Star.
London, England, 1826-05-27 00:00:00

FATAL ACCIDENT AT MR. MAUD SLAY'S

FACTORY.

CORONIRS' JNQUISTS.
Yesterday, a highly respectable Jury assembled at the
Farm House Public-hetue, Burdett-street, Lambeth, on
the body of William Glnver,who was unfortunately killed
on Wednesday, while cleaning knives, in consequence of
the adjoining factory falling, belonging to Mr. Maud -lay,
the cog neer, oppos;tl the Asylum: L unbetb.
The Coroner, RICHARD CARTRR, Esq. having sworn
in the Jury, they procreded to view the body of the
deceased, which was lying in a back room of Mr.
Field's. The body presented an appalling appearance.
Having taken a view of th.! body, they went into the
Factory, and minutely examined the premises.
Isaac Sampson deposed, that he knew the deceased
personally, who was footman to Mr. Field. About halt-
past 11 o'clock onWednesday morning, wit Hess heal d a
rumbling noise, when lie was sitting in the back parlour,
writing, in Oakley-street, Lambeth. He thought the
noise must have proceeded from an earthquake, it was
so lou 1. He jumped op and ran into the street. when
he was told that Mr. Maudslay's facto' y had fallen. He
then ran to the corner cf Burde:t-street, when he saw
several m n carried out on shutters. He was so shocked
at the sight that he was ret.rning home, but in passing
Mr. Field's door, some person in the Louse requested
him to assist in removing a poor man (the deceased)
from under the ruins of the wash house, which had been
struck down by the factory falling. Witness, with seve-
ral others, assisted to search for the deceased. It was
49 minutes before they found him. They first beheld
his hands under the ruins, but were some time before
they could take away the rubbish which was upon the
b.dy. The deceased was quite dead. He was severely
wounded on the head, and his leg appeared to be frac-
tured. His body too was much mutilated. They re-
moved the deceased into Mr. Field's back kitchen. Mr.
Foster, the surgeon, presently arrived, and desired the
deceased to be covered with a sheet, for he was dead,
and had been some time. The weight of bricks and
iron upon the deceased must have been three tons.
Henry Williams, a porter, residing at No.ll, Oakley
Street, assisted in removing the ruins from the deceased,
who was found lying on his face, and seemed as th ,ugh
he had been knocked down by a piece of timber, which
was on his head.

Mary Ann Cade, a servant of Mr. Field's, and who
was attached to the deceased, was next examined. She
was much affected on entering the room, and was in-
dulged with a seat. Sie said, about ten minutes before
the accident happened, she was talking with the deceased
in the back kitchen; some of the family, she under-
stood, saw him go into the wash-house; she was up
stairs when the roof of the building fell in. Mrs. New-
ton, a relation of witness's mistress, saw the deceased
enter the wash-house, and she told witness, on the latter
coming down stairs, that she was afraid poor William
was killed. When the men were searching for the de-
ceased, she saw fps arm extended out of the ruins:, and
fainted away. She was carried out of the wash-house,
and knew not what happened for some time. She did
n••t hear any cracking before the tremendous crash,
which laid the place in ruins.
Mr. Fall, one of the Jury men, said, that the proximate
cause of the deceased's death was pet fectly obvious from
the evidence already produced ; but as to the real cause,
viz. the condition of the building, with its materials, no-
thing had been offered, and he was exceed.ttgly anxious
to have some of the workmen examined on this head.

One of the Jurors thought that there was no necessity to go fur•
ther into the investigation.
_ _

Mr. Fall diffeied most materially with him, and said,
that if it could be shown that any negligence or c
ire-
lessness had been manifested in the erection of the build-
ing, which he was inclined to believe was the case, horn
the inspection of the premises lie to3k this morning,
then it might be the duty of the Jury to levy a deodand
on Mr. Maudslay ; and in that case, of course the sur-
veyor of the district would be liable to a penalty.
The CoaoNaa observed that be was willing to hear
whatever any gentleman might urge, but he very much
doubted whether any evidence affecting the conduct of
the surveyor could be heard.
It was agreed, after a sort discussion, to call the
foreman and ocher witnesses belonging to Mr. Maudsla y.
Thom is Hall en imined—l am employed in Mr.
Maudslay's works as foreman of the carpenters and
model-makers. Mr. Maudslay always superintended
his own work. 1 was employed in the erection of this
building. The roof was not finished at the time it

fell. Mi. Maudslay used to consult me on the building;
I knew perfe._tly well the four walls that stn round the
building in question; the wall next Burdett-street was
originally 14 inches in thickness; it has been standing
about ten years; some part of it has been taken down;
it w.is about 12 feet high; an addition of nine inches
was put to it. 1 proposed at the time to have the wall
taken down, but the master bricklayer, who is unfor-
tunately hurt, suggested that the additional wall of
nine inches would make it as strong as a new one.
This took place about a year ago. Mr. Trott is
the master builder. Ttie wall of nine inches was
tied into the other with brick and cement. The

footing was two feet. The wall was partly taken
down when it was heightened. The wall, when
erected, was 151 feet in length, and 21 feet in height.
.That part of the wall which went 15 feet high, and
which was next to Mr. Field's premises, was two bricks
thick. Ours was a first•rate building. For about ninety
feet along the call, there was a nine-inch wall bonded
into the long wall with three tier of wooden bonds.—
This bonding was to strengthen it. The breaks in the
wall were about twelve feet high. We considered that
the wall was perfectly secure. Something happened to
the middle of the roof, which caused the rafters to shove
away the walls. The weight of the roof was 50 tons,
le cwt. An iron roof is very little more in weight
than a wooden one. It may be thought an erroneous
opinion, but if any person will make a calculation he
will find this to betbe fact. A wood roof for the space
of the workshop woold not have weighed less than 55
tons. We bad tour or five pair of rafters, one of which
was broken. They weighed about eleven trundled weight
each. In a conversation with the Gentleman who
received the order, I heard Mr. Maudsl4y desire that
it should be strong. In making the patterns we al-
lowed something for the expansion of iron. In the
present case I allowed one inch in the span, for placing
the iron, which I conceived would have been sufficient.
I account tor the accident solely to the bad state of the
lion. Since the accident I hive eitaniined the broken
fragments of the materials. The roof gave way at the
columns where the bolts are inserted. The iron was
not of proper quality. lam decidedly of opinion that
if we had cast the iron at our works it would not have
given way. If the wall had first given way, the iron
work at the angles of the columns would have had
greater weight upon it, and, in that case, the roof would