The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-12-20 00:00:00

FEIGHTFOL EXPLOSION NEAR
BIRMINGHAM.
THIRTY PERSONS KILLED.

A terrible expledon occurred on Friday afternoon at
Messrs. Ludlow's cartridge mantifestory, at Wittoo,
four miles from Birmingham. In nine weeks there
1,.,,, been four explosinns at the Wilton Cartridge
Works • viz., thr. e il Means Kynoth's factory, and
one at Messrs. Leßow's, which is within a stone's throw
of rash other. Messrs. Ludlow's work consist of 19
sheds, all about a di zen yards apart. The pretest
explosion orisiested in the shop used for completleg
the " loading" of cartridges. Ten yards cif was No
3 Owl oped for charging the cartridges with powder,
Lna 17 rads away No. 3 in which similar work is
carried on The minuet saw • deeding sheet of done
shoot out from beneath the Ecfield shop, which was
Immediately rent asunder with a deafening roar. In
a minute the wroth was a mass of fire, and the blades
fragmeuts were scattered far and wide. Some of them
apparently fell upon No. 2, which must have been
partially burst in by the form of the itoneussiou, as it
exploded almost instantaneously under the shower of
live sparks from the first shed, and in its turn som•
munioatod the ire touted No. 3. The most destructive
of the throe explosions was the first, in which out of
ionic 2G work women 17 were killed on the spot, or de-
vuonel by the llama in view of the spectators, without
a chance of rescue. From the other two sheds the
workpeople for the most part contrived to scramble out
unaided, burnt, blackened,bleeding, and blinded, but
still alive. Many of the poor women who staggered
out meaning Mid dainties' Into the road. where they
tell dawn, had scarcely • striver clothing left on them,
and the ground for yards around we. strewed with the
burnt and tattered and blood-stained fragments of
female drew. Help, was happily aeon at heed, and in
an ieeredildy short spree of time no leas than 53
women and girls were moved to the Gummi Hoepitel.
Charred heaps of *trig, burnt wood, and smouldering
cartridge shells; here and there • burned and blackened
body, huddled together uuld • chaos of fallen timber
and calcined word-work; measithally a seared, bleed.
log, and almost imbed teem, with all semblance of
humanity well-nigh ohiterated, were glebes which met
the gore of the explorers amid the ruins; and they
ware rights which made thou who had stein many a
ghastly @peeled° turn away sick at heart. Gradually
the work WY promeuted, until at lout fifty viattme
were brought to the light of day—many apparently We-
lts:, arid others maimed and mareely recognisable.
Meanwhile, efforts had been made, by pouring water:
upon the burning shed, to extinguish the flames • but
the Are had obtained so strong • hold that it was dames;
impossible to get it under, and • crowd of fathers,
mothers, husbands, were obliged, pedants, to steed
with folded arm, and watch, in agonising helplessness,
the burning of the funeral pyre of tbeir wives or
children • For an boar as stated by those who witnessed
the progress of the flames, the shed barbed, until
nothing remained but a hasp of chared wood. With
pieces of wreck wage mixed what may be, with no ‘x-
aggeration, termed " human debris: Blackened bones
and horribly disfigured &mhos were there found. arid
these were the remains of the ifi-fated 17 women who
Las! peddled, surrounded by Mende, and almost within
the green id relatives. With as math decency as
poraib'e, the remains were pthered together, and placed
in two adjoining sheds. Many were utterly unrecog-
nisable ; either by feature or front peculiarity
of apparel—for eons. of the bodies bad been wholly
dismembered, and literally blown to pieces; and others,
by the violence of tin, explosion, had been completely
denuded of clothing. Ineidents partaking largely of the
horrible, it need marcely be said, were rife in connexion
with the recovery of the bodies. For instance; In •
comer of the field • dog was seen playing with some
object it had smelt out in the grass, and presently
it ran amongst the ciruird of people watching the
recovery of the bodies, Laving in it mouth •
human hand Again, a persou wandering about
the field found a human akull ; it was entirely
destitute of flesh, and was buret almost black I
The body of Catherine Brown, a girl of 16 or 17, who
worked in the Enfield shop, was identified by Catherine
Kettle by a mid driven In the shoe and • large hard
nail 00 000 of the toes. The top of the bead and one
of the legs had been blown off and the remains of the
face were quite unrecognisable. Sumannah Ward
Identified her slaughter Jane, aged 15. by her earrings
and beets. Benjamin Tooth, • glass cutter, lodging at
the house of Mrs. Bullivant, the mother of one of the
victims, reownizad her daughter SOllllB, • single young
woman, aged 27, by her band, which was peculiarly
long and thin, and • ring on one of the fingers. ;
Catherine Shea, s married woman, agod 22, was
resegebed by ablg knuckle on one of the bands by Mrs,
Mary Fox. William Owen, • brickyard labourer,
identified hh wife Mary Ann, aged 19, by portion of
her boots, of her frock and • little plea of her
waistband. Harriet Smith, aged 16, warn Weed-
fled by her father, David Smith, absinthes, who testified
to portions of the dress mil imam In this cue the
sufferer had recently left a good situation to undertake
the more remunerative one at the cartridge (eatery
without her father's knowledge or 0000101. 11000
Morgan, • married woman, bat known, like another of
the witnesses, by her maiden Dams, identified the body
of Maria Brown, who lodged with her. She was
married; but her husband did not live with her. In
this ease the due warn • plate of flannel round the neck
and some croclaid-work on the under-linen. The great
majority of attempts at identification were futile, and
the sorrowing sire-iron had to depart without even tire
melancholy satidectiou of claiming the remains of their
relative. An old man with whitened hair and tottering
stripe, wet ea overpowered by the ghastly sight in the
shed, where he cum° to seek hb child's corpse, that he
fled how the building with • shriek of horror.
Respecting the emus and rammer of the aeddent,
most accounts 030001 in attributing it to the awkward-
ness or inesivertunce of ens of the workwomem whose
dress eaught file as she stood near the open stove where
her dinner wiss warming. On dimovering her peril the
poor girl Le said to have rushed screaming to and fro,
and her compthiens apparels* had not the premium of
mind to throw her down and crash out the fire before it
eommunicated with the loose powder lying about.
From the benches, the sheet of flame would easily ex-
tend to tin," hoppers* or r. eavoirs of gunpowder from
which the outride's are fed, and this would explain
the statent..et of ono of the survivors, that the :lath
" came dons the whole aide like lightning.' The Move
which caused the misehiel Weald to have been recently
fixed for the mums of warming the shed—a truly
perdue' comfort The latest theory of the wicket is
that one of the workwenten placed upon the stove aa
open tin vessel eontaiaing her dinner, Lad that In or
ghoul this vessel 1101110 gunpowder had fallen while it
stood upon the workbeneh. The ignition of this locso
powder by the beat of the atom is supposed to have been
the immediate clause of the explosion.

When '' cup of good Tee desired, it is isdispea.
table that the Infusion be made with young loses;
inch i'ea hes for tho print quarter of n centuty been
111,1..0,4 by W. 11. and F. J. llorniman and Co., Lon.
d.n, tie green has no bluish mineral facing." it is a
dank olive him; tha black is not intensely dark. in
Piled it. lackets only, with the pries printed on each.
and bigned, W. LI. and F. J. Iforniman and Co.,
London, Orinal importers of the Pure Tea. For lid
of local Agents, Chemists, ice. see sdrutisament.

A TADLE-t•POONVUL foe more) of the American " Ranp
Se. Noes Fade." will produce one quart of the most
d home Llano Waage, Custard Padding. Charlot4u
No more health-giving or nutritious &Okla
of hai ever been discovered. not only for prodoe.
kir the M.. it table Delicacies and Dessert's, but for
and Invalids' food. It ha pre-
paration to b,, welcomed as a staple dish in caul
hou-elmlil Lur.me ; made (mu' likani Railed
In
earrageen. fresh from the ocean. combining the
(regrow° ..f the sea-breeze with its licalth•giving
In Shilling rackets. sold every-where. Bend
tre Mom Paine Company. 266 High Holborn. London
and Park-place. New York. U.B.
THROAT DISILDIDL—Runnes BIIONCHIAL Twoctian,
which have proved so sumessful in Ananias for theatre
of Coughs, Colds, Hoarseness, Bronchitis, Asthma,
Catarrh, or any irritation or soreness of the throat,are
DOW imported and sold in this actuary at Is. lid. per
bor. pat up in the form of " lozenge." It lOtosi aOm convenient. Omelet, se., and sure remedy for
clearing and strengthening the voice known in the
world. The Ilea. henry Ward fleootor says: "I have
often recommended teem to friends who were public ,
speakers, and in many cases they bareprovedextramely ,
aarrictoble." The /MOWS ha-cc the words "ro Bwn
BroLebial Troches" on the Government Steam around
sash bor.—principal Office, 4A Oiford-str skis:sedan.
Sold by all medicine vendors.

Sim Mona PANEL—Sixteen quarto of Steno Menge,
Custard. Padding, Charlotte Same, km, eau be made
from • einyfe 'maxi of the American "Hand See Mese
Feriae." Ite moomparable ezeelleoce and cheamseep,
Ike variety of dishes to which it Is applkable, and the
simplicity of preparation, make it lb. most healthfuj.
moresient, end delleiosis food in the world. Foe
lamas', Children.' or Invelkle diet, IS. umulelting and
health-Ovine properties render it preferable to all Coen.
,(Irs, Milton.., Cunt Starches, km It ie simple
coucat.P, nutritious, rem,dial sod economical, so it as
Is• furnished for ono-half the met of the above articles,
fur WI of which it la mere then • substitute. In shilliog
Pickets (note the voice ty this prod not of aimlieoboo/1111
514 t"."4 thrc getout tie 0.11.4 Bud
h,l. MI, High Sollory, ; 1101
,
corkilmse. New Tor& U.& •