Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-03-19
TERRIFIC EXPLOSION.
A Soap and Candle Factory sIOwR to Atoms
Loss Of Life.

CINCINNATI, March f8.-At half
past z O'Clock this afternoon fire
bellsrang from Liberty street and Cen
tral avenue; the sigma, mo fire, soon fol-
lowed. It was not long till the whole
city was shocked by the intelligence
OF one Of the most terrific boiler eX-
plosions ever experienced here; 0 r.
hapS In some respects the most re-
markable as well as most singular in
the history OF casualties. A battery of
two steam boilers in the soap and cam
die factory Of Woods & Conahan. &C.
cupying a large front at 698 Central
avenne had exploded with an un-
heard Of violence; in the factory there
were about eighty persons. Two of
these were horribly mangled and in
stantly killed, two slightly wounded,
and all the others escaped.
On Baymiller street, over half a
mile distant by map measurement in
an air liue, three little girls in a
front yard were jumping the rope, and
sixteen feet Of this boiler was hurled
all that distance over the house tops
upon their heads. Two of them were
killed instantly, and the third was
mOrtally wounded but is not yet dead.
This piece OF the boiler is a perfect
cylinder, sixteen feet four inches
long by tWenty-f0ur inches In
diameter, and weighs about one
tun. Persons who saw it say that
it looked like stove-pipe sailing in
the air just above the roofs. A party
Of ladies on York street, more than
half a mile north from where it
alighted saw 1t going, and say it re-
sembied board sailing in the air,
The front yard in which 1t alighted is
not more than eight feet deep, and is
enclosed by an iron railing fence, the
boiler landed in the yard parallel with
the fence, iniuring the railing but
slightly and tearing up the stone steps
to the doors. Further down the street
was about four feet more of the boiler |
with the head, and some of this Dor
ton was much torn.
The casualties at the factory where |
the explosion occurred we're the en- |
gineer, Barney Osthof1er, who had !
been employed In that capacity at |
this works for more than thirteen |
years. He was standing about twenty |
feet from from the boiler that expIod- |
ed, putting coal in the furnace of an
Bther battery, and was horribly mang-
led. He leaves a wife and five chill |
dren. Was German, and about fifty |
years old. James Unchrich, German,
about the same age, who attended
the tank, but was in the engine-rOom
at the time of the explosion, was torn
to pieces. He leaves a wife and five
children.
George Herringer employed in the
works was severely though not dam
gerously bruised.
Lizzie Holman, an employee, was
struck In the arm and slightly
wounded by piece of the boiler.
Michael Spencer, a mason working
at the factory, was struck by a frag.
ment OF the boiler.
George Hawley was covered with
debris and slightly bruised.
This was all the injuries at the fac
tory.
The children killed on Baymiller
street, were Alice Thornton, six years
old VINO was In front of her residence,
lust waiting TO go down town on an
srrand with her mother.
Cora Cole, also six years old, was
turning rope with Emma FOrbus,
also six, for Emma Thornton, who had
INST learned to jump the rope well.
Emma Forbus was mortally wounded.
All three of the children lived near
and Oliver streets, one half
mile distant from the place of explo-
sion, and 80 far of that the report of
It cOHld scarcely, If at all, be heard.
There were two boilers in the coll
liery that exploded, each thirty feet
loDg and twenty.f0ur inches in diam
ster, without fues; were eight years
Did, seven-sixteenths inch iron orig
Inally. It was apparently strong,
having been tested last fall with three
hundred and sixty pounds cold water
pressure and stood it well. Three
hundred pounds pressure had been
used on IL In the works, but of late it
was subjected to but two hundred and
atty pounds. They were used for |
supplying steam for tanking lard for
making candles. A portion of one of
these boilers, about ten feet long, was
blown perpendicularly up in the air I
and fell back about on the spot it
started from, burying itself several feet
Ia the ground. It was probably
The remainder Of this boiler which
vent on BaymilleF street; tbs other
boiler was hurled through q brick
wall foot thick and several feet of
earth into Providence street, when It
lodged. The boiler would have been
thrown eastwsrdiy over the city as
the other was WestWardly but for
thia abstraction, The main head and