Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-24
TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION.
Two Cinnamon Blown to Fragments at
the Giant Powder Works.


rs. F. Bulletin, September 3d.
A sharp report and a palpable CULVER
of the ground reused the peaceful people
of Oakland and Berkeley as they sat at
the breakfast tables at haif-past S o'clock
this morning. Everyone asked his neigh
Dor What is that ?'' and every neighbor
responded What is that ~ The telephone
wires from Berkeley quickly reported an
explosion at the works of the Giant Pow
der Company, at Highland Station, a short
distance north from West Berkeley. upon
the bay coast of Alameda county. The
force of the conclusion, and also of the de-
tonatioL, is al unusual testimonial to the
terrible power of high explosives, for but
100 pounds of explosive material were
discharged. The Giant Powder Works are
situated OH the slope of a hill, the foot OF
which is tapped by the tides of the bay.
The magazines are built into the side of the
hill, the packing-houses also are at the base
of the bluff, while the places where the
materials are combined into deadly explo-
sives are fiimsy wooden structures upon
the brow of the elevation. One of these
wooden buildings was used as a place fol-
mixing nitro-glycerine and gun cotton. II
was a little house about fifteen feet square,
Two Cinnamon were engaged in mixing
the explosives ID large pans. What oc.
CURED in the building no one knows. The
Superintendent and the foreman and the
laborers heard a great noise, a cloud Of
dust and smoke rose into the air, and a
shower of kindling wood fell upon the
ground. The little Westinghouse had dis
appeared. A hole in the ground told where
it had been.
BLOWN TO FRAGMENTS.
The two Cinnamon had been blown into
the merest fragments. Scattered pieces of
the two human bodies, shreds of flesh and
ends of bone, were picked up from the
ground and laid in a packing box eighteen
inches long and twelve inches wide and
twelve inches deep. The box was branded
appropriately with the name of the COM
pany that made the powder, to receive
which the box was intended. The pieces
of body were indistinguishable.
One of the Cinnamon killed had been
employed for six years, and was regarded
as the most efficient and careful man in the
department in which he worked. He was
the principal assistant of the foreman of
the Westinghouse.
Frank Roller, Superintendent of the
works, said that no explanation of the dis
aster could be given. No fire is about the
works. The loss in money by the explosion
Will HOT eACeeu SOuO. Inc IndttTldlS III TIE
demolished house would lave made about
100 pounds of cartridges.
POWERFUL EXPLOSIVE.
1.-THE combination that was being made is
one Of the most powerful of explosives, is
it not, Mr.. Roller"
1.-The most powerful explosive in the
world" replied the Superintendent, with
something of pride in his tone. Regular
work at the powder works was not dis
turbed by the disaster, and the men there
employed expressed surprise that the con-
cussion was felt and the defamation heard
ten miles from the works.
The report of the explosion and a per-
ceptible shock caused many people in the
lower part of this city TO inquire about it.
Passengers on the ferry boats also heard the
report, and saw a volume of white smoke
rise from the coast line near West Berkeley.
Rumors of a great disaster were imme-
diately circulated, and as telephone COM
munication with the works was interrupted
some time elapsed before the facts were
known.