The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-24 00:00:00

HARROWING SCENE AT WOOLWICH
ARSENAL.

A very distressing accident happened at the R,oyal
Arsenal, Woolwich, on Saturday afternoon. Most of
the workshops were closed for the customary half-
holiday; but in one of the forges of the Royal Gun
Factory a party of men were specially employed in
casting a great ingot of steel for the construction of a
63-ton gun. The mould was a cylinder, standing on
end in a pit of about 10 feet square, and the iron floor
of the pit formed the bottom of the mould. Into this
was poured about eight tons of molten steel from a
patent gas furnace, and the casting would have been
perfect if the usual period of two hours had been
allowed for its growing cool. But it appears unfortu-
nately that the workpeople were in a hurry to com-
plete their day's work; and in about one hour after
the metal had been run a man named Daniel Moriarty
descended into the pit to block up the mould-casing
preparatory to its being removed. The steel had,
however, barely set on the outside; and as soon as
the cylinder was raised from the floor, the liquid fira
poured out in a fearful deluge. Moriarity attempted
to reach the ladder by which he had descended, but
was instantly caught and overwhelmed by the molten
flood before his horrified companions could move
to his help. Mr. Edmonds, the manager, was imme-
diately called, but no part or trace of the man could
be observed in the seething well, and the metal was
visibly cooling on the surface, threatening to
encase the remains of its victim in a solid block
of steel. Inspector Cavell, of the Royal Arsenal
police, urged that at least a portion of the body should
be recovered, if only for the sake of an inquest, and
Mr. Edmonds and his men went zealously to work
with iron rods and hooks and ladles, and, notwith-
standing the painful heat, succeeded in extracting a
shapeless mass of human cinder, ah Dr. Wilson,
who was in attendance, pronounced to be the interior
of the trunk. The head and limbs could not be fund,
but after the steel block had cooled and solidified
so:no ghastly fragments were seen projecting from the
unyielding surface. The recovered portion of the
body was taken to the mortuary of the Royal Arsenal
medical establishment, but Dr. Wilson mercifully
forbade that the deceased's wife and other relatives
should be permitted to see it. Moriarty was 32 years
or ego, and his widow is left with five chillren.

An iequest was held on Monday by Mr. Arundel
C.larttar, coroner. Colonel Maitland, R.A.., superin-
tendent of the Royal Gun Factories, was present.
George Cook, a labourer in the Gun Factories,
identified the remains as part of the body of Daniel
lforiarty, and said that he had worked with him for
two years. They were usually employed together at
the shell furnace, and were so engaged on Saturday
last. The factory generally was closed at one o'clock.
but the men at the furnace remained to make a steel
casting. They tapped the furnace same time before
two o'clock, and the metal was run into the
mould. It remained about an hour, and then they
proceeded to lift the mould by chains wound
up on a travelling crane. A man named Newbold was
leading hand directing the work, and he ordered that
the mould should be lifted. One man usually went
down the pit in which the mould stood to put some
p cking under the mould as it was lifted, in order to
let in cold air. Either Moriarty or witness usually
did this and on Saturday the former went down, wit-
ness placing the ladder for him. Moriarty went down
and packed up the case with iron wedges, doing this
will his hands encased in flannel bags, as it was fear-
fully hot, and was making his way back to the ladder
when the ingot burst, and the melted steel flew out.
It caught the man in the face and chest and knocked
him backwards and smothered him. Nothing what-
ever could be done for him, but when the police
came efforts were made to recover the body.
The usual time to allow such a body of metal to
cool was about act hour and a half or two hours,
but witness had known the mould to be lifted in three-
quarters of an hour. They were not hurrying to get
away. In answer to the jury, witness said he had
assisted to cast larger ingots than this, and should
allow the same time for a small one to cool as a large
one. He never apprehended any danger of an ingot
bursting through being imperfectly cooled. The evi-
dence of two other workmen having been given,
Charles Newbold, the leading hand, said that he
lowered the cylinder mould into the pit at half-past
twelve, and saw that the bottom was prepared in the
usual way. About. a quarter to two the casting was
made, and lie allowed it to stand an hour, when he
lifted the mould four inches. He believed that the iron
plate on which the ingot rested came up with it and then
dropped. The ingot was about 6ft. long and 34in. in
diameter. The charge in the furnace was 10 tons,
but witness had made castings as heavy as 20 tons.
There was no specified time for allowing an ingot to
get cool. He used his own judgment. By the jury—
Perhaps I ought to have allowed a little longer on
account of the hot weather and the fact of the mould
being brick lined. The only orders I have had as to
time was a hint from our tester. The time used to be
two hours, but the tester told me that he thought an
hour would be enough. I hava worked in the Royal
Arsenal 20 years, and at steel casting nearly five
years.—The jury returned a verdict of accidental
death, expressing in their opinion, however, that there
had been as error of judgment, and that the family
of deceased ought to be compensated under the Em-
ployers' Liability Act.