The Labor enquirer., 1882-12-16
Denver'S Boilers.

are fires and fatal boiler explosions.
Each days telegrams have conveyed for
weeks past intelligence Of widespread
and disastrous confagrations all over the
world. and boilers bursting in almost
every diredion, and attended with most
! frightfjll results so far as the sacrifice OF
human life is concerned. Few losses OF
life, happily, have attended the fires al
luded to, but the boiler explosions have
resulted in numerous shocking deaths
and incalculable grief and distress among
the friends and relatives of the victims
who have been cruelty cut off and hurled
into eternity in the midst of health and
prosperity, without moments warning,
while earning bread for families and
friends dependent upon them.
1t is in reference to this series Of
blood-curdling, so called accidents that
this article is written, and for the purpose
of calling the attention Of the local
authorities to a matter of graveSt lmpOr-
tance affecting alike the monetary
welfare 6f the prOprietors and the more
vitally important welfare and safety Of
men employed in establishments where
boilers are used. 1t may be said here
that it is proyerbially and singularly
seldom that the owners or proprietors of
mills and other places where these
essential apparatus to the creation Of
steam are used are numbered among the
victims Of explosions. Such a case,
however, did happen in the East couple
etors Of saw mill, were instantly killed
by the blowing up Of boiler. Propri-
etOrs are seldom in the mechanical parts
of mills, and consequently enjoy immu-
nifty in case of disaster, while unfortunate
employees are saCraiced on the affairs of
industry on one hand, and Indifference,
meanness and negligence of proprietors
on the other. Hence it behooves the
state and city legislators to enact laws
which SHALL as far as possible, prevent
loss Of life Of those whose daily calling
requires their presence in cOnJiguity of
these mines of steam and Ofttimes Of
wholesale death.
The record for a few days past is
fearful, and ought to prompt the author
tiles without delay to take up and act
upon the subject At Middletown, Ohio,
two men were killed and several injured ::
at Mauayunk, Pennsylvania, two men
were killed and eight or ten injured; at
Montrose, Colorado, two lives were lost
and several workmen hurt, and at Usage,
Kansas, two men were killed. The most
appalling in the list happened at Shaw
neetOwn, Illinois, where eight men were
killed and three manned for life. The
details Of this awful disaster as published
are simply sickening; stout, able-bodied
operatives being blown to fragments or
mutilated horribly. The above list
comprises but very few Of these occur
rences which have wrought death and
misery the past three or four weeks. So
far Denver has escaped, and the 'aCci
dents" have, with one exception that
at MOntrOse, Colorado-been confined to
the East. "It is pretty near home,"
however, when the "murrain," or "epe-
demic," breaks out in a neighboring
town land, as we'll known and promi-
nent engineer said to the writer this
morning, There is no telling when it
smay strike us. "~~Within the past three
or four years, in keeping with the growth
and Importance of Denver, large num-
Der Of factories and other places, where
it is necessary to generate and employ
steam, have sprung into existence. Every
kind of boiler almost has been adopted,
and is in use, the horizontal, the vertical
internally and externally fred-plain,
multitublar and tubulous; most all con-
structed of iron, but few Of sheet steel,
They are to be found inside mills and
factories, in hotels, theaters, under side
walks, in cellars all over the city. One
concern has eighteen boilers, another
eight, and so on down. A very large
number, of course the bigger buildings,
are the horizontal or locomotive boilers,