San Andreas independent., 1856-12-20
INrrRNAL MAcH1NE ExpIoDrD-On

INTERNAL MACHINE ExPLoDED.-On
Wednesday evening, about s o'clock, q
Quicksilver Bottle charged with eight
pounds of powder, exploded in Capt. Pope's
sitting room, with force that almost de-
molished the front of the building, tearing
out the chimney, breaking up the furni-
ture and setting fire to the papered walls
and canvas ceiling At the time of the
explosion, the Captain Che being the only
occupant of the building) was sitting in a
chair near the fireplace whence the ex-
plosion came, yet, through the mercy of a
protecting Providence, he escaped by re-
ceiving only a slight injury. We were
among the first to visit the scene, and saw
the Captain powder-marked and bleeding,
from the clay of the chimney having blown
into his face; Are you hurt we in
quired. "No," said the Captain, "but the
darned thing knocked me over !" After
light was brought, the extent of the dan
ger might be seen in the amount of dam
age done. The chair in which the Cap
tain had been sitting was broken to pieces !;
near by it on the floor was the fattened-
out proportions Of the quicksilver jar,
which was seething hot, and bore positive
evidences of toughness of the material of
which it was made The bottom of the
flask was found shot across the street into
stanchion on the first floor of the second
room of Main Street Hotel, leaving an
indentation of three-fourths of an inch of
its broad-side proportions, in the hard
wood; in its course, this projectile, had
taken the leg off of the chair in which
Capt. Pope was sitting, went through the
door, crossing the yard and the street,
through window and room, ripping a
half proportion of its size out of the top
casing OF an inner door, crossing the room
to where it struck the stanchion. Di-
rectly opposite where the piece of iron
struck the stanchion, the proprietor of the
Hotel and another man were washing
dishes, and had it not glanced from the
thick decreasing it would have struck the
partition, going through, would have killed
one or both of them
The powder got into the quicksilver jar
in this manner: On last 4th of July four
jars were charged with eight pounds of
powder each, to celebrate the day, but
three were exploded fourth was miss
ing; no further notice was taken of the
matter, until after this explosion. Capt.
Pope, had one quicksilver bottle for hand
iron on the day of the accident, in pass
ing through back lot he found another
one which he put in the other chimney cor
nerto make pair, built good fire, and sat
down before it, to read the Atlantic news.
which had just arrived by the Sonora as
soon as the iron got heated, of course the
explosion took place, and the darned thing
only knocked him over." leaving few
powder marks and clay scratches on his
face. The noise of the explosion was as
loud as the heaviest artillery, and the shock
so severe as to jar Mr.. Corcoran's large
stone building, adjoining, to its very base.
We hope the Captain is satisfied with
the specific gravity, tcnacity, tension, ira
verse strain, compressibility and other prop
critics of wrought-iron bottle. No more
parlor experiments, if you please, Mr..
Pope, unlessit be with a champagne bottle,
charged with non-resistant explosives.