The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-07-20
THE LANGLEY DISASTER.
FURTHER. PARTICULARS OF TIL
BREAKING OF THE DAMS.
The Extent of the Damage to the Lang
ley and Bath Mills.

BREAKING OF THE DAMS.
The Extent of the Damage to the Lang
ley and Bath Mills.
The Augusta Chronicle Of yesterday brings
us the following additional details of the dis
aster at Langley and the Bath Paper Mills, by
which two most hourishing manufacturing en-
terprlses have been badly damaged:
On Tuesday morning, about s O'Clock, the
immense dam at the Langley Cotton Factory
z, broke, and the contents Of pond OF wafer.
| covering some Elk hundred acres, sWept away
| This enormous quantity of water was preclpl-
tated into the pond of the Bath Paper Manu-
factory, and the dam there was unable to
stand the pressure, and went down ID lew
minutes. The combined waters of the Two
ponds then swept onward, until they reached
| the track of the South Carolina Railroad, near
| Horse Creek, where half q mile OF trestle
work and embankment were undermined anu
destroyed.
This is the whole of the sad story in few
lines. The details of the occurrence are hard
| to Obtain owing to the latenesS or the nour at
which it happened and the distance OF the
| manufactures from the city. After dillgent
inquiry, however, we have been able to sasner
the following
of the affair, which may be relied upon as cor.
rect. The breaking of the dam at the Lang
lev Factory was not the result OF the heavy
rains which have fallen for the past week IN
this vicinity. The rain raised the water IN the
pond but very little-so little that 1t was not
noticed by the officers of the factory. On
last Monday afternoon, the operatives nntsneo
their labors at the usual hour, and lett tne
building tor their homes, little thinking That
m q q
pen which would leave them for months WITH.
out employment Later, the superintendent
of the mandatory walked over the Dam
along Its entire length, and found no cause Ior
alarm The top OF the dam was four or nVe
feet above the water, and everything looked
perfectly tight and strong. About O'CLOCK
yesterday morning, the night
WATERMAN MADE HIS USUAL ROUNDS,
over the building and premises, but we pre-
sumo more anXiousy look ig for hre than
water. He extended his walk along the dam
from one end TO the other, and like Mr.. Foster
found nothing wrong. The water had not
risen in the pond at oil, and the top OF The dam
was still high above the surface. The water
was falling over the tumbling dam, but In no
unusual quantity. In the waste way tnere
was not exceeding an Inch and half OF wafer.
The watchman, satisfied that all is well, re-
traces his steps and enters the factory. Every
thing Is still around him. He hears nothing,
until two hours later there comes sound as
Of s.,
THE RUsH OF MANY WATERS,
and looking forth, hastily anu afftighted, he
sees the dam broken near the middle OF the
structure, and an enormous volume OF water
rushing through the aperture: In an lncredi.
BILE short space of time more than ons-third of
the dam was destroyed. wall OF earth,
about four hundred yards long, eighty feet
thick OF the base, and eighteen feet thick at
the sumn1lt-a wall which had been the work
of many months and many laborers-had
crumbled away at the advance of the water
like frost-work before the beams OF O MONDAY
sun.
WHAT CAUSED THE DAN ACCIDENT
is question which no man has yet been able
to answer positively. There are OF course
several theories, but who shall say in which
one consists the solution of the mystery? It Is
evident that The dam was not broken at first
by water flowing over the top OF the structurei
and 1t Ia equally evident that 1t must nave
been broken near the base or centre One OF
the most plausible opinions advanced Is that q
certain portion of the dam vas built over o
quicksand, and that during. the night t4sre psTs
must have been land slide in tire .,c,, .en
afforded IN sperJurc-tothrw water, Wnlcn SOUL
made itself master OF the situation. Unlorlu'
pately when the demollshment OF the dam was
completed the destruction there, great as IL
1icted.
THE PAPER MILL AT BATH
was to come In for large share also. The
upper extremity of the pond OF the paper
manufactory is in q very short distance of the
dam of the Langley factory. When the dam
burst, as above described, the contents OF the
enormous basin-coyerlng slH hundred acres OF
oround-was discharged with fearful rapldity
into The pond of the paper mill, itself very
aS 1nnYnpntpd andt-
tIo1 To its waters caused them to rise with
great swiftness and brought a tremendous
pressure to bear on the dam Of the paper
mill. The dam was not able to stand the pres
sure, and went down in q few minutes, ana
the
COMBINED WATERS OF THE TWO PONDS
swept on down the valley OF Horse Creek with
q violence which was simply irresistible. A
short distance from the paper MILL runs the
track of The South Carolina Railroad, consist
ing, for nearly halt mile, Of trestle-Work
and embankment, and the
NEXT TO SUFFER WAS THE RAILROAD.
The water rapidly undermined both trestle
and embankment, and nearly half mile OF
cjdent took no lives, but 1t came fearfully near
taking great many At three o'clock yester-
day morning the through fast passenger train
left this city for Wilmington. 1t passed over
the trestle and embankmeut just before the
water reached them, and q snort time after
the passage Of the train the track was washed
away.
THE DAMAGE
done to all parties is estimated at about forty
thousand dollars.
The Langley Factory has lost between tWen-
ty and twenty-five thousand dollars by the
breakage OF the dam. But the heaviest dam.
age will be found in the time In which 1t Will
take to complete repairs. It will be four
months before the factory can be placed In
running order again, aud during this time
fully two hundred operatives will be thrown
out OF employment. The factory commenced
work only about two months ago, aud this
early suspension Is universally regretted.
II Is estimated that the paper mill will have
to expend about fifteen thousand dollars in re-.
pairing the dam, and good many hands will
be lett without employment.
The damage to the railroad was compara-
lively triting. During yesterday the trains
came to this city on the track of the Charlotte,
Columbia and Augusta Railroad from Gran
ittvllle, only one oil them-the up night pas
senger train from Misunderstanding be.
hind time. A large force of hands was EN-.
ployed there all day, and by last night the
track had all been relaid.
4LL 4BOUT THE SITE.