 Before the exiled camp authorities cut off the camp's electricity, the smiths and machinists (lathe-operators) in the camp fashioned all manner of weaponry in the service yard's workshops — long pikes from prison bars, sabers, staves, and clubs amongst them.In addition to this, the prisoners ground glass into dust and placed buckets of this dust throughout the camp, hoping to blind oncoming troops with it.Barricades were established at key points, and responsibility for manning them was divided up amongst the camp barracks (renamed "detachments" by the Defense department), with set shifts and procedures.