The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-02 00:00:00

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A terrific explosion of gas, even more serious
its results than that which recently occurred at
Camp Hill, took place on Thursday morning at the
residence of Mr. Wm. Russell, Milton-place, Vic-
toria-road, Aston New Town, Birmingham. The
house forms one of a row, and in front Las only two
The eattunce dour opens into a. pss.age ur
hull, the first room on tho left being the parkin..
Beyond this is the back eitting-roem, out cf whal
is the Ltait eau; communicating with the upper rooms.
On the farther side of the sitting-room is a door
leading into the kitchen. Between Mr. Russell's
house and that of his neighbour's is, or rather was,
an entry which formed the division between the tv, o
houses and the appro:xli to the back yard. The
landlord of the liou,e is Mr. 1:ellen:lie Mo, who
lives in the same row ; and Mr. Russell, we are in-
formed, has only been his tenant a few weeks. Mr.
and Mrs. Russell have been wending Christmea
in London, and returned home on Wednesday
night. During their absence the house had been
left in charge of the servant, Sarah Morris, a young
woman 18 years of age. The house is lighted
with gas, and there are gas fittings in the front
and back sitting rooms, kitchen, and the bedrooms
on the first floor. On going to bed on Wednesday
night the gas was not turned off at the meter, and
Mr. and Mrs. Rassell, who slept in the back bed,.
room, kept a small light burning in their room, all
night, Mrs. Russell being somewhat unwe:ivi, Mr.
Russell came down stairs on Thursday morning at
about 8 o'clock to procure a cup of tea for his wife.
The servant did not come down stairs until some
time afterwards, and Mr. Russell, who was then at
the kitchen fire, scolded her for being late, and sent
her to unclose the parlour shutters. She took a
lighted candle with her, and she had no sooner
opened the parlour door than a terrific explosion
took place, which shattered the h
ouse from basement
to roof, forcing out the winflows,
.
and blowing down
the walls as instantar.eously as though a magazine
'had been exploiled underneath. We have stated
that Mr. Russell was at the kitchen fire at the back
of the house. The outer wall of this kitchen was
levelled to the ground, leaving the outer room open
to the yard. What with the noise of the explosion,
the crash of the falling walls, and the dust which
arose from the debris, Mr. Russell was for a few
seconds completely paralysed. His first thought
was that the earthquake beet returned with increased
force, and then the Livn' cause occurred to him—
that there had beeee ateexplosion of gas in the front
room. He he
.steued there to ascertain the full ex-
tent, and. found the whole of the front of the house
a cellplete wreck. The lighted gas was streaming
'rom the broken pendant in the centre of the room,
the furniture was on fire, and the flames were play-
ing round the room, lapping the walls as though
seeking some place to fasten upon. Seeing this
danger, Mr. Russell immediately ran down stairs
to the meter and turned off the gas. He then re-
turned to the front to search for the servant. He
found her .Sing upon the floor of what had been
the entry, where she had been blown by the
force of the explosion, and completely buried beneath
the bricks and rubbish of the fallen wall. The noise
of the explosion had, as might be supposed, created
almost a panic in the surrounding houses, and in a
very few moments there were plenty of persons on
the spot to render assistance. With the help of
some of the neighbours the bricks were removed,
and the girl was got out. She was rather severely
burned, and also bruised by the falling bricks. She
was immediately placed in a cab and taken to the
General Hospital. It should be stated that after
Mr. Russell had turned off the gas he brushed out
with his hands and coat sleeve the flames where
they had taken hold of the furniture and the paper
upon the walls. The explosive current took an
eccentric course, and was almost fantastic in its
work of destruction. The parlour window was, of
course, blown out, and thus opened a vent in one
direction. By far the greater portion of the ignited
gas streamed through the open door into the pas-
sage, traversing this, and then it rushed onwards
through the back sitting room into the kitchen,
sweeping everything before it. The furniture in the
parlour was entirely destroyed, the covering of the
sofa and chairs being shrivelled up, and the wood-
work scorched and blistered. Singularly enough,
while the division wall between the parlour and the
passage is only bulged out, so as to require shoring
up and rebuilding, the wall on the other side of the
passage next the entry is levelled to the ground.
Another curious effect is that the floor of the par-
lour and ceiling are uninjured, not scorched, in fact,
and yet the boards of the front bed room are forced
up, and the cellar ceiling down below is scattered
to pieces. The current had thus passed upwards
and downwards witheut affecting the intermediate
objects which it encountered. Passing through
into the back sitting room, the damage is seen to
even greater extent than at the front. One of
the side walls of this room is blown out, the
doors are shattered into fragments, the window
is gone, and the paper is stripped from the
walls, and hangs in shreds. We have be-
fore stated that the outer wall of the kitchen
which leads out of the sitting room is blown
down. Had it not been that the kitchen door was
open, the current must have expended itself in
the sitting-room, and the result would most pro-
bably have been that the whole of the back of the
house would have been blown out. It is truly for-
tunate that this did not not happen, as Mrs. Russell,
who was in bed in the room above, would have had
but a very poor chance for her life. As it was, the
walls of her bed room are bulged out a couple of
inches, leaving a long narrow crack close to the
ceiling. In short, the house is such a thorough
wreck as to be quite nntenantable, and Mr. Russell
was compelled to get another residence and remove
his furniture at once. The cause of the explosion is
very obvious. The chandelier in the parlour is a
double one upon the ordinary water-elide principle.
One of the balance weights had fallen off, and was
found upon the floor in the morning. The effect of
this weight coming off suddenly would be that the
chandelier would drop with a jerk, and the gas
would be escaping all night. Mr. Russell did not
notice any smell of gas in the back room when he
came down stairs, and yet the parlour must have
been thoroughly charged with it. The frequent
occurrence of explosions of this kind should act as a.
caution to persons first of all to turn the gas off at
the meter before going to bed, and next to examine
periodically the condition of their chandeliers.
From inquiries made at the General Hospital on
Thursday night, the girl Sarah Morris, although
very severely burnt and otherwise injured, was said
to be progressing favourably.—Birmingham Daily
Post.

BUCKS COUNTY ELECTION.—The polling took
place yesterday at the several districts into which
the county is now divided—viz., Aylesbury, Amersham,
Bletchley, Brill, Buckingham, Newport, Pagnell, Slough,
and High Wycombe. The proceedings altogether were of
the quietest character possible, and the occasion was un-
attended by the excitement which is usually expected at an
election, as will be seen by the total number polled ; not
hail the constituency voted, and the remaining section--
those who did not vote—is composed almost exclusively of
the liberal party. Dr. Lee come forward entirely unsup-
ported by the liberals of the country, and even in his cwn
behalf has made no effort whatever to secure his return
His reason for offering himself, as was stated in one of his
addresses,was merely to give the Liberal electors an oppor-
tunity of voting. He declined to be at the expense of bring-
ing the voters to the poll, and neglected the ordinary aids
even of legal agents, check clerks, &c. This he calls purity
of election. On the other hand the Tories have left no means
untried to bring in every stray vote on I heir aide, and en-
deavoured by every means at their command to swell the
majority of their candidate. As we have before stated, Dr.
Lee did not receive the support of a third part of the Liberal
electors. '1 he result of the contest must not, therefore, be
taken as a fair criterion of the strength of parties in the
county. Had a man been brought forward who would have u
received the support of the party, the result would no oubt
have been different. At the close of the poll the numbers
were—Harvey, 2,311; Lee, 312.
A GERMAN PROVERB says that to know our-
selves is to know much; to know God is to know all

things.
The third ordinary general meeting of the share-
holders of the Alliance Bank of London and Liver-
pool is to take place at the London Tavern on Jan.
22, and in addition to the declaration of a dividend
and other matters it is intended to take power ta
change its name to that of " The Alliance Bank
Limited."