, 1890-10-08
AN EARTHQUAKE SHOCK.
1t is Caused by a Great Powder
Explosion.
The Immense Dupont Works
Blown to Atoms.
Over a Dozen Killed and Many
Injured.

WMMINGToN, Del, Oct. Several
startling explosions in quick succession,
some counted five others seven, at $50 p.
M. announced to Wilmington a disaster
at the Dupont powder works on the
B~randywine. A rush was made for the
telephones but nothing could be learned
beyond vague reports of damages. The
Associated Press representative fastened
to the scene and has wired that the whole
section of works known as the upper
yard is a complete wreck and at least
six lives are Lost. One of the magazines
went off first and the rolling and the dry
ing mills near by, set off by the con
c%ussioD, followed in rapid succession.
There were at least seven distinct
successive explosions. Every dwelling
in the neighborhood is reported
wrecked or unroofed n more or less
damaged. Telephone inquiries from
Westchester state explosions were dis
tinctly heard in that section.
LATER-A messenger has just brought
in the following dispatch which shows
that the worst has not yet been learned Of
the powder mill explosions. There are
ten killed and twenty wounded. Rock
and is a complete wreck. None of its
houses are left standing. Rockland is a
village on the Brandywine fully a mile
above the scene OF the explosion. 1t com
prises a large paper mill owned by the
Jessup x Moore company and about fifty
dwellings in which chiefly reside mill en-
ployes. Its population is about 200. The
evidence of destruction at that distance
leads to the belief here that the number
of killed and wounded is not yet fully
ascertained.
The Dupont powder mills extend
along the B~randywln0 chiefly on the
west bank and close TO the water for about
two miles. They are divided into Upper
Haeley" and Lower Yards" The
former is three miles and the latter five
miles from Wilmington. The report of
the damage done at Rockland proves in
correct as to locality, the name of Rock
land being enormously used for the build
ings clustered around what is locally
known as Upper Yard" There are
some fifty houses inhabited by employees
Of the powder mills, clustered here and
these were all wrecked. The damage to
property can not be thoroughly estimated
tonight, though 1t can not be less than
half a million dollars.
OlO vi NhC COhCusSAJH even DTOkt
windows in some parts of Wilmington,
four or five miles away.
Following is a partial list OF the killed:
Martin Dolan, james Dolan, William
McGarvey. John Martygan, William Den
nlson, John Dietz, Thomas Hurlike, John
Hurlike, Patrick Dougherty, John New
all, William Green and q woman named
Rose Dougherty. Several Others are
missing.
The more seriously injured as far as
learned are: Daniel HarkIns, William
Logan, Annie and Mark Dolan, james
Ward, Hugh Ferry, John McDougall.
Mrs. William McDougall and her two-year-
old daughter. Lydia Anderson, Arthur
Godfrey. Frank Holkins, John McCaf-
frey, Charles Godfrey. Thomas +. Dough-
ertY. Several Of the injured will die.
The office of the Dupont company is a
complete wreck and the six millss are in
ruins.
Several members of the Dupont firm
were injured by falling walls and broken
glass, but none of them seriously. The
dead were all employees of the company
and were in and about the mills that ex-
ploded. Several workmen are missing
and are believed to have been blown into
fragments. The first explosion occurred
In one OF the packing mills, where a work
man named Grau was receiving a can of
%hexagonal powder to be shipped for use
by the United States government In
some way a spark communicated to the
can and it blew up.
Instantly the packing mill exploded
and the other mills in the upper yards"
seven or eight 10 number, followed at
intervals of less than one second. All
these except one were rolling mills" in
which the ingredients OF gun powder was
pulverlzed by vertical rollers of stone
turning slowly around a center post.
Immediately after the explosion a large
building known as the Refinery" lOca-
ted near the centre of the village, took
fire. 1t was a matter of life and death to
the whole population that the fire should
be extinguished before it communicated
with the powder which the building con
tanned. 1.-THE Dupont fire brigade succeed
ed in ex%tineuishing the flames. If the
roof had fallen in it is doubtful if any
man, woman or child in the vicinity would
have escaped death or serious injury.
About fifty families are rendered home
less by the disaster.