The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-12 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS SECURITIES.

Pd Pd
Anglo-Austrian Bnd- fi InternlFinen 80'114 lilidis
holders' Certificate 11 2 20 It Irriu Can Cavour zi 1
10 Berlin Wa',erworkeiLl 141 151 lOU 1,0 6 ti c Bootle, re-
15k deemab:e 1670 . 63 65
30 Bolckow-Vaughan L) 30 35pm 641
100 Boston City (13.5. 5 30 London Fin Assoc(L) 20 18din
p c Sterling Loan.. 91 93 4 Lon Gen Omnibus .. 21 3
4 Brit & Fan Marine( Li n nom 2 Lou & I'rov Marine L) i 1 pm
25 Canada Company. 73 75 100 Madras Irrig. &Canal
10 Ceylon Company L) 31 3 dis g 5 D o by Ind Gov. 101 102
35 City Offices (L) .... 25 24 dis 2 Mauritius Land (L) 1 dis. par
20 Colonial (L) ... „ „ , 4 2 ills 5 NatialDiECtOomp (L) 11 11}

o Cora Union Assnrnoe 2135 pm 25 N Zealand Loan and -
7s, 1„ 15-18 Mere Agency iLI .. It pm
10 Crdt Fonc of Eng IL) 2 25 5 N Zealand Loau and
100 Crystal Palace
100 Do Pref
100 Do 6p c Pero Deb lll 116 28, 1, 5
271 Ebbw Vale Steel L) 9 Ulla 5 Ocean Marinelnsur ..1.35 14pm
100 Viceroy of Egypt p a 185, 5
Mortgage Loan 7B 80 60 P and 0 Steam ' 47 49
791 10 Do do New. 1867 3 1 dis
100 ggyp 9 p oV'roy Loan, 50 Rhymney Iron
guar by Egyp Gov.. 94 96 15 Do New B5 95
95), 45 60 Royal Mail Steam
13 Fore-st Warehouse (L) 75 Bpm 12 Tel Con and Main IL) 25) 55
21 26k, 55
100 Fgri and Colonial Gov 2 Tksmes and Mersey
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99 88. Tobacco 6 0 0 Loan
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14 Oen Stm Navigation 27 28 5 Trust and Loan Co of
7 Hooper's Tel Works 1 o)dis Upper Canada
65 5 (7 Marine, Lvpool IL 4?4lpin
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Tel Works L) .... 42 43 5 UnivMarinelnsuriLl 6571 pm
42, 5 12 Warrant Finance.... 9 2 dis

LONDON, MONDA';', DECEVI 11147,11 12, 1870.

THE EXPLOSION AT
BIRMINGHAM.

the emergency of the case, and every one in the establish-
ment lent their aid. The Weekly Board was sitting when
the news of the disaster reached the Hospital, and all
the gentlemen immediately. volunteered their active help.'
Even amidst this terrible distress there were some re-
deeming features, and it is mentioned as a touching fact
that the elder sufferers suppressed their feelings as
much as possible that the younger victims might be
first attended to. " Give me some water," was the
pitiful cry which resounded on all sides, and was
of course answered with all possible speed, but the cry
becanie a shriek if not immediately attended to. A list
of the injured lying at the hospital has been given, but in
very many cases recovery is thought almost hopeless, and
several deaths have occurred since the list was pub-
lished. Mr. Ludlow has intimated to the authorities
at the General Hospital that the charity will not
suffer any loss from' the result of this lament-
able accident. He asks that the sufferers should
receive every attention, as the firm will willingly repay
the Hospital for all the expenses it may incur. It seems
that the demand for ammunition has lately been so great
that the manufacturers have had to employ inexperienced
hands to complete their orders. This may, perhaps,
explain the quick succession of these disasters, but the
,explosion at Messrs. Ludlow's has the melancholy pre-
eminence of being the most disastrous that has ever
occurred in Birmingham.

The full details of the appalling catastrophe at Bir-
mingham prove that the first hurried report of the disaster
rather underestimated than exaggerated it. The
ammunition manufactory of Messrs. Ludlow, in
which -the explosion took place, was situated
to the left of Witton-lane, close by the works
of Messrs. Kynoch, where a fatal explosion took place
scarcely three weeks ago. These dangerous works are
chiefly carried on outside the borough, and Messrs. Lndlow
had erected eighteen or twenty sheds, in which 400 per-
sons, chiefly women and girls, were employed, under the
direction of foremen. On Friday morning the workpeople
assembled as usual, and some twenty-four entered the
Enfield loading shop, as it is called, in which the preps:
ration of the bnlletted cartridges for immediate use, the
most dangerous part of the work, is carried on. All went
on quietly, until about twenty minutes to one, when it '
seems from the general report, the girls and women
gathered round the stove for dinner, and one of them in
warming her food, set her apronain fire. Panic stricken,
she rushed to the door, but before she could reach it some
loose powder ignited, and the mischief was done.
The explosion is described by those who heard it as one of
a most terrific character. The concussion not only anni-
hilated the sheds at Messrs. Ludlow's works, but broke
the windows in the houses in the surrounding neighbour-
hood, scattering over the neighbouring fields thousands of
explodedcartridges, the dresses of the unfortunate work-
women, and the debris of the wooden structures them-
selvesa. How many successive explosions there were
it is difficult to say; but two or three
of equal violence are positively mentioned. The unfortu-
nate Enfield shop burst out with the first into a sheet of
flame, and as its burning fcaginents were hurled far and
wide, another and another shed exploded. From the
Enfield shop no screams were heard to issue after
the explosion, but in the second shed, from
amidst the fire and the falling timber, and ammuni- '
tion boxes, cries of agony were heard. These were
drowned in the third explosion, which was, however, less
severe than the other two, andefar less destructive. The
injured cried for help from these two sheds, many of '
them begging piteously for water. In the second shed—
the one nearest to the Enfield shop—the manufacture of
light cartridges is carried on, and of course there was not
near so much gunpowder here as in its neighbour.
But there must • have been enough when it was
fired to inflict great injury, for it was from
here that many of the worst cases were carried. The
injuries inflicted were terrible in the extreme, and it is
doubtful if any of the eighteen dead lying at Witton will
be identified. For this reason the crowds of eager and
anxious friends and relations of those employed at the
manufactory were not allowed to see the dead, and a watch
was kept over the remains. As soon as a dead body was
rescued from the burning Enfield shed it was at once
covered up and carried off and deposited on a counter,
hastily constructed for the purpose. Wonderful ro relate,
some of the women and girls succeded in escaping
with their lives. Almost simultaneously with the shock,
a number of women, half naked, bleeding, and burnt,
were seen to run from the priming shed towards
the road ; many of them before they reached the gate
leading from the field, fell down from utter exhaustion ;
others ran shrieking down the lane, until they were able
to take shelter. Blinded, with the hair burnt from the
head, and the clothes from the back, with bleeding limbs
and weak uncertain steps, the poor creatures made their
way with what speed they could from the fatal
field, end fell moaning in the road. Then there was
no lack of hospitable householders to take compassion on
them, to carry them into the houses, and to mitigate their
sufferings if possible. As is usual on such painful occa-
gone, everything that could be done by the uninjured to
relieve the sufferings of the less fortunate was done. When
the explosion first took place everyone was paralysed with
terror, and it seemed impossible to know what to do.
The unhappy workpeople and the wrecks of the sheds
Were blown about the field, and in three distinct places
sheetsof flame were.raging. The anxious assistants rushed
forward to help, and found that a mass of smoke flung
from a burning shed represented the body of a woman,
but who it was no human eye could discover. The aid of
the Birmingham Fire Brigade was soon at hand, and after
great efforts the fire' was subdued, but the worst
of the work was to come. A resident at Birmingham
says.—" The shed In which the fire first originated was so
terribly shattered that it was as good as levelled with the
ground, and in the course of the afternoon it was utterly
demolished. Most of those in this shed were
killed The second, only a few yards away, pre-
sented exactly the same appearance as a railway carriage
which we •remember having seen dragged out of
the fire at the Abergele railway accident— a mere charred
shell with gaping holes burnt in it on all sides. How
any one of those under the roof of the second shed es-
caped with evan a lingering life seems a mystery. The
third shop, although not so much charred, is-also in a
state of ruin, and in it were found many women badly
bruised, shaken, and' somewhat injured by. fire."
Everything along the benches and in the frames was
singed or burnt. Thousands of cartridges, which were
either fillet with powder or just being filled, had all gone
off, and the bullets and the cases were only left. By the
place where one poor woman met her death was her muff
and umbrella, both left here a very few minutes before,
never to be picked up again by the owner's hands, the
first singed very much by the fire, and the umbrella
broken, evidently by the force of the explosion.
Little bits of personal ornaments, which had been care-
kfully put on one side during the working hours, were
strewn about in one corner, mingling with the deadly
material which had been instrumental in causing the
death of the wearers. In another place a bonnet
with a gay flower or two in it protruded throiigh,
a gash in one of the sheds where s'ina,3 dozen
young women had been at work, but who are
now numbered among the dead.. In some instances the
women were so frightfully injured that, on the arrival at
the hospital, their clothes dropped off, and blankets had
to be provided to wrap them in before they could be car-
ried into the hospital. The report of the explosion was
heard several miles off, although the snow waafalling fast
at the time, which would naturally deaden the sound. At
first it was thought that the catastrophe, which was
known to be in the direction of Witton, had.
occurred at Messrs. Kynoch's, the scene of the
late disaster, and the relations of those employed
at their works were in agonies of suspense. The
men employed at that factory were, it may be mentioned,
among the first to give help. The Birmingham papers
were eagerly sought after, and hundreds of the working
classes set off for Witton to learn the fate of their friends
and relatives. Very often their exertions were in vain.
Some of them were admitted to see the dead, but identi-
fication was hopeless. One of the local journals writing
on Friday says "Most of the killed and injured are girls,
and for hours hundreds of persons were clamouring in
the utmost state of anxiety to be admitted to the hospital.
to see the dead, to discover if their children were amongst
them. This, however, was resolutely refused, and indeed the
killed are so frightfully mangled and torn to pieces that
recognition is almost impossible. The heads and limbs of
several were completely blown off from the trunks of
their bodies, and the scalp of one was found at a distance
of thirty yards from the place where lay the head to which
it belonged. Shirts, petticoats, and fragments of stays,
were found dissevered from the bodies -Which they had
clothed. At present the authorities, probably because
they cannot do. so with any degree of accuracy,
refuse to give the names of the killed. The work
of identification cannot be completed until Saturday."
The traffic in front of the hospital was completely stopped
by the crowd. At about two o'clock a written announce-
ment was placed on the outside door of the building,
stating that friends of the sufferers would be admitted to
the institution at five o'clock, and as this information was '
circulated crowds of people clung to the doors
of the building with the greatest anxiety.
At about three o'clock the names of the suf-
. fereis from the explosion were posted upon the
entrance door of the Hospital, and as the anxious reader
observed the name of some dear friend, the weeping and
sobbing outside were only equalled in distress by the
appalling
sight within. At five o'clock, when the suffer-
ings of the patients had been as far as possible relieved by
the surgeons, the relatives were admitted, when another
agonising scene took place. Strong men, acquainted with
grief, and also women who could have stood affliction in any
other form, wept like young children as they stood by the
bedside of mother, wife, or sister, whose human image
had been almost destroyed. Women moaned and cried,
interrupted every now and then by the shrieks of the
wounded as their pangs grew greater. In truth, it was
r sight which' would unnerve the strongest mind. One
very affecting incident was that of an old man, whose
misfortune it was to have both his wife and his daughter
in the explosion. The poor creatures were so dreadfully
disfigured that the man was unable to distinguish between !
them, until the daughter, recognising. her parent, faltered
out "Father.". _

The resources of the Hospital are strained to the
utmost, as there are no less than 70 victims of the late four
explosions now inmates. No effort was spared to meet