The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-24 00:00:00

BOILER EXPLOSION IN SUFFOLK.

On Friday afternoon Mr. C. C. Brooke, coroner
for the liberty of St. Etheldred, held an inquest at
CharsfiAd, near Wickham-market, Suffolk, on the
bodies of two men named Denny and License and a
boy named 13 tttle, who had been killed on the pre-
ceding day by the explosion of the boiler of a port-
able agricultural engine. It appears that the engine
was at work upon the farm of Mr. Walter Burch,
of Campsea Ashe, and that it had been stopped for
the purpose of adjusting the driving band, which
came off soon after work had been resumed after
the men had taken their afternoon meal. The two
men and the boy, who were employed about the
engine, were killed on the spot, and Mr. Burch
himself was struck upon the head by a large piece
of iron, sustaining a scalp wound which reduced
him for several hours to a state of insensibility,
The contents of the fire-box were scattered in all
directions among the straw and wheat stacked
near the engine, and a barn, the thrashing machine,
and the entire produce of 18 acres of wheat were
destroyed. The engine was fitted with a multitn-
bular boiler, and the end next the fire-box was
blown out. The engine was at work about 12 yards
from the barn, and was turned round and hurled
against the thrashing machine, which stood next
the barn. The cylinder with the pistons was driven
40 yards into an adjoining meadow, and a heavy
piece of pipe, containing the throttle valve, was
projected 112 yards in the same direction. The fur-
nace door and the iron plate upon which it was
hung, weighing about 11 cwt., were blown quite
across the meadow through a fence into another
field, finally coming to rest at a distance of 188
yards from the scene of the explosion. The jury
having viewed the bodies, which, as usual in such
cases, presented a sickening spectacle, evidence was
adduced to the effect that License was the engine-
driver—that Denny, just before the explosion, was
taking off sacks from the thrashing-machine, and
that Battle had been employed on the straw stack,
but just before the accident took place his master
called him down. All the men about the engine,
which had been working unusually fast during the
day, were sober. Mr. Barclay, solicitor, wto ap
peared for Mr. Whitmore, the owner of the engine,
expressed the readiness of his client to afford every
information respecting it. He could show that the
engine had been well constructed, and that it was
in good repair; at the same time, nothing could be
more satisfactory to Mr. Whitmore than that an
engineer should be called in to examine the remains
of the boiler and state his opinion to the jury. It
was agreed that this course should be adopted.
Before an adjournment of the inquiry, however,
took place a witness named Stept en Ward was
called, who stated that he was at work earlier in
the week with the same engine at Mr. Mannall's.
License was then driving the engine, which ap-
peared to be in a defective state, as the governors,
which regulate the steam, did not work at all. The
witness made an observation to License as to this,
and asked him why the governors were not acting.
In reply, License said it was an old machine out of
repair. License leaves a widow and nine children,
and Denny was also a married man with a family
of three children.