Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-04-05
The Recent Boiler Explosion in Gin
cinnati.

THE Cincinnati Commercial gives the
following account of the explosion, on
the 18th, of two steam boilers in soap
and candle factory in that city:
The explosion took place with thuD-
derous report, and the entire interior of
the establishment was converted into
chaos of timbers, tanks and machinery.
So powerful was the shock that all the
buildings of the square quivered as if
shaken by an earthquake, and crowd of
workmen ON the roof of the northern
wing of the building were raised several
feet into the air. Mr. G. G.. Forsinger,
the foreman of the workmen-builders en-
gagged in repairing the roof-says he was
thrown eight or ten feet, and only saved
himself from a terrible fall by clutching
the ledge of the roof as he descended.
The report of the convulsion was heard
distance of nearly mile. One of the
boilers was projected to the. rear of the
building, and in slanting direction up
ward. Its course was the track of death.
Directly back of it were the three men in
conversation. Two of them it struck and
hurled as if they had been shot from the
mouth of canon, tlinging one upon a
heap of Goals half way across the yard,
with his head horribly mangled and
and the other through the little open
shed under which they had been standing
to the fence beyond, whence his mani
mate body rebounded to the ground
hideous and unrecognizable mass of quiv-
ering flesh. The former was Ostholthotf;
the latter Unkrich. The fate of both
was terrible, but the death of the latter
was horrible. He was literally spdttered
about the place. Pieces of his skull were
found in several places. Clots of brain
and bloody masses of his hair were dang
ling from the broken timbers through
which he had been blown and on the
fence which stopped his poor body was a
great greasy purple daub to mark where
he struck. His limbs were all broken,
seemingly into small jointures in the
flesh, and some of them were blown
away altogether. He was dreadful,
sickening sight, as he lay there with the
hot bricks of the ruined fence licking in
his blood as it flowed upon them. Few
cared to go to that part of the yard with
unaverted eyes until the ghastly heap was
hidden beneath rude covering. 1t must
have been an easy death, with all its hor-
rible attendants. Neither of the unfor-
tunate men could have known the most
transient pain. They were dead as soon
as they were struck by the terrible mass
of iron.
Strange to relate, the third man of the
group, Herlinger, was but slightly in
jured. The boiler went whizzing by him
like an enormous cannon-ball, as he de-
scribes it, splashing hot water in his face
and shUwering bricks and pieces of iron
upon him, but it did not strike him, nor
did the bricks and iron do him any sig
niticant hurt His face was badly scalded
on one side, but that injury is, he consid-
ers next to none at all. The boiler, after
crashing through the shed and destroying
the two men, as we have described con
tinued on its course, throwing down a
brick fence some two feet thick in con-
fused pile, and, even after passing this
impediment, going across the alley. There
the force that had sent it so far was ex-
pended, and it fell upon the sidewalk in
front of lanyard. 1t had gone a dis.
tance of over sixty feet.
The other boiler had most extraordi-
nary career The explosion tore it in two
and threw one piece, about eight feet in
length, straight up two or three hundred
feet, whence it descended to bury itself
lengthwise in the ground but few feet
from where it started, while the other
piece some twenty-five feet long and
weighing nearly three thousand pounds,
shot up like an arrow and sped through
the air'at an elevation that, to the eyes of
those who observed its passage, reduced
it to mere speck in the sky, the amazing
distance of fce squares, or IN the neigt6OrltOOd
Of 1000 feet. Its course was slight de-
Election from westwardly, and it struck
the earth with resounding crash on Bay
miller street, a short distance above Oliver
street. tearing a great hole in the street