The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-11-30
The Recent Boiler Explosion in Chi
cagO.

The Chicago Inter- Ocean of the 10Th
gives the following particulars of the ter
rible boiler explosion in the South Side
Rolling Mills:
At few minutes before the fearful! &C
cident on Tuesday night the workmen in
the different buildings were engaged as
usual in the performance Of their labors.
The ten boilers in the boiler-house seemed
to the acting engineer and his assistants to
be in as perfect a condition as when they
were placed there, and not one of the hui
man beings about the mills dreamed of
calamity. Suddenly, at about II 80
O'Clock, the iron Of one of the boilers was
torn into innumerable fragments; Sec
Ond boiler followed the first with an al
most simultaneous report, and the heavy
iron casing around the boilers was ripped
in pieces of various sizes, and hurled
with brick, stone, mortar, timbers and
scalding water into the air to almost in
conceivable distances. The showers of
debris from the walls of the boiler house
that fell within an extensive radius must
have reminded those people who were
awake and heard the shock, of the sudden
belching forth Of some great volcano, or a
bombardment in which numbers Of big
guns loaded with balls of all sizes
participated. The work of demolish-
ing the boiler house could not have
been accomplished much better had many
pounds of nitro glycerine or dynamite
been stored beneath the building and
touched off. The force of the explosion
seemed to expend itself in an upward d.
rection, and toward every point of the
compass except due west and north. The
engine house and huge smoke stack which
were situated in the latter directions adj
joining the boiler-house, by forming
efzGe " ri6fte ',866f'6 Other sides The en-
gines and machinery in the engine-house,
and the casting house and its contents,
were so protected by brick, stone and iron
as to suffer comparatively trifling damage
in any event. The hammer shop was
badly shattered, nearly all of the frame
work on the west side, and portion of
the iron roof being wrenched off. The
machinery and furnaces within this build
ing were but little hurt. A large rail
dropped into this shop, and hundreds of
bricks and bits of iron flew about the
heads of the occupants of the place, none
of whom were hurt. A fragment of one Of
the boilers, weighing about 1900 pounds,
was carried to the top of the rail-mill and
crushed down through the center of the
corrugated iron roof. One of the heavy
girders was broken, and pieces of iron,
timbers, and brick were scattered every
where, but not one of the 200 men EN-.
ployed in this mill were wounded in the
least. One man, whose name could not
be ascertained, was on the point of begin
ming to devour his midnight lunch. He
had good-sized piece Of well-buttered
bread in his right hand, and was just
about conveying it to his mouth, when a
cruel chunk of iron struck the bread and
knocked it into crumbs on the ground
Singular as it may appear, the man was
not hurt in the least. Had the fragment
struck him fairly his body would have
been horribly mangled. Among the cars
on the railroad tracks that were damaged
was one box-car IN particular, which it
might be well for the owners to place on
exhibition. The sides and roof are liter
ally riddled with iron, bricks, etc. Among
the sheds and smaller buildings that suf.
fered considerably from the explosions
was one which was used for the purpose
of housing the locomotives of the Rolling
Mill Company.
At little distance beyond the railroad
are two one-story frame cottages, owned
by Messrs. Mccarthy and Jones, and
rented to laboring men. They have the
appearance of having been I" through the
wars there being scarcely whole pane
of glass to be found in them. A goodly
cluster of dwellings on Ashland avenue
were untouched save from the shower of
bricks and mortar, but the explosive fiend
singled out two particular buildings, dis
tant about 500 feet from the boiler house,
| and vented his wrath on them. A section
of the iron drum in the boiler house,
weighing over ton, and measuring about
twenty feet in length was deposited in the
basement of the two story frame dwelling
owned by Thomas Lyons, situated on
Ashland avenue, near Mills street. OF
course in order to reach the basement the
unwclcome visitor did not deign to enter
the front door of the residence. 1t made
its arrival known by the unique plan of
passing down throug III the roof. Not be-
ing satisfied with the apartments on the
second or first floors after having got in,
the iron continued downward until il
gained the basementand terra fsm0. The
roof and floors were to a great extent
torn up, and the inhabitants Of the house
will never cease to wonder at their
miraculous escape from harm. There
were eleven persons In the dwelling,