The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-02
CITY INTELLIGENCE.
EFor Additional Loca. items see rim Paqe.l


VERDICT ON THE CAUSE OF THE "YEw-
DALLn EXPLOSION. - The jury summoned by
Coroner Taylor to investigate into the cause OF
the explosion OF the steam boiler at the 4ewdall
mills, in Hestonville, West Philadelphia, rem
dercd the following verdict last evening"
lst. Plan of boiler good, providing the same
was made of good IRON, and OF proper thickness
in proportion to size OF said boiler.
I'd. The iron of said boiler proves to be of good
quality.
3d. On examination of thickness of the iron
used in the construction Of said boiler the shells
prove to be only scant quarter inch iron; IN our
opinion it should have been hve.sl8teenths in
thickness; the beads and tube sheets prove to
be only three eighths OF an iuch in thickness,
and should have been at least half an inch IN
thickness,
4. II appears from the evidence produced
before your jury that this boiler had little or
no attention paid to 1t, as regards cleaning or
removing the scale deposit except twice dur
ing the year, at which time it was merely
opened and scraped out, and never while in
operation was the blow-otf cock used to free the
boiler OF mud or loose deposit.
8. The immediate cause of said explosion,
from evidence produced and observation by
your jury, is as folio Ws:-Said boiler had been
oNerw worked, and that with heavy pressure. On
stopping the engine at ~ o'clock without draw
ing the ire, the pressure in the boiler was neces-
sarilv IT, creased ip this case with more than
usual rapidiiy from the low stage of water. The
strength of the iron was much lessened Tor the
same reason (oVcrheating), and the explosion
look place from these causes, or perhaps 10y the
injection of water from the donkey.pump
(turned on after the engine was stopped) on the
Overheated iron,
6. From the evidence produced, the boiler was
very hot-s0 much So that many of the tubes
were heated to red heat; and this is clearly
proven from the fact that the scale on the boiler
was thoroughly charred even so much so that
it became perfectly black, as though burnt in u
fire.
Z. In the estimation of your jury we cannot
but censure the managers OF said mill for here
tofore employing incompetent hands to take
charge OF their engine and boiler, as was clearly
proven in the evidence; that at different times
they have employed different men entirely in
competent, as was proven on examination of
one man, who admitted his incompetency before
this jury, and stated that he had full charge
from four to seven days at one Iime during the
absence OF the regular engineer.
In conclusion, we hereby submit the following
as our verdict:-This Jury find that the said
Robert Hamilton, Catharine Carney, and Annie
Given came to their death by an explosion of
steam boiler at Yewdall's mills in Hestonville,
on the 26th day of July, 1S66-said explosion
having been caused (as the Jury are fully salts
fed from the evidence, as we'll as from
thorough eXamination) by gross carelessness in
the management Of said boiler by incompetent
hands, by overheating, causing low water and
high pressure of steam. Signed H. B. Lyons,
II. l.. Wolf, H. H. Kelley, j. @. Lees, S. Will.
hanson, and James M. Fletcher.