The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-15 00:00:00

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I" EXPLOSION OF CHEMICAL
VAL
W ORKS.
BIANcnEsTER, FEB. 14.—This morning a very shocking
and fatal explosion took place in Springfield-lane, Salford, by
which Ur. J. Wainwright Hodgetts, a manufacturing che-
mist, whose attainments had secured him a somewhat ho-
nourable name in the scientific world, was killed, and another
man very seriously injured. The works in Springfield-lane
belong to Mr. Stephen White,
inventor and patentee of a new
description of gas from naptha and water, called hydro-
carbon gas. The gas works are situate at Southport, but the
residuum obtained in the manufacture, which till recently had
been sold as waste, had been discovered to be capable of
very profitable employment, three products being obtained
from it, consisting of a highly purified gas, a superior quality
of turpentine, and a description of oil. The Springfield-lane
works have been established for the purpose of converting
this residuum into these valuable products, and had been in
operation only four days, under the management and direc-
tion of Mr. Hodgetts. These works consisted of a shed in
which were three retorts or purifiers, heated by furnaces
having cisterns connected with them by means of copper
pipes. Mr. Hodgetts was engaged at half-past nine o'clock
this morning in inspecting the operation at one of the re-
torts, when the mass of combustible materials suddenly ex-
ploded, and threw his body to a distance of fifteen or sixteen
yards; a portion of the naptha, which burst instantly into
flames, striking him in the face and frightfully burning and
disfiguring him. the burning materials destroyed part of
the roof of the shed, and the other two retorts were also set
on fire and exploded. A labourer, named Francis Gal-
lagban, was the first person who went to the assistance
of Mr. Hodgetts, and he succeeded in extinguishing the
fire, which
,had taken hold of his clothes, but the un-
fortunate gentleman was quite dead, his face, chest, and
lower extremities, being nearly reduced to a cinder. A
man named William Howarth, who was at one of the other
retorts, was so badly burnt about the shoulders and one
arm, that it was found necessary to remove him to the
Royal Infirmary, where he now lies in a dangerous state.
The mass of naptha in the retorts burst into flame, and set
fire to the building, and though Mr. Stephen Neale, chief
constable of Salford, brought two fire-engines into play as
quickly as possible upon the premises, they were found to be
almost useless, the only means of extinguishing the flames
from the naptha being by filling up the retorts with sand,
bricks, and other materials, which were thrown upon the
fiercely-burning fire by labourers, under the direction of
workmen well acquainted with the nature of the material.
The flames had approached, at the time of their extinction,
very nearly to a reserve tank containing 400 gallons of nap-
tha, which would probably have produced still more disas-
trous consequences to the neighbourhood had it taken fire.
The explosion is supposed to have resulted from a leakage in
the copper pipe connecting the .etort with the receiving pan,
which in some way ignited, and communicated with the con-
tents of the retort. A coroner's inquiry into the cause of the
accident is to take place this afternoon.

AN ELOPEMENT.
Your readers will turn from this ;painful topic with more
interest to an affair of a less distressing character—viz., " an
affair of the heart," the worst result of which it is hoped will
lead to nothing more dreadful than matrimony, as the
" happy pair" have so completely baffled pursuit. As the
lady is possessed of a fair share of personal charms, is accem_
pushed, and only eighteen years of age; aed as the gentle-
man is a son of Mars, and holds a lieutenant's commission in
one of her Majesty's regiments of the line, the matter is sure
to excite an interest with your fair readers, and I therefore
give the leading particulars which have transpired. Miss T.
is the daughter of a highly respectable merchant in the Man-
chester trade, and Lieutenant M'D— came into this neigh-
bourhood some months ago on the recruiting service. An
introduction having taken place, the parties formed an attach-
ment, which led to an attempt some weeks since to pay a
visit to Gretna. The lady had attended church at the
church of the Rev. Hugh Stowell on Sunday afternoon, along
with her maid, and succeeedcd in giving papa the slip, and
both of them entered a vehicle, with which the gallant
lieutenant was waiting. They were driven to Bolton, in-
tending to take the railway train to Carlisle, but an unto-
ward event marred the whole plot. The lieutenant's ser-
vant was seen taking a heavy carpet bag in the direction of
the rendezvous at Salford, when a policeman suspecting that
he had committed a robbery, took him into custody, and
sufficient knowledge of the matter got to the lady's father°
through the disclosures which the servant was compelled
to make, to put him sooner than was expected on the
track of the fugitives. He drove immediately over to Bol-
ton, a distance of ten miles, and learnt that he had
started. An involuntary exclamation of disappointment,
in which he mentioned his " poor daughter," however, led
to the discovery that his pursuit had resulted in some-
thing nearer to success than he had expected A per-
son whose heart had been touched on hearing there was "a
lady in the case," told him that a lady who had also been
too late for a railway train was at a neighbouring hotel, and
thither he went and had his child restored to him. It ap-
pears the lovers had arrived only two minutes too late for
the train. The lady was placed under strict surveillance,
and means were taken to put a restraint on the movements
of the gentleman. Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington
was written to, and the result was that the lieutenant and a
brother officer, who had given some aid in the matter, were
ordered forthwith to join their regiments. Notwith-
standing the watchful eye which Miss T's friends have
kept upon her movements since this event, it appears
that faithful to her first impulse, she has again escaped the
cage. Yesterday morning she went " a-shopping' in the
town with a female friend, and so successfully gave her the
slip, that up to this evening not the siightest clue to the
direction of her flight has been obtained. There is reason to
fear that a knot has been tied ere this which is not to be
untied, though "father and mother, and a' should go mad."
Inquiries have been made in all directions, but pursuit was
out of the question, because the direction of the flight has
not been ascertained.—Daily News.