The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-10 00:00:00

THE LATE EXPLOSION IN BIRMINGHAM:

BIRMINGHA Al, FRIDAY EVENING.
The adjourned inquest in reference to this disas-
ter was resumed this afternoon before Dr. Birt
Davis, the coroner for the borough. On this occa-
sion Mr. Edwin Wright, solicitor, attended to watch
the proceedings on behalf of a committee appointed
for the relief of the sufferers by the explosion. After
some further evidence as to the identity of one of
the bodies had been given, .
Mr. W. Pursall was recalled, and he stated in
reply to questions from the coroner and jury, that
during the process of priming a good deal of pow-
der got scattered about the drying plates. As
much as would be sufficient to prime four or five
plates probably was given out at once, and after
the holes were filled the surplus was brushed off
with a piece of card-board bound with chamois
leather, on to a sheet of paper placed in front of the
plate for the purpose of receiving it. The paper
was then lightly folded back and the powder upon
it was used for the next charge. The witness was
unable to say whether, in case an explosion of such
powder not upon the plate took place the plate
would be bent and the screw broken, but he in-
clined to the opinion that it would not. He be-
lieved that if the powder upon the plate exploded
the screws would be broken and that the plate
would curl up. Such small explosions did not
occur frequently. He did not remember more than
one having taken place upon their own premises.
Had known a few caps explode on the stove
in the priming shop. The drying stove was about
three feet square. The fire was inclosed in a fur-
nace underneath. The furnace had double doors.
The fire could not be large from the dimensions of
the fire-hole. It was closed up in froot. A block
containing the saps was placed in the stove upon
bars which ran across it, the lowest bar being about
8 inches from the bottom of the stove. In fact, the

stove was an oven, at the bottom of which was an
iron plate about the sixteenth of an inch thick.
The stove, he (witness) had every reason to believe,
was free from any imperfection or injury before the
explosion took place. The stove is in the ruins of
the premises, and is not much injured. The tem-
perature of the stove was not regulated by
thermometer but by the judgment of the
person who bad charge of it. The stove

would require to be red-17tt before the caps would
explode. As they lay upon bars, it would be
impossible for any amount of heat on the stove
to cause the caps to explode. If any caps fell to the
bottom of the stove they might go off in a given
time. He never knew more than one plate of caps
explode in this way. It occurred a month or two
back. The shock was very trifling. Witness did
not know any better way of drying caps than the
one which they practised. They went to a great
expense in obtaining an apparatus for drying caps
by steam, but it did not answer. The woman who
had charge of the stove said the caps did not dry
quick enough, and some complaints were made that
the work was not well done. They then returned
to the former method of drying, which was general
in the trade. This took place six months ago, when
the stove was newly erected. It had been the prac-
tice to leave the powder before spoken of as being
upon the paper upon the priming table while the
plate was being drawn—that is, slid over the hole
—to fill the caps. This powder would be three or
four yards from the stove, the chief bulk of the
powder being kept in a cupboard opposite the stove,
and at a distance from it of five or six yards. Wit-
ness did not think that the risk of accident would
be lessened if the surplus powder were returned to
the bulk each time of priming. Each plate occu-
pied about two minutes in priming. There were fre-
quent changes in the hands emplo'yed upon the pre-
mises, but the new hands were not admitted into
the priminr, shop. The witness did not remember
what was the object of his going into that shop just
before the explosion. The jar of fulminate which
he removed from the office after the explosion con-
tained four or five pounds. One pound of fulminate
woald be equal to three pounds of percussion pow-
der. Eacn block would contain about 2,000 caps,
or equal to one ounce of powder. The stove was
capable of holding 10 blocks, and was generally
kept full.

Mr. J. Phillips, jun., deposed that he went to the
premises in Whittall-street about 8 o'clock on the
morning of the 27th ult., and that he did not leave
the premises for more than a few minutes until the
explosion took place. He produced a statement
of the quantity of explosive materials upon the
premises at the time. There was no fulminate
of mercury in the priming shop, except what was
mixed in. the best priming powder, but a pot in the
office contained four pounds, which was not ex-
ploded, and was fetched away by Mr. Pursall after
the accident. Of best mixed powder there were
about seven pounds in the priming shop, six pounds
of which witness mixed that morning, about nine
o'clock, when no other person was present. A
pound and a half of this had probably been used in
the priming of best caps. Of common powder,
consisting of 16 parts of oxymuriate of potash, six
parts of glass, and four parts of sulphur, there were
two or three pounds in the priming shop. This was
being used at the time of the explosiontin priming
common caps. There were about 90 pounds of
oxymuriate of potash in a cask in the bottom shop,
which was not burnt. About six pounds of sul-
phur was in the priming shop, and about 14 pounds
ig the warehouse, which was not burnt. In the
priming shop, also, were about two gallons of me-
thylated spirits of wine and varnish. Another
cask containing about 40 gallons of the same com-
pound was in the bottom shop ; this was not burnt,
and was rolled out of the premises after the explo-
sion. In the warehouse were about 10 pounds of
gunpowder and about 3,000 or 4,000 cartridges,
each of which contained two and a-half drachms of
powder, giving about 10 pounds per thousand. The
quantity of caps in the warehouses was about a
million and a-half. The office contained about
4,000,000, which were partially exploded, but no
damage was done by them. There was no founda-
tion for the statement that there were severl barrels
of gun-powder upon the premises at the time of the
explosion. The stock of that article was kept in a
shed at Mr. Pursall's private residence outside the
town. When the explosion occurred witness was
walking from the office to the warehouse. Just as
he was leaving the former part of the ;remises he
heard a rumbling noise, but he could not say in
what direction, or what it was like. Ho was im-
mediately enveloped in darkness, and lost conscious-
ness, he believed, for a few seconds. He then
endeavoured to go to the press room, but found that
the warehouse floor had given way, and he thought
the place was in flames. He Hoarcely knew what