Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-10-09
EXPLOSION.

A Battery Of Boilers in the Solar
Iron Works Explodes With Disas-
trous Effect--TWenty-SeVen Men
Soalded and Otherwise Injured.
PIrTsBURG, Oct. 2.-Shortly after 3 o'clock
this morning a battery OF boilers at Solar Iron
Works, Clark Il Co., on Thirty-sixth street, ex-
plOded with disastrous effect. The night turn
had lust been relieved by the day force when q
loud explosion startled the W0rkmen ana a p0r-
ton Of the wards In the vicinity were filled with
clouds Of death dealing steam. Through a dense
mist came shrieks and groans which notified the
employees beyond harms reach that a trlghtful
Calamity had overtaken a portion OF their Eel
lOw-wOrkmen. AS soon as the steam. settled
down a rush was made for che spot where The
explosion occurred, where it was ascertained
that the mud drum Of the boilers had exploded
and that escaping steam had scalded twenty
seven men. Closer investigation shows that OF
this number fourteen were badly burned and
thirteen fatally Scalded. The names OF the In
iursd are: Frank Martin, badly scalded about
The face and arms, will not live; James Cotton,
fatally Scalded, top Of head was almost severed
by a piece Of flying iron Frank Murray, boy,
terribly burned, injuries fatal; Thomas Stein.
boy, badly scalded; VIM. Daniels, boy, scalded
and injured by flying nebris; Havid richards,
boy, Scalded and arm broken; VIM. Orthroller,
badly scalded; Frank Good, boy, badly cut on
head; Patrick Henderson, shsarsman, seriously
Smith, shearsman, badly Scalded; J $. IGifeeb,
boy, scalded, hut not seriously; William Thomp-
son, boy, scalded and injured bydebris Charles
Haywood, .puddler, seriously hurt by
Injured badly. burned and slightly cut; joseph
Nebb, boy, badly scalded; Frank Nebb, boy,
badly scalded; Bart henderson, gauger, terribly
burned, probably will not recover. Scarcely
had the Hills betting the Allegheny ceased to
reverberate the tones of the explosion, when
frenzied and frightened Wive., mothers, and
children began to rush upon the scene, and peer
anxi0usly into the faces Of the gasping and dy-
ing men, seeking to identify their loved ones, or
inquiring, in agonized tones, II they had es-
clothing as they ran, children almost nude,
screaming at the top OF their voices, crowded
and jostled each other in their mad rush for the
mill. Arriving there, there was silence for a
moment, and then a woman'S wall was heard,
and then another and another, until there was
nothing but discordant chords OF feminine
means and shrieks OF anguish. The cries and
gr0anS Of the par-bOiled men would occasionally
rise above the shrieks Of the women. 1t was an
awful scene. Physicians who arrived say they
were almost unnerved at the sight and in the
presence of so much human suffering, physical
and mental. The injured were found lying lie all
positions, some were so far away from the bat
terry that it seemed impossible that they could
have been injured by the explosion. The large
number Of boys hurt Is accounted for by the fact
that they were employed to bundle hO0p-irOn,
which was rolled on the mill nearest the boiler.
1t was fully ten minutes after the explosion be-
fore Frank Moray was taken out from under
the truck where he was thrown. In addition to
being scalded he was terribly crushed by the
weight OF the iron piled on top OF him. James
COttO and Frank Martin suffered mostly from
escaping steam, but no hopes are entertained for
the recovery Of either. The others are expected
to recover, but d majority will carry marks to
remind them OF their experience as longa as
they live.