The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-13 00:00:00

TWO MEN KILLED ETA BOILER EXPLOSION

AT STOCKPORT.

On Saturday morning, about twenty minutes after
seven o'clock, a steam boiler bunt at the cotton mill of
Means. Marshall and Son, Heston-lane, Stockport, over a
Sas, so as to allow of a large escape of steam and water
through the fire-place, and two of the firemen, named John
Morley and Benjamin Dawson, in the boiler hole, were
almost instantly scalded to death. The mill had been at
work only forty minutes, when Mr. Thos. Sazton,:the over-
looker, observed that the machinery suddenly slackened
speed, but as the boiler in bursting did not make a loud re.
port, he kad no saspieion of the cause. He instantly went
to the baer-hoon, expecting to find the engine-driver
there, and discovered the boiler hole filled with steam mad
boiling water. Fifteen to twenty minutes elapsed before
the unfortunate firemen could be released, because, from
the oortstruction of the boiler hole, the steam could not get
away, and to have entered the place at first would have
been certain death. The poor men were quite dead. There
are two boiler-houses to the mill, having each three boilers,
and this was the centre one of the set, on what is called the
weaving side of the mill. The boiler is one of 40-horse
power, called a waggon boiler, with a flue through the
centre, over the flre•plan ; and on examination there
appears to be a rent in the boiler over this flue, about
twelve inches long and three wide, extending along a line of
rivets. The explosion does not appear to have exerted
any great fora, as the boiler has not been moved by it, and
the brickwork has not been disturbed. An inquest on the
bodies of the two deceased was opened on Saturday after-
noon, by Mr. W. S. Rutter, county coroner.

THE RE-DECORATION OP TIIE DOME OF ST. PAUL'S.
—Oar readers are aware that the restoration, or rather re-
painting, of Sir James Thornhill's pictures in the dome of
St. Paul's Cathedral has been commenced. Looking up
into the mighty concave lost in gloom, and so far above the
eye that its decorations were scarcely visible, it has always
seemed a matter of great difficulty to form a scaffold to
effect the work. Various proposals have been made from
time to time, including a scaffold built up from the ground
—no trilling affair—and • platform covering the whole
area of the dome at its sponging. Mr. Parris, aided by
Mr. Penrose, hu solved the problem very satisfactorily, and
at • cost comparatively trilling. Before it was done, it
seemed very difficult of accomplishment; now it is effected
it seems perfectly simple and easy. The greater portion of
the division upon which the artist is now at work has been
cut down and replutered (with lime, sand and puzzolana),
and this will be the ease throughout, the damp having
affected them to so great an extent u to render repair im-
possible. Mr. Parris is heightening the tone, keeping the
colour much lighter than it formerly appeared, which will
render the pictures more clearly visible from below. He
considers that they were originally painted so by Thornhill,
and that the boiled oil with which they were worked has
changed. The medium he is now using is encaustic, his
own "marble medium." When one compartment has been
executed the platform will he shifted. Its extent enables
the artist to retire 24 feet from the picture to see its effect.
—The nuttier.