The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-16 00:00:00

TERRIBLE BOILER EXPLOSION.

NINETEEN PERSONS KILLED.
WOLVERHAMPTON, TUESDAY.
About a quarter-past 11 o'clock this forenoon a
boiler explosion happened about two miles from
this town, which has occasioned the deaths of 19
persons, and serious injury to other 10. Of these
latter, two are dying as we write, but of the re-
maining eight there is ground to hope for their
ultimate recovery.
The site of the explosion is Priestfield, the first
station between this town and Birmingham, on the
Great Western line. At Prestfield, among other
iron works are those now carried on by Mr. Thos.
Rose, and belonging to the Birmingham Banking
Company. The works are called the Millfield
Works, and they consist of two forges and three
mills, all for the manufacture of different descrip-
tions of finished iron. One forge, the only one
now at work, consists of 20 puddling furnaces, a
shingling hammer, for beating the dross from the
balls of molten iron which are produced at the
puddling furnaces, and a train of rolls for rolling
the iron, after it leaves the shingler's hammer, into
puddled bars, preparatory to its being cut up, re-
heated and rolled into merchantable iron in the
mills. The engine which worked the massy
shingler's hammer and the puddled bar rolls was of
80 horse power, high pressure, and supplied with
steam from two cylindrical boilers with hemisphe-
rical ends, eight or nine feet in diameter about 20
feet long. Each boiler was heated by the super-
fluous flame from a set of puddling furnaces, and
was seated upright on one of its ends. One boiler
was heated by the flues of four furnaces, and the
other by the flues of two furnaces. The other two
furnaces were unconnected with any boiler.
At the time mentioned the puddlers working at
the four furnaces attached to the boiler No. 1 were
taking out their charges, and were dragging their
red-hot balls of iron to the shingler's hammer, and
thence to the puddled bar rolls, the furnaces having
been for a quarter of an hour previously working
at the utmost heat required iu the operation, and the
boilers consequently under the same proportionate
influence. Indeed, the whole of the machinery of the
forge was in full operation ; and beneath the roof
which covered the whole there were about 40 men

at work.
When everything was supposed to be safe, and
without any previous warning, a report as a mighty
peal of thunder immediately overhead was heard,
and in an instant death and devastation prevailed.
The entire forge was a complete wreck. No. 1 boiler
had exploded. Three.fourths of it, weighing about
eight tons, had been forced into the air to a height
of between 200 and 300 feet, and the remainder in
three portions had been driven through the forge in
three different directions, tearing down the iron
pillars which supported the roof, and rending the
massive timber beams which rested upon them into
splinters. At the same time the brick work and
masonry of the furnaces, with their contents of
molten iron, and the burning coals from their fires,
completed the appalling catastrophe. Before the fly-
ing debris men were driven, bleeding and lifeless,
some into boats lying upon the adjoining canal;
others against a brick wall, 20 yards distant from
the boiler; others were buried beneath the molten
iron, the burning coals, and the red-hot brickwork.
Within an hour after the explosion 14 bodies had
been recovered, all of them most shockingly muti-
lated. One body was without its head ; another,
upon an attempt to lift it up, fell to nieces : it had
been literally cut in two, and the extremities had
been burnt away. The remainder were more or
less disfigured.
In addition to the 14 found dead 15 were discovered
alive, but the greater number sadly injured. Nine
of these were taken to the South Staffordshire Hos-
pital, about a mile and a half from the Millfielis
W orks, and six to their homes. Three died on their
way to the hospital, and one whilst being taken to
his home. In the hospital one has already died, and
two are supposed to be dying. The injuries which
have been received by the deceased in the hospital
ate chiefly scalp wounds, fractures, and scalds, and
one of the injured has a leg amputated. The ruins
are still being searched for two bodies supposed to
be missing, and until to-morrow it is not expected
to be known if even a larg'er number have not yet
to be accounted for. Most of the deceased who have
been recognised are fathers of families.

MARKETS---THIS DAY.