The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1885-12-03
WHERE WAS THE WATER? ?
FATAL BOILER EXPLOSION AT TRoPIC
SHAFT!
ANDY DOBBINS AND LINCOLN INGALLS,
INSTANTLY KILLED.

| AUOuO Ill1C cctSO VI CAC SOuIO 11OuoS
is situated the new hoisting house of the
Tropic Mine. Coal is raised here an6
brought down to the furnace on branch
of the o. S. Railroad. On last Saturday
Caleb Hank was working near the screen
at the Railroad, with a young man named
Nail. Two boys were working on the
slack-pile near by, and David T. Davis
was at work at the top of the hoisting
house. In the engine-room, the engineer,
Andy Dobbins, young man of thirty.
was at work. He was the day engineer.
Lincoln ingalls,, young man of twenty
five, was the night-pumper, and he was
present on Saturday afternoon. ingalls,
had just taken away some coal, and had
come back to the engine-room, and must
have been near the door, at the front end
of the boiler, when the accident occurred.
About three o'clock or shortly after,
Mr.. Hank heard an explosion, and has
tened around to the engine-room, believ-
ing it to be gas explosion in the mine
As he came around he discovered that
the boiler had exploded. The boiler was
some eighteen to twenty feet long. One
end blew off, ripping the iron likeso much
muslin. This end went through the side
of the engine-room, and it is thought this
piece is what killed the men. ingalls,
was found lying face downward, near
the piston-rod of the engine, and also
near the door which led from the engine
room to the boiler, which was outside,
and uncovered. The top of his head was
torn away, and his brains spattered upon
the far side of the room. His hat was
lying perhaps three feet away, torn and
crushed. 1t is not known exactly where
he had been standing, but was doubtless
near the door. The piece of boiler, after
breaking the rim of the fy-wheel, lodged
in the far corner of the building.
The engineer, Andrew Dobbins, was
found between the engine and hosting
drum, his clothes caught upon the broken
spokes of the fly-wheel, his feet elevated
upon the drum, and his head hanging
downward near the engine. Both men
were dead when found. Mr.. Dobbins
had doubtless been standing at his post
between the throttle and reversing lever,
and was blow forward, heels over head.
His fatal injuries were on the head. Mr..
Dobbin's son and nephew, the two boys
at work on the slack-pile, were blown
down over the pile, the nephew being
somewhat scalded. About fifteen feet
of the boiler went out in line, in a
south-easterly direction, and skipped and
tumbled distance of perhaps a hundred
and eighty yards. From this boiler salt
scales as much as an inch in thickness,
were taken.
Mr.. DObblnS was married man, and
leaves widow and nine children, the
oldest being some fourteen years of age.
Dobbins was an old and experienced en-
gineer, having ran the engine at Monroe |
Furnace, and perhaps at other furnaces
in the County. There is of course much !
conjecture as to the cause of the accident, |
and it is only conjecture, as the only two |
witnesses to the condition of the boiler,
at the time, were instantly killed. But |
it did not require much of an expert to
note several points of evidence which the
broken boiler plainly showed: On one or
two spots in the iron there was evidence
of its having been heated very hot, being |
"cupped" or bulged. The caked, or scaled |
condition of the boiler plainly indicated |
a strong probability that the boiler was
so crusted with salt and scale as to render |
the gauges valueless. We think it quite
probable that the water had gotten so |
low that Dobbins did not know where it |
was. In this case there are several ways |
in which an explosion might occur. The
is that Dobbins had found his |
guages clogged with scale, and after per-
mitting the water to get very low-not |
knowing where it was-had turned on |
the pump, when the explosion occurred. |
The loss to the company will not be
large, the great loss being the two poor
men who were taken away from their
families by the explosion. Sad accidents
are becoming too common about the |
mines, and it can scarcely be denied that |
somebody's carelessness is the cause of |
most of them. There have been some |
miserable boilers used in this county, and
some great neglect of good boilers, and it |
is to be hoped that this sad occurrence
may tend to make men more careful. |
When the water in boiler gets where
you cannot find it by the gauge, the pro-
per thing to do is-not to turn in cold