The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-17 00:00:00

THE CATASTROPHE AT THE CRYSTAL

PALACE.

The details which we gave yesterday respecting the
deplorable accident at the Crystal Palace on the previ-
ous afternoon, although substantially correct as far as
they went, yet conveyed but an inadequate idea of the
terrible character of the event. It was feared that the
number which we announced yesterday as having
perished was not the real extent of loss of life, and that
on the wreck of the scaffolding, which lay heaped upon
the flooring of the transept, being removed, the remains
of other sufferers would be discovered. Happily, how-
ever, such anticipation was not realised, the unfortunate
creatures who perished being confined to the twelve

previously reported.
On visiting the building yesterday morning we found
Sir Joseph Paxton (who had been telegraphed for from
Chatsworth), Mr. F. Fuller, the managing director of
the company, and the contractors, Sir Charles Fox and
Mr. Henderson, engaged in surveying the works ; and
it was not until then that we could fully appreciate the
magnitude of the disaster. A. very large mass of frame-
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fallen from its position, some 180 feet high, carrying
with it a part of the girders and several columns on the
north side of the nave, the whole lying one heterogene-
ous mass of twisted iron and shattered timber upon the
flooring beneath. As previously arranged, the wreck
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course it had taken in falling.
The centre transept, as some of our readers may be
aware, will, when completed, be the chef d'oeuvre of the
building. It is intended to be no less than 208 feet in
height (108 feet higher than the transept of the Exhibi-
tion in Hyde-park) and 100 feet in breadth. The prin-
ciple of fixing the ribs is different to that pursued in the
building of the old palace, where they were raised bodily.
Here, -owing to the enormous elevation and • span, a
framework was-constructed of- timber and iron of pecu-
liar strength and bearing. On a kind of stage which
was thrown across the entire breadth of the transept
avenue, were erected several trusses, the ends of which
rested upon timber on the summit of the iron columns
of the side galleries. The trusses were of the form
generally employed in the construction of roofs of

railway stations. They were very firmly tied by
iron bands, and otherwise strongly secured. On the
_ . _

top of the first tier of trusses another kind of staging
was to be formed, and upon this the upper trusses
were fixed, which would afford the workmen every faci-
lity in throwing over the ribs. Three tiers of upper and
lower trusses had been completed at the front of the
transept ; the fourth, fifth, and sixth lower trusses were
fixed ; and the seventh, which was the last that part of
the works in the transept required, was standing close
to the sixth, and in readiness for the men to move it on
Ito its position, which they could accomplish by " pur-
chasing" it along on a sheet of timber upon which it
rested. It has been stated that they were in the act of
shifting this seventh truss when the catastrophe occurred,
but that has been questioned on the ground that it would
not be required in its appointed place for a day or
so. What particular work the unfortunate men were
engaged at at the time of the accident has not satisfac-
torily transpired, but it would seem that some failure
took place which led to the shifting and falling
of the seventh truss, and the carrying with it of the
sixth and fifth. The latter were most firmly fixed to-
gether, as they were to the fourth, which kept its posi-
tion, notwithstanding the strain of several tons of falling
woodwork. The great strength of this principle of truss
is also fully illustrated by the position of the wreck on
the flooring beneath. Instead of shooting out more to-
wards the centre of the building, which would have been
the case had it not been held by some strong power,
it has dropped close under the trusses in the face of the
transept, clearly indicating the strength with which it
had been held to the other parts of the structure. Sir
Joseph Paxton and Sir Charles Fox made very minute
inquiries of the heads of the building department, with
a view of eliciting anything that might throw a light
upon the probable cause, but nothing decisive was
arrived at. The galleries and staging had been
constructed under the direction of the most skilled
mechanics, and who had been similarly employed in
forming the transept of the Hyde-park Exhibition. Sir
C. Fox remarked that the only opinion he at present
could give as to the cause of the melancholy event was,
that the workmen had had left out some important part
in the trusses they put up.
Considering the alarming character of the accident,
and the great number of hands employed in the vicinity
of the transept when the destruction of the upper works
took place, it is a subject of much congratulation that
the loss of life was not greater. As far as our inquiries
went we could not hear of any one man who was on the
basement sustaining any material injury.
Mr. Chamberlaine, the medical gentleman of Wolver.
hampton, who rendered immediate assistance to the unfor
tunate sufferers, thus describes the scene he witnessed :
A few minutes before the accident he was viewing the ex
terior of the works from the lane which runs along the
Norwood side of the building, when a sharp noise like
the falling of a plank attracted his notice, and turning
to the centre transept observed something falling
through the galleries. Seeing that no notice was taken
of the circumstance he proceeded down the lane, and
then noticing that the workmen on the north transept
were looking eagerly at the centre one, he turned
round, and at that instant a loud crack took place, and
he perceived that a large portion of the staging or scaf-
folding was giving way. There was a great cry, fol-
lowed by a tremendous crash, and be noticed the
workmen dropping like partridges. Being satisfied
that some terrible accident had occurred, he hastened
to the entrance and got admission to the interior, where
a most shocking scene presented itself to his view.
The workpeople were rushing out in a state of the
greatest dismay and terror. Amidst the broken tim-
bers and mass that had partly buried itself in the floor-
ing he saw 16 or 17 workmen, dead and dying.
With the assistance of Mr. Belshaw, the superintendent
of the building, and other gentlemen whom he saw there,
a body of men were urged to render aid in extricating
the sufferers ; a work which occupied a considerable
time. Many were found to have met with an instanta-
neous death; some by pitching on their heads on to the
sharp edge of the iron ribs for the transept, which laid
on that part of the floor, and others by being crushed
beneath the ponderous mass. In one spot were seen
some ten or twelve feet below the surface, three men
whom it was thought were killed. Two of them, mar-
vellously enough, were found to be but slightly injured,
although they had been precipitated from the very top of
the scaffolding ; the third was discovered to have sustained
a double fracture of the skull. He was recognised to be
John Perry, who now lies in Guy's Hospital without
hopes of recovery. Mr. Chamberlaine caused a tempo-
rary hospital to be formed in the south end of the build-
ing, where the sufferers were conveyed, and where on
the arrival of other medical gentlemen their state was
promptly attended to. Mr. Chamber'aine accompanied
the survivors to Guy's Hospital, and saw them properly
housed and handed over to the care of the surgeons of
the institution.
The remains of the ten men who were picked out of
the wreck, dead, were deposited in one of the outhouses
of the building, and have since been identified. The
following are their names :—William Forman, James
Waller, George Topham, George Fielding, George
Copping, William James, William Middleton, William
Smith, John Neale, and Charles Hardy. The names of
those dead at Guy's Hospital are Henry Reading and
John Harris.
Respecting the condition of the injured survivors
lying in Guy's Hospital, the report of the medical officer
last night to the conductors, states that, with the ex-
ception of the man Perry, all were progressing . favour-
ably.
During the excitement of Monday afternoon conse.
quent on the accident, Mr. Sergeant Lund, of the D divi-
sion, and a strong body of his force rendered most im-
portant services in assisting the wounded men, and pro-
tecting the building from the thousands who flocked to
the spot.
At present there is almost a cessation of labour at
the works. The inquest on the bodes lying in the
building is fixed for to-day.
With regard to the amount of damage which the mis-
hap has occasioned, it is computed to exceed 6,0001.

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