Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-12

A Six Thousand Pound Safe on its Wayt to
 A Third Story Falls to the Ground,
 Crashing Almost Through the Pave
 ment.
 From the New York Sunday Herald.J
 At the time of the Union square casualty, when the loss of human life under the pole of the Brush EIactric Light company called pub- lie attention to the urgency of such move ment, the HerGLd maintained that in all cases where great burdens were to be hoisted from the ground the space beneath should be kept clear of both workmen and bypassers The necessity of such precaution was further il- lustrated yesterday when big safe toppled over from a third story window into which it was to be moved and came crashing down on the pavement in Broadway at a time and in place where the crowding and scurrying of bygoers is thickest. It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when the safe, which was 6,OO0 pounds in weight, was moved up on a truck to No. 61 Broadway. It was intended for use in the office of the Mining Record, which is located on the third floor, and was to be moved in through the window which overlooked the door of the building. The truck was equipped with the usual hoisting apparatus, and was attended by a corps of workmen. They had already prepared for the reception of the safe by running from the window of the Mining Record office couple of blanks, on which it was to be rolled inside, and, to enable the pair of workmen stationed at the window to draw it in, system of pull leys had been arranged connecting with a steadfast beam or 'jack," which was braced against the doorposts and walls of an inner room. Up above at a window on the fifth floor another steadfast with a pulley attachment had been fixed, and upon it was to rest the weight of the safe during the ascent from the truck to the window of the Record office. The usual preparations were made below, and the workmen having the o1 1o,,1lr i,, horoT1 fn T11x tha crank. The street was thronged. Some turned to watch the upward progress of the safe, most made round of the truck and slipped past in tLe middle of the street, but many of the hurrying throng intent on business tripped past underneath with hardly a cautious glance above. The safe rose steadily. It passed the en- trance way and the story above, reached the signboard of the Record and hung sway ing over the blanks which were run from the window to support it. Inside the office the two workmen stationed to receive it laid hold of the pulley ropes to draw it in, and young man standing by, the subscription clerk of the place, lent them a hand. Sud denly sharp snap sounded overhead. the sustaining ropes loosened, and the safe, striking against the signboard underneath the window, toppled over and descended to the street. The three men in the office tug pinp at the ropes were almost dragged out
 
 to get free and escape the rush of the beam braced against the inner room, which tore through walls and door post, shot over the floor, and, shattering the wood work under the window sill, almost forced the masonry itself outward. The room was filled with a shower of lath and plaster from the shattered walls, and ropes and hoisting gear were whipped away in twinkling.
 TERRIFIC SHOCK.
 The safe struck the sidewalk with sound like an explosion. The house felt the shock, and the pavement cracked and was crushed in beneath it. As for the metal and plaster of which it was composed, they were shat tered to pieces and strewn in masses over the walk. The startling sound alarmed the It invaded the buildings about and brought no end of frightened faces to the windows. It emptied the Min ing Exchange, across the way, in a minute, and brought a flock of curious people from all directions, thronging about. The general impression received at first was that boiler had exploded, but the track, the workmen and the track of ruin the safe had made on its way to destruction told their own story. As the occupants of the building descended, up from the basement of Adams Express company, two doors of, which runs under the sidewalk where the safe struck, group of startled employees hurried. They had been under the cracked pavement and believed their es- cape from being crushed beneath it mar row one. Where the safe had come down the great bulk of masonry, which is about fourteen inches thick, had cracked and crum- bled away, and the men reported that it would be unsafe to pass over the place till uprights could be erected underneath to sus- tain it. Traffic over the spot was according ly suspended for time, and set of men were put to work below to make the needed repairs. While they were engaged in erect ing timbers to brace the shattered pavement a reporter who had witnessed how the thick stone step where the safe first struck had been rent apart, and how the walk about it had been crushed in, examined the inner side of the masonry Thick as it was 1t had been cracked through and through, and big splinters and flakes of 1t had fallen below. The way clerk of the eastern division of Adams Express company had been at work directly underneath when the safe struck the ground. He said his sen- sations when the shock came just over his head were indescribable It seemed like the discharge of a cannon, and quite bewildered him till the particles of masonry falling about made him beat retreat. His colleagues were similarly impressed, and all were of opinion that if the fall of the safe had not been broken by striking on the window sill above and on the stone step beneath it would have crushed through the pavement. While the beams and steadfasts were being erected below, the workmen who had brought the safe gathered up the shattered metal and car ried it of, and the heap of crumbled plaster was turned into the street for subsequent re- moval. There it remained with the cracked sidewalk and dented signboard last evening 8 subject of inquiry for focks of curious by passers.