New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-08
FATAL ACCIDENT AT NEWARK.

| River and Ferguson-sts., were awakened at mid
night Thursday, by heavy dull sound Following
| this came a shock, felt nearly mile distant,
which shock the houses in its immediate neighoor-
hood in some breaking the windows. cracking the
ceilings and distortng the doors To the east, for
quarter of mile there descended for some seconds
shower of stones, bricks, pieces OF wood and boiler
| plate.
THIS disturbance was caused by the explosion of
boiler in the engineroom of the viriol department.
of Edward Balbach & Sons works. which are said
| to be the largest of their kind in the United
States with possibly one exception. force of be-
| tween 800 and $50 men is employed. and the busi-
ness of the firm amounts to nearly $1S, 100000
year. These works comprise about dozen brck
buildings in River-st.. facing the Pas
sale River Five of the buildings are
in group, surrounded by River, Polk, Ferguson
and Market-sts and directly east OF the rest
of the works. The three buildings to the
east are used for refining the blue vitriol
extracted from the gold and silver ore The
centre one of these was the engine room
the other two contained the tanks used in the pro-
| cess of refining, and for storage. Work in this de-
partment is kept up night and day and about SIX
| teen men are employed.
| Seven men, the night force. were at WORK Inurs-
day night. They were John Mutz. the engineer ana
John Quinn, George Obernanp John Schee, Oscar
! Jacobe Jose Worst and John SchleSel, who were
employed at the various tanks. They usually went
to work at p m. One OF the boilers, now
ever. had not been fired up" and several
Of the men worked this until after o o'clock.
There were three boilers in the room, two of which
were 50 connected as to be practically one. They
were each 36 inches in diameter and ~ feet long,
| and all combined had i 16 horsepower. Monday
night leak was discovered on the bottom OF on OF
these boilers. Lyon & Co., the machinists from
whom the boilers were purchased. sent up MAJ 10
| repair the break The task occupied one day, aui
| a patch about six inches in diameter was pnt
| over the hole Thursday night the boiler was used
ior the first time. and there was some trouble IN
getting t under "r way @ e anS aISer ali ibe men
except John Mutz, the engineer, were at thep
tanks.
At - o'clock the men on the night force always
took their midnight meal in the englneroOnl. and
they were in the habit of gathering there few min
utes in advance OF this time TO warm their coffee.
George Obermann, John Quinn. john Schee and
John Schlegel went to the boier-room at
the usual time Thursday night. Schlegel, how
ever instead of stopping IN the boiler-room, went
| ont in the open air for a minute. Oscar JacoOe dd
! not have much coffee that night; SO he
remained at the tank where he was
| At work. and Jacob Worst stopped to
talk to him on his way to the bollrr-iaom. Just
then the explosion took place. The four men in the
en- gine-room, Mutz Schlcc, Quinn and Obcrmann
were either Instantly killed 10y the fragments from
the oiIer or falling bricks and beams or scaded to
death By the escaping steam Jacobe. who was
about fifteen feet from the boiler and was separated
from it by wooden parttion,was thrown adlstance
of nearly twenty feet aud was severely bruised
on the right side His left arm was paral, zed for
| l. time. Worst, WHO was standing eght fect from
| him was bruised slightly. Schlegcl had ms ieet III.
iurcd by falling bricks and timbers. The 'front.' part
of the building was in ruins, under which lay me
| four wOrkmen lie great force Oh the eApioslo1
was almost directly east, and Schegcl, Jacobe anu
Worst escaped by being out OF thiS iln'
| An alarm of fire was given BY policeman and the
| engines were on the grounds. Tue ruins we're
| burning. but the flames were soon eXtnguisned.
Many of the employees had immediately collected on
| the spot aud together with thc policemen and
| tiremen fell to removing the debris winch covered
the bodies of their fellow wor kmen. Mnz was found
scaldcd. aud the wO0len SHIRT. III which he worked,
was torn from the upper part OF his body, HIS skull
was crushed n his face was cut ana I Eoth OF nis
| George Obcrmaun were found a few inutes later.
Schce's skull was crushed, several of his limbs were
| broken, and his body was burned ana bruised:
| Obernaun's body was also dreadfully crushed aud
| burned. 80 oao .,
| although the search was kept mp steadily; Ills
| body was hardly recognizable. The head was
| crushed and the clothing Was torn from the lower
part of his body, which was terribly scaiueu ano
| bruised -
| GAZING FOR The INJURED.
Dr. Herold. the physician o. the men employed by
Balbacd 4 Sons arrived at the works soon after the
exposion aud pronounced the injuries OF Worst and
| Schlegcl trlng. JacObe thought that he was dan-
| gerousy hurt. and therefore DIR. llerold had him
semi to st. MichaePs Hospital. The Doctor cxam-
iued him again yesterday morning, aud said that
his injuries certainly were not dangerous.
| OTHER EFFECTS OF THE IXPLoSIoN.
The ground and houses directly to the front Of the
| works after the explosion looked aS If 4 terrible
hurricane had passed over them. Bricks, stones,
| timbprs and pieces of the boiler were scattered
nearly everywhere Thirty feet from the boiler
| room were the stables of Edward Ba.6ach. which
were levelled to the ground. Two OF the five vau'
| able horses in them were thrown about thirty feet
and Instantly killed The other three were also
thrown considerable distance; one of them was
severely injured, but ;he other two got oil With
| ST ght scratches.
| In the stables there also double carriage,
handsome two-seated sleigh. u cutter and coupe
which Mr.. Balbach had recently purchased ar cost
| of 1900. These were completely ruined. Directly
! back of Mr. Babachis house handsome con"
| seryatory which was rddled with bricks and tim
| bers and many valuable flowers were destroyed.
Mr.. palbach's sleeping room is on the second fioor
of his house. which is iffy feet away
from tho point Of the explosion, and
one of its windows looks out urcn the boiler-roOm.
Mr. Balhach up q few minutes before the eXDlo-
sion 10 get drink of water. and he had just got in
| led again when he heard the noise, and largo
| piece of the boiler, weighing nearly 300 pounds,
struck on the roof of the balcony, just under his
| window. 1t knocked U hole in the balcony two feet
square. and then diyed through the window. carry
| ing a part of the wall with IL, and passing within
| six inches of the foot of the bed. Ii ended its
career by demoshng wardrobe on the opposite
side of the ROOM.
lives in "a handsome house next to her fathers and
her windows, doors and ceiling: were badly Injured.