Built in 1958, not a monument
Past
This building, called the ‘vulhuis’ (filling house) was where .50 ammo was assembled. These are cartridges with a 0.5-inch diameter. Artillerie Inrichtingen produced this ammo on behalf of the United States. In the 1980s, the building was extended and the windows replaced with metal cladding. A different calibre of ammo was also assembled during that period.
This building was constructed on this section of the site due to space constraints. The building had lightning rods and had to satisfy the same rules as the buildings in the Eurometaal woodland. It had a lockable gate, with a security guard who had his own little room in the adjacent building 421.
Present
The building is currently undergoing complete renovation and will eventually be the main building in a cluster of museum buildings.
Production stages of .50 ammunition shell and bullet
The shell set consists of a pressing disc, cap, and ten more stretching and production stages of the sleeve. The bullet set shows eight processing stages.
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
Built in 1952, municipal monument
Past
Like the identical building beside it, explosive materials were handled in this building. Impact and ignition fuzes were filled here. An impact fuze causes a grenade to explode when it hits something. Very occasionally, there was an explosion but, as far as we know, there were never any casualties. In the event of an explosion, the semi-curved roof directed the impact of a blast wave towards the north of the site. Here, woods had been planted as a buffer between the site and the city of Zaandam. The wave could not be directed south, as the administrative buildings were located on the waterfront. The other safety measures were the escape doors on the north and south of the building, and the lightning rods around it.
A former employee recalls: ‘They did take measures [against the explosion risk]. The press was at the rear of the building. And between the press and the wall was a hatch, a thick steel door. You’d be working here on a grenade, filling it, then putting it on a conveyor belt that went through the hatch to a press. The hatch automatically shuts, then it’s pressed. Every ten thousand grenades or so, there’d be an explosion. It sounds incredible, but those explosions could be heard in Zaandam, right across the city. And we were standing right there in the department so of course, it frightened the life out of you. But because I’d experienced it two or three times, I was used to it to some extent, but yeah, it was scary. Unbelievably scary. Plus, the huge bang left you deaf for three days after.’
Present
Vrij Glas is the current occupant. Glass artists can use the facilities in this studio to create their works of art.
More information: www.vrijglas.nl/
Spark-proof hammer used at the Artillerie Inrichtingen (national ammunition and weapons factory)
The Artillerie Inrichtingen (national ammunition and weapons factory) made their own tools from aluminium bronze, an alloy that does not cause sparks. These tools could therefore be used safely in an explosion hazard environment.
Bouwjaar 1952, geen monument
Vroeger
In deze ruimte konden de arbeiders die met explosief materiaal werkten zich wassen en omkleden. Om het gebouw in de toekomst te kunnen gebruiken voor de productie van explosieven werd het, net als de naastgelegen gebouwen, voorzien van een gebogen dak. Hierdoor werd de drukgolf in geval van een explosie naar het noorden geleid. Daar was als buffer met de stad Zaandam een bos aangelegd. Naar het zuiden toe geleiden kon niet, want aan de waterkant stonden de administratieve gebouwen.
Vandaag
Tegenwoordig zit hier Joris Laarman Lab. In de werkplaats wordt design ontworpen en gemaakt vanuit een fascinatie voor technologische vooruitgang en de mogelijkheden die dat geeft.
Voor meer informatie: https://www.jorislaarman.com/
Built in 1951, municipal monument
Past
The explosives assembly workshop was where various types of primer were assembled and the .50 bullet was produced. A primer is a fast-burning, usually explosive mixture, such as gunpowder. There are various types. Shock-sensitive primer was used for percussion caps on cartridges. This is a chemical substance that ignites or explodes when subjected to a shock or when struck with force. There was a risk of explosions when assembling the primers. Therefore, limits were set on the quantity of explosive substances in the building, and non-sparking tools were used. In the event of an explosion, the semi-curved roof directed the impact of a blast wave towards the north of the site. Here, woods had been planted as a buffer between the site and the city of Zaandam. The wave could not be directed south, as the administrative buildings were located on the waterfront. The other safety measures were the escape doors on the north and south of the building, and the lightning rods around it.
Present
Furniture brand DUM is currently based here. DUM’s furniture is robust, solid and generously sized, making it ideal for large spaces and buildings.
More information: https://dumoffice.com/
The Vroom en Varoassieau art gallery is also based here.
More information: https://vroomandvarossieau.com/
Werner .50-calibre bullet assembly machine from Berlin, 1980.
The Werner .50-calibre bullet assembly machine assembled the bullet (salt-core seal) and the flare core (5 layers of gunpowder). In the same building, there were two more machines for assembling the Ball ammunition and the APHC ammunition.
Built in 1952, not a monument
Past
Munitions were prepared in the munitions store, where they were assembled, sprayed, and packed. This building is structurally weaker than the surrounding ones. Its roof is curved instead of semi-curved. Many buildings had special roof structures to limit physical damage following an explosion. The trees on the site were planted to absorb blast waves and flying material in an explosion. Moreover, they provided natural camouflage. There are escape doors on the north and south sides of the building and lightning rods are dotted around it. In 1982, the entire floor was replaced with a heavier one, to allow the assembly of large cartridges.
Present
Berlage Exploitatie en Vastgoedmaatschappij is now based here. The company’s mission is the same as famous architect Berlage, i.e. to develop projects they would want to live in the next day.
More information: https://www.berlagevastgoed.com/
Built in 1952, not a monument
Past
This building is a prime example of a factory building dating from the reconstruction period. It was here that shells and grenade casings were made and stored. In the 1980s, some of it was converted to dip baths, a workshop where grenade casings were degreased, phosphated, lacquered, and muffled.
Present
Currently, it houses the Oostzaan workshop for building works, set design, interior construction, and design. Erik Bleeker and Teun van der Heide are the members of the cooperative venture.
Machine for cleaning ammunition parts in Building 413, 1973-2003
Company nurse Loek Libert reported noise sources to Eurometaal, including the drums in which .50 cartridge cases were post-treated. These drums made a lot of noise, so the company ended up making a formwork element around them.
Built in 1930, national monument
Past
A staircase leads to a room behind steel doors. In this bunker, the staff could shelter from acts of war. The room has walls one-and-a-half metres thick, and a three-metre thick ceiling. This kept the bunker impervious to bombs and gas, but could not hold out against radioactive fallout. During World War Two, a command post was based here. After the war, the bunker was used for vibration tests of munitions packaging.
Built in 1935, national monument
Past
The dispatch building, nicknamed ‘Het Station,’ was the transit hut for raw materials. These arrived via the adjacent railway or by truck. This began in 1878, with the railway connecting Amsterdam and Zaandam via the Hembrug bridge. When the new and wider Hembrug was opened, in 1907, the tracks were doubled. One track was dedicated solely for use as a factory railway. The Hembrug Stop was built especially for the staff of Artillerie Inrichtingen and the Norit factory to the west of the railway embankment. Freight was transported via the second track. The railway fell into disuse when road transport became cheaper. Various narrow-gauge railways ran over the site, from the dispatch building and the quay. The goods were distributed on lorries – small rail wagons pushed by hand. The Hembrug Stop was shut in 1982.
The brass for the shells and cartridges was also stored in the dispatch building. Later on, the corporate services and shipping department office was based here. The floor of the office section was raised to take advantage of direct daylight through the high-up windows. The large glass frontages are a recent addition, to create more light.
A former employee recalls: ‘Sometimes I went by train, A.I. Hembrug had its own station. The Zaandam locals stood on one side and the people from Amsterdam on the other side of the platform. They called us peasants. We all ribbed each other a bit.’
Present
Since June 2018, the building has housed the office of Hembrug Zaandam B.V. This project development agency is the current owner of many buildings, and all the land, on the Hembrug site. They plan to create a mix of living and working. New housing will be built and the existing buildings will be used for commercial activities.
More information: https://hembrugontwikkelt.nl/
Employees of the Artillerie Inrichtingen (national ammunition and weapons factory) on the platform of the former Hembrug stop.
A group of men are waiting on the platform at Hembrug stop. The train station was opened by the ‘Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij’ (Hollands Iron Railway-Company) in 1907. The timetable consistently referred to a ‘stop’ instead of a station. This is because this location only had a wooden shelter, with no ticket booths and no station building. Hardly any trains stopped there as well.
Built in 1928, partly a national monument
Past
The building was the turning shop for cartridge shells (section A), but was later extended with the annealing line (section B). In the 1950s, the building was used to make the AR-10 rifle. This virtually indestructible weapon was the pride of Artillerie-Inrichtingen. The rifle was intended to become the new standard weapon of the Dutch army but, in the end, this didn’t happen. Therefore, only a few thousand of the rifles were produced, in collaboration with Fairchild Armelite (licence).
Next to the building is a reinforced concrete shelter, with an underground emergency station (an in-house safety facility). This was a precautionary measure during the Cold War. This subterranean emergency station is a national monument. The building has a saw-tooth roof (shed roof) that was commonly used on factories to ensure even lighting. The northerly light makes the building ideal for art displays, a big advantage given its current use.
A former employee recalls: ‘There were huge furnaces there, that all the cast iron went into. And when the casting process was complete, they had to be completely scraped out. […] Once you’d scraped it all out, it had to be completely covered again with a type of clay, then it was ready to use again. […] As I recall, casting always took place on Thursdays. All the metal was liquid and there was a plug at the bottom. You had to push the plug open with really long pole, with a kind of rag on it. Then the buckets were filled as they were carried along the conveyor belt. […] Once a bucket was full, a stopper was put in, then it continued on its way. One time, the mechanism […] broke, and everything spilled out. This man climbed into it and put a stopper in. Of course, his legs got all burned. It all spills onto the floor and splashes everywhere. […] You had to admire that guy’s dedication.’
Present
Art Zaanstad BV is now based here. As well as renting out art, it is also a gallery for contemporary artists.
For more information: https://artzaanstad.nl/content/
Mechanised finishing turning line in the projectile turning shop, 1973-2003.
Machine for the finishing turning of a shell hole screw in a grenade casing.
The Zaans Museum was founded in 1998 on the Zaanse Schans to guard and preserve the Zaan heritage.
The Hembrug Museum tells the story of the arms and ammunition factory that was located on the Hembrugterrein in Zaandam.
In 1697, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great stayed in this world-famous house in the center of Zaandam.
