The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-12 00:00:00

EVENING ED,ITION.

IF MESS

AWFUL EXPLOSION
• PIGOL7 AND WILD'S POWISL
DARTFORD-FIVE LIVES LO `'A '

7.R.MILLS AT

O.) Monday morning, a
few minutes after., sof the
an awful explosion took place on the prern-4, '
•.47en o'clock,
above-named gentlemen, which threw down and rt. 'ttcrci
the corning-house, the whole of the implerne-A. i,"(1
materials contained therein, in every direction ; Not, , we
regret to add, five fellow-creature's lives have 1). 'en
sacrificed in the tremendous shock, which spread dirtni'Y
throughout the town of Dartford and its vicinity, on a
which was distinctly felt; and the explosion heard, 6%1
Maidstone, 6. distance of twenty miles.
An inquisition was taken on the premises before Mr.-
C. J. Carttar and a highly respectable Jury on Tuesday.
Mr. Robert Wilks, a partner in the firm of Pigou and
Wilks, deposed that he knew the whole of the de-
ceased ; they had all been workmen on their premises,
and were perfectly steady, sober melt. He had been I,n
the corning-house about a quarter befo:e ten o'clocK,
where all the deceased were employed %via: the excep-
tion of Prescott, who was in a boat in the canal, it
being his duty to convey the powder from the corning-
house to the house where the next process takes place,
and and which is on all occasions moved from place to poce
with this caution to prevent accident and danger b,"
avoiding friction. However there is every reason to be-
lieve that he must have subsequently gone into the
corning-house, from the position in which his body was
found. The corning-house was completely surrounded
by a mound of earth at least twenty feet high,
and a great number of trees. The body of Prescott was
blown over the mound into the di'ch or canal on
on the opposite side. The explosion took place about
,•,!-er minutes after 10 o'clock, and as soon as his alarm
had aliated, the deceased Prescott was found as described,
having lost his right leg, which had been severed frorn.
the body close up by the fork of the thigh, and his
left arm from its socktt. When first found he was
almost sensible, and said to witn,”s, " For God's sake do
something for me." Although in his senses he did not
appear to be aware that he had lost either of his limbs,
and for ten minutes spoke rationally ter the persons
about him, and said in five minutes more be would
have been away from the building. After the lapse of
that time his sufferings commenced, and so exer.leiatiog
were they, that the poor fellow asked them to dash his
brains out to stop his agony, and in about two minutJs
afterwards he ceased to exist.
One of the sufferers, a man of 16 stone weight, was
thrown over the embankment; and upwards of one hun-
dred yards on the other side of ;:. His right arm had
been blown off, and was found about thirty yards to the
left of the body. Another, a lighter man, was found in
meadow upwards of 120 yards over ti,e embankment,
where he appeared to have fallen, his clothes singing the
grass, and to have afterwards rebounded at ;cast 25 feet
further, where similar marks of fire were mane on the
grass turf, his body being nearly severed in two aerJss
the abdomen.
There is not a vestige of the corning-house to be
seen, it has been so completely razed. The trees sur-
rounding the buildng- were greatly injured, some of them
being destroyed by losing their branches, and others
blown down.
The CORONER shortly slimmed up, and the Jury,
after a slight consultation, rettnlned a verdict---,‘ That
the deceased persons had come by their death in conse-
quence of the explosion of a gun.poa,der corning-mill,
which belonged to Messrs. Pigou and Wilks, situated
in the parish of Wilmington, Kent."