The Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company (formerly The Ensign-Bickford Company) was started in 1836 in Simsbury, Connecticut as a manufacturer of William Bickford's safety fuse for use in mining. Safety fuse was a great advance in mining technology over the practice of filling holes with black powder. The next step in mining technology was detonating cord. Ensign-Bickford and other companies developed different versions of detonating cord. Ensign-Bickford's "Primacord" or "primercord" became the functional generic name for detonating cord in North America.