The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-08 00:00:00

Gunpowder Explosion at Tonbridge.

That dangerous compound which Lord Byron
ironically described as " Thy humane discovery,
Friar Bacon," has been the cause of a great cala-
mity near Tonbridge. The gunpowder mills of
Messrs Curtis and Harvey are situated about a mile
from that town, in the midst of a dense thicket ;
and several branches of the river Medway serve as
canals to convey the materials used in their factory
to and from the works. For the different processes
of the manufacture there are separate mills, built at
some distance from each other, to lessen the fearful
danger of the operations. It was in the glazing
mill that the recent disaster occurred. On Wednes-
day evening this factory was blown up, the concus-
eion shaking every house in the town, while the
effact was felt throughout the whole length of the
Weald of Kent. A policeman on du►y at the time,
at least three miles distant, Asserts that a column
of hot air rushed past him; and similar evidence
givc.; corroboration to the statement. The 'men
eti.•voved during the day in the glazing mill hal
lefc off work at six o'clock., and another relay
had taken their place for the night. At hf..11-past

_ .
mil;, a fourth person having gone away
with the intention of soon returning. It
was during his absence that the explosion occurred,
leaving no human being alive to tell the origin of
the catastrophe. Nor is it probe_b:e that, had one of
these unfortunate people been by a miracle spared
from destruction, he would have been able to give
any account of the matter. The bulk of powder
that exploded was about thirty hundredweight, and
the mill itself was simply obliterated from the spot
on which it had stood, leaving nothing but a few
charred pieces of wood on its site. Neighbouring
fields were strewn with the fragments of beams and
planks, and the trees in the thicket were blasted as
by a simoom. The only human remains that have
been found, with the exception of one terribly dis-
figured body, have been portions of flesh and bone,
with here and there a hand or a foot that could be
known for what it was. A punt on the river, laden
with hay, was injured and sunk, the hay damming
up the little river. The boy on board the punt had
an almost miraculous escape. The punt was towed
by a man named Henry Hill, who was blown into
the river, and his body not found until Thursday
morning. The boy,•though only a few feet distant,
escaped almost unhurt. The explosion would have
been but one of a series but for an excellent adapta•
tion of an invention by Messrs. Curtis and Harvey,
This, which is called a tipping machine, is so con-
trived that the shock of an explosion in one mill
immediately saturates the powder in all the others
with water. But for this excellent provision,
which is only one of a long list of elaborate pre•
cautions taken by Messrs, Curtis and Harvey, who
spare no cost in providing against accidents, the
whole of the mills would undoubtedly have
been destroyed, and the mischief fearfully increased.
Mr Gray, the manager of the works, lives at a
short distance, and the front of his house is
greatly damaged. He and Mr Dance, the super 4
intendent of police, were exceedingly active in
their inquiries among the cottagers who suffered
by the explosion, Most of these poor people, in-
habitants of a small village near the mills, are in
the employ of Messrs. Curtis and Harvey. Win-
dows were driven in, and other mischief caused to
the dwellings of the labourers; but the loss of life
was confined to the glazing mill itself, the names
of those persons killed being W. Lidlow,
man, GO years of age; H. Hill, 19; E. Day, 19 ;
and W. Day, 17—the latter three unmarried. The
copied by
scene presented in the romantic valley cc
these mills will not readily be forgotten by those
who have witnessed it. The windows of numerous
cottages and dwellings are shattered by the exples
sion, even in the town of Tonbra g
•d e itself ; the beg
epee of the
grimed and blackened appearbuildings
in the neighbourhood of the
the torn beams
scattered over the fields, the water of the river and
usually clear, black its tributory streams, r, with
powder; the air thick and heavy With a sulphuric
taint; the wives of the men employed in the mills
weeping and dietrto.teo , the air of confusion and
desolation, all combined to render its features at
once melancholy and terrible. a married

ocarnal\reAßTAriLti.--shTtewrerliattoyry—y,eitrgsreegvoe,nwuehen
Natal
at
theFeniilfiANO7CtEtbliSee first year amounted to £B3O. Five years
later £9,268 ; in five years more £28,648 ; at the
endofit was
another
five
years, £12,800; and in 1863 it reached
£123,089---an excess of more than £6,000 over that year's
expenditure. The growth of the revenue is in a great part
due to the population drinking and smoking more. It i.e
calculated that the European population paid in 1863 taxes
to the amount of about £5 per head. Yet the expenditure
for reproductive purposes—such as education, roads and
bridges and public works, immigration, and mail carriage—
barely exceeded £30,000. But few families maintain such
a costly official staff as Natal.—Natal Mercury.
A letter from Chamounix, in Switzerland, states
that another discovery of human remains has just
c
been made on the Glacier des Beason. One of the guides,
named Frederick Balmat, was passing near a crevice from
which a body was recently recovered, when he observed a
smallptieocbeeofthbe extremity of
proirecavtaintg from the ice. This
around the neck of a
proved
of
a
corpse. The guide with an axe extricated the body, which
was removed to Chamounix for interment. This is sup-
posed to be the last of the three unfortunate victims lost in
1820, the remains of the others having been previously
recovered.