The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-16 00:00:00

BOILER EXPLOSION AND LOSS OP NINETEEN

Lin t&
WOLVERHAMPTON, Ann. 15.
At a quartet pad 11 o'clock this forenoon a
boiler explosion happened about two miles from this town,
which less occasioned the death of nineteen perms, and
serious injuries to ten others. Of these latter two are
dying as we write, bet of the remaining eight there is
ground to hope for their ultimate recovery. The site of the
explosion is ?riestfleld, the first station between this town
and Birmingham, on the Great Western line.
At Priestlield, among other iron works, are those
now carried on by Mr. Thomas Rose, and
_

belonging to the Birmingham Banking Company. The
works are called the Millfiekl Works, and consist of two
fare and three mills, all for the manufacture of different
descriptions of finished iron. One forge, the only one now
at work, consists of twenty puddling furnaces, a shingling
hammer for beating the draw from the balls of molten iron,
which are produced atthe puddling furnaces, and a train of
rolls for rolling the iron after it leaves the &Waster's
hammer into paddled bars. preparatory to its being cut up,
reheated, and rolled into merchantable iron in the mills.
The engine which worked the massy shingler's hammer and
the paddled bar rolls was of 80.hoese power, high pressure,
and supplied with steam from two cylindrical boilers with
hemispherical ends, eight or nine feet in diameter by shout
twenty feet long. Each boiler was heated by the super.
flume flame from a get of paddling furnaces, and was seated
upright on one of its ends. One boiler was heated by the
duce of four furnaces, and the other by the flues of two
furnaces. The other four furnaces were unconnected with
any boiler. At the time mentioned the puddler, were
working at the four furnaces attached to the boiler No. 1,
were taking out their charges, and were dragging their
red.hot balls of iron to the 'blunter,' hammer, and
thence. to the paddled bar rolls, the furnaces
having been for a quarter of an hour previously working at
the utmost heat required in the operation, and the boilers
eoessgtautly under the sans proportionate influence. ln.
deed the whole of the machinery of the forge was in full
• and beamed' the roof which covered the whole
=tiwo:tii about forty men at work. When everything
was supposed to be sale, and without any previous warning,
• report as of a mighty peel of thunder immediately
ovce•band was
rhe:tisland in en instant death
and devastation The entire forge was a
complete wreck. o. 1 boiler had exploded. Throe.
fourths of it, weighing about eight tons, had been
toned into the air to a height of between 200 and MO feet;
and the remainder. in three portions, had been driven
through the forge in three different directions, tearing
down the iron pillars which supported the roof, and reading
the massive timber beams which rested upon them into
splinters. At the same time the brickwork sad masonry of
the furnaces, with their contents of molten blood the burn.
ingooshi from their fires, completed the appalling catastrophe.
Before Unsaying &bar men were driven blinding and lifeless,
some into boas lying upon the adjoining nasal/another on a
brick wall twenty yards distant from the boiler ; and others
were buried beneath the molten iron, the burning coals,
and the redhot brick work. Within an hoer after the
explosion fourteen bodies had been recovered, all of Qom
most shockingly mutilated. One was without its had,
and that member has not yet been recovered. Another
upon an attempt being made to lift it up fell to pima tit
had been literally cut in two, and the extremities bed been
burnt aw. The remainder were more or lass dig/Wired.
But few tithe fourteen referred to have yet been identified.
By far the larger number of the men at work in the forge
the accident happened were strangers, and were taken
on oily this morning. In addition to the 14 found deed,
15 ware discovered alive, but the greater number sadly in.
Jared. Hine of these were taken 0.4> the South Stafford.
shire Hospital, about a mils and a half from the Millfields
Works, and six to their homes. Three died on their way
to the hospital, and one whilst being taken to his home.
In the hospital one has already died and two are supposed
to be dyisg. The ruins are still being searched for two
bodies supposing to be missing, and until tomorrow it is
not expected to be known if even a larger number have not
yet to be accounted for. Most of the deceased who have
been recognised are fathers of families.
The damage done to the works is estimated at between
2,0001. and 3,000/. They have been put up shout 11 yam,
and until the beginning of last month had been unoccupied
about four years. The quantity of water scattered through
the works affords abundant proof that the explosion cannot
be attributed to a want of that element in the boiler. To
us there Rooms evidence of a seam-rend below
the water line and along a line of rivets, the
heads of a few of which are burnt off. Hero
the rend doubtless commenced, and if the fire had bees
an ordinary one it would have been put out by the water
which escaped, but the combined flames from the four
furnace Mae were so strong that steam was engendered
Wreath the boiler and by the escape
.of the water an ix.
creased pressure took place within sufficient to produce the
explosion, which we keys no doubt was really a double ex.
; plosion.