The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-02 00:00:00

THE NITRO-GLYCERINE EXPLOSION.

Some details are published of the singular but terrible
nitro-glycerine explosion which we announced yesterday.
It seems that four tons of nitro-glycerine formed part
of a cargo from Hamburg (Messrs. Noble and Co.) to
Carnarvon, consigned to Messrs. D. E. Winton and
Co., for Messrs. Webb and Cragg, Glynmonwy Slate
Quarry, Llanberis, sole agents in Carnarvonshire
for nitro-glycerine, used instead of ordinary pow-
der for blasting rocks. The ship was moored in
the river Menai ; and a portion of the explosive oil
having been placed in the I.landdwyn magazine, the
rest was brought in lighters and placed on the quay
in Carnarvon. About one o'clock noon, the hour
appointed to cart that portion of the quarries, some of
the vehicles did not arrive ; and after some hours delay
the two carters wLo have been killed undertook to remove
a portion of the nitro-glycerine. These carts left about
four p.m. Wednesday for Glynmonwy Quarry, one of
the numerous quarries lately opened on the south aspect
of the Vale of Llanberis, and at the foot of Snow-
don. A portion of the nitro-glycerine was to be
removed on Thursday to the Donovure quarry.
As for the other three carts, these were left for
the night in a closed coach-house, near Bodrual
Gate, within a mile of Carnarvon, it being too late to
remove it to the Penrhyn slate quarries. These are now
in the custody of the police. Returning to the two
carts which caused the accident, it appears that both
were in company, and were noticed within a few yards
of each other a few seconds before the explosion. The
exact spot where the accident took place is where the
diversion of a new road, lately made by the Llanberis
and Carnarvon Railway, joins the old road, about 400
yards beyond the centre of Cwm-y-glo village, five miles
and a half from Carnarvon, and :300 yards from Pont
Rhyddallt, the bridge that spans the narrow water
uniting the upper and lower lakes of Llanberis. At
the time the accident took place, the quarrymen were
returning along the road from their occupations to
Cwm-y-glo village, and on a sudden, with no kind of
warning, those quarrymen in front of the carts and those
behind heard one long continuous explosion of terrific
noise. This spot being surrounded by huge mountains on
three sides, the echo of the first explosion reverbe-
rated several times, as some of those who witnessed the
accident informed us, and one mountain seemed to
throw the noise with quick successive strokes from one
side of the valley to the other over the lakes. The two
lakes, especially the lower, were all at once greatly agi-
tated, and rolled in mighty waves from north to south.
Clouds of dust, stones, portions of the carts, and the walls
around for two roods were either thrown to a great height
or cast longitudinally into the morassor on the rocks adja-
cent. A third of the circumference of a street was thrown
fifty yards high, and fell near a cottager's garden on the
sides of a rocky hill three hundred yards off. Portions of
flesh, bones (either human or those of the horses)
were collected indiscriminately from a radius of
fifty yards and placed in cloths. A foot, a
chin covered with beard, and a man's heart were
found together about eight yards from the spot. The
Cwm-y-glo Railway Station— the nearest building to the
scene of the accident—an inn lately finished close by, and
several unfinished houses a little further, as well as a
chapel, present a desolate sight. Roofs nearest the acci-
dent are pierced through by falling stones into network.
Window frames are blown in and destroyed. The massive
doors of the goods depot of the railway station are shat-
tered. Windows all round within a radius of two miles
present marks of the explosion. Scores of men were
thrown down. Seven men, as we have already stated, are
known to have been killed. A leg and, in two other
instances, arms have already been amputated ; and two
boys, Owen John Roberts and Griffith Pritchard (the
latter the son of a blind man), have suffered internal
injuries by being thrown clown. The greatest distress
exists ; and even on Thursday morning the police were
engaged in walking the neighbourhood of the accident,
picking up very small portions of flesh and bone.
Such was the terrible power of the oil, that the spot
where the cart was supposed to have been at the time of
the accident is marked by two deep, perfectly circular
holes, of the same size, each measuring 7ft. Gin. in dia-
meter, 7ft. deep, and a horse length apart. The stones
appear to have been subjected to a terrible rotatory
motion, and the holes are in the shape of an inverted cone.
Our correspondent, who was at the time of the accident
sitting at a friend's table at Bangor, ten miles off, expe-
rienced a slight shock and rustling of windows at five
minutes before six, about the minute fixed by those that
witnessed the accident. The shock was experienced more
or less for many miles around.
Au inquest on the bodies was held yesterday, and a
verdict of accidental death returned.

A telegram is published to the effect that the
Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway was opened on Thursday.

NEW HOSPITAL AT HANWELL.—A now hospital
at Ilanwell, founded by the Baroness Weld, was solemnly
opened and blessed by Archbishop Manning on Thursday
afternoon. The ceremony commenced with a procession,
which marched through the grounds to the hospital, when
the building was blessed and formally opened. The pro•
cession then entered the adjoining church, where the
Archbishop made an appeal in behalf of the new institu-
tion. The hospital is 49ft. long by 27ft. wide, Mr. Welby
I'ugiu being the architect. There were present on the
occasion a large number of priests and of the Roman
Catholic Aristocracy,