The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-27 00:00:00

THE LATE ACCIDENT.

The following !questa were held yesterday at St. Thomas's
Hospital, before Thos. Shelton, Esq., on the bodies of two of
the unhappy persons whose dentin; were occasioned by the late
melancholy accident at Mr. Mendslay's factory. The first case
entered into was that of Samuel Booth.

Mr. Thos. Hall, Three-cottage-place, Francii-street, Lambeth,
carpenter, stated that on Wednesday lest about le o'clock, the de-
ceased was at work as a smith, at the top of the building, erecting
on Mr. Mandelay'e factory for steam-engines, in the Westminster.
road; he was in the act of chipping a piece of the cast-iron roof,
when it fell in from a heighth of 34 feet, and the deceased with
it. In the coninsiod that ensued the witness does not recollect
seeing more of him, till he was brought to the Hospital. Witness
was superintending on the building, and considered the accident
occasioned by the metal' of which the roof was made not being
properly composed as to material, the metal being east from the
ore instead of front the, pig, and was too new.
Juror—Do you consider the wall sufficient to bear the roof
consider the accident occasioned by the iron breaking, through its
imperfections, and not from ita weight ou the wall : the roof fail-
ing inwards, the upper parts of the wall were forced out by the
pressure on the beams ono rafters. Iron roofs are but little heavier
than wood. The district surveyor attended, and considered the
walls perfectly safe.

The same Wittiest then deposed in thu case of Edmund Lea,
whom he stated to have been a labourer employed, at the time of
the accident, in filling bags of shavings for the me of the men
►working upon the roof, to deaden the sound of the chipping of
the iron, and was beneath it, on the ground•tloor, when it fell in;
he saw him an hour and a half afterwards in the hospital.
Dlr. Thomas Maudelay, engineer, gave iimilar evidence, ►with
the addition that he saw both the deceased persons immediately
after the accident, and assisted iu removing the iron end boards
that had fallen on them, and conveying them to the hospital,..
The iron of the roof was cast in Staffordshire, in a blast furnace;
it was of the weight of 50 tons; has known iron roofs lighter
than wooden ones ; he considers the accident occasioned by the
improper casting of the iron, and not from any misconstruction
of the walls.

Mr. T. H. Fowke, dresser to the hospital, yaw the deceased,
Samuel Booth, when brought in; be was in a dying state, and
expired within a few 'ninnies; examined the lima since ; the
base of his skull was fractured, which was the cause of his death.
Mr. Joseph Ricks attended Edmund Lee, on being brought in.
His right thigh was fractured, as were several of his ribs on the
same side; he complained of a pain in his back ; two of the prin-
cipal surgeons taw him, and every attention was paid ; he died
at half past two this morning, of the hurts he received.

A discussion of some length took place on the propriety of
lorpeasunpiug; tah:tebo(ll,llies without
t:.by
yththe
e Coroncoernse., notheeorfrathrieourla
iethtawtesitt wwhiush. a
question not belonging to the Jury, their province king out to the
muse of death alone. It was for the discretion of others, and he
had no doubt the superintendents of the hospitals considered the
course requisite for the emh of the inquiry. The Coroner then
summed lip, and the Jury, after an absence of five minutes, re-
turned verdicts in both cases"--" That the detested met their
deaths by the falling of a roof, but what occasioned its fall is not
known; and a daotUnd of b."