the biggest calibre. Later on, the building also housed the tool production department, the central measuring chamber, the works council, a chemical and metallurgical laboratory, and the technical department. Later still, the training institute operated from here. Following the closure of the entire factory, the in-company training centre continued running until 2010.
In the basement were four shooting ranges of 50, 75 and 200 metres in length. Here, weapons were tested and calibrated. Occasionally, a weapon was selected to be shot until it broke. A report was then drawn up on how to make the weapon even better. The longest shooting range doubled as an underground shelter, which was shut off by big steel doors on rails. Artillerie Inrichtingen has its own shooting club. Sometimes, shooting contests were held between companies from the Zaan region and the police.
A former employee recalls: ‘When the weapon was ready, it went to 429, the white factory, the .50 factory. Beneath this there were four shooting ranges. The first shooting range is where they did endurance tests. Every so often, a weapon was selected and shot to pieces, they just kept shooting, shooting until bits of it broke, then reports were written saying ‘this is no good, that’s no good’ and those bits were worked on. And each weapon was calibrated. The sights were so finely calibrated that you couldn’t miss!’
Present
This is now the base of cultural centre Het Hem. Together with contemporary visionaries, they develop multidisciplinary art programmes that cast the world around us in a different light.
More information: https://hethem.nl/
Employee in building 429 for the manufacture of 40, 35, and 25 mm, 1950-1980
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