The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-10-19
THE PITTSBURGHH HORROR.
Aerrinc Boiler ExPIosion-SeveraI
workmen Killed and Many Others
Seriously Injured.

The city was startled Yesterday morn
Ing by the report which spread like Wild
Ire That an explosion, attended with fright
lul loss OF life and destruction of proper-
W, had taken place at one of our great
mllIs. The story of the horrible and dis
tresslng occurrence was indeed a true
one A battery of boilers at Zug's mill.
In lhe Ninth Ward, from a cause not vet
satisfactorily explained, had exploded.
laying IN ruins vast portion of thaf,uild
my, and leaving PROSTATE in the ruins
1ully sixty human beings, many of them
dead, others in the last mortal agonies
and still more suffering from injuries to
greater or less extent. The most intense
excitement was created in every part of
the city by the news. There were scores
OF people in every locality who had rela-
tons or friends among the 30O-odd en-
ployes in the mills of Zug & Co., and
these were soon hurrying frantically in
the direction of the scene of the dread
disaster -
Dlrectly after the explosion occurred
people began to crowd about the place,
ana IN less than half an hour not less than
os,ooO people had congregated 1t lacked
Just about five minutes of nine o'clock
when the explosion took place, with a
shock distinctly heard at point two miles
distant from the scene. The battery of
three large boilers in the nail mill Of the
nrm, which is located on the upper side of
Etna street, burst, the terrible force of the
conclusion lifting the roof and frame of
almost that entire building many feet into
the air, and dropping it, where it was
crushed and broken, upon the machinery
below, until the whole was converted into
pieces the majority of which were small
enough for the purpose of kindling wood.
The force of the exploding power was
so great and seems to have been 50 evenly
distributed upon all parts of the boilers,
that they were broken into hundreds of
pieces. One of them was carried across
the river to Allegheny, and landed at
Beymer Il Banman's lead-works, on the |
River avenue. Another large piece, going
in the same direction, dashed through the |
roof of the muck mill on the opposite side
OF the street, tearing down two of the |
furnaces, swapping giant timbers like |
splinters, and breaking down the huge
crane which is used to lift tons of iron and |
metal. The falling furnaces ignited the
mill and it was partly consumed before
the flames could be checked.
The largest piece that was found of the |
bursted boilers entered through the side |
of house and was deposited in cham
Der by the bedside of a sick woman, who |
escaped unharmed. Other pieces were
blown high, landing in the streets close by. |
Bricks and sticks and pieces of the iron
roof, and all sorts of rubbish were blown
through walls and windows. 1t is be-
lieved that the roof of the building was
lifted at least fifty feet high, and the
work of destruction of human life was ac-
complished more by the crushing weight
of this falling mass than by the scattering
pieces of the buTsted boilers The fifty
five nail-machines saved many life yes
terday. Had the mill been as open as an
ordinary rolling mill it does not seem pos
sible that single one of the inmates
would have escaped with his life.
There were employed in the entire
mills of Zug & Co., at the time of the ac-
cident, about 300 persons. Of these $50
worked in the nail department, where the
explosion took place. Not less than eight
persons were killed outright and fifty in
jured. Of the wounded some six or more
have already died, and it is believed that
the injuries received by others are fatal.
The bodies, mutilated and ghastly, grimy
with the showering dirt, and CORY with
the life blood, as they lay amid the debris
of the fearful wreck, presented sight to
make the stanchest heart quail. Here
were headless trunks of men who a few
before moved and acted in the
full enjoyment of vigorous life Here was
a corpse with no blood stain upon it,
but pallid in death, which had come in
the twinkling of an eye in great blow
by giant forces upon some
vital spot. The row of dead, and the
bleeding, moaning, agonized group