The Lamar register., 1890-10-11
a POWDER EXPLOSION.
Ten Men Killed at a Powder Mill in
Delaware.


WILMINGTON, Del, Oct. 7.-Severa
startling explosions in quick succession,
some counted five, others seven, at $3.50 p.
m., ANNOUNCED to Wilmington disaster AZ
the Dupont powder works on the Brandy
wine. A rush was made for teiephones
but pothing could be learned beyond vague
reports of damage.
An Associated f'eess representative
hastened at once to the scene, and has lust
wired that the whole section of the works
known as the upper yard" is complete
wreck and that at least SIX lives have oeeh
lost.
One of the magazines went of first, and
the rolling and drying mills near by, set
OF by the concus sion, followed in RAPID
succession. There were at least seven dis
tinct successive explosions. Every dwell
ling in the neighborhood is reported
wrecked or unroofed or more or less dam
aged
Telephone inquiries from West Chester
state that the explosion were distinctly
heard in that section.
Later-A messenger has Just brought IN
the following dispatch, which shows that
-
powder mill explosion: Ten killed,
twenty wounded. Rockland complete
wreck. None of it's houses left standing
Rockland is village on the Brandy
wine, nearly mile ABOVE the scene OF the
explosion. 1t has a large paper mill, owned
by the Jessup & Moore Company, and
about fifty dwellings, in which chiefly re-
side the mill employees Its population Is
about 200. Evidence of destruction at
that distance leads to the belief here that
the number of killed and wounded is not
definitely ascertained.
The dead were all employees of the COM
pany, and were in and about the mills
that exploded.
Several workmen are missing and are
believedto have been blown into fragments.
The wounded received their injuries
among the walls of their falling houses
and By broken glass and flying debris
The first explosion occurred in one OF
the packing mills where a workman named
Gran was receiving can of he1agonai
powder to be shipped for the use of the
United States government. In some way
q spark communicated to the can and
blew it up. Instantly the packing mill es-
pioded and the other mills in the upper
yards, seven or eight in number, followed
ut intervals of less than one second.
All these except one were rollins
| mills" in which the ingredients of gun
'owder are pulverized by action of rollers
of stone turning slowly around central
post. The whole machinery is driven by
water power The odd one was a mixing
| mill.
Immediately after the explosion a large
| building, known as the refinery" located
| near the center Of the village, took fire. Ii
| was q matter of life and death TO the
| whole population that this fire should be
extinguished before it communicated with
| the powder the building contained. The
| Dupont fire brigade valiantly fought the
| flames, which had caught the roof and
succeeded in extinguishing u N. Had
the roof 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. 1t is estimated that
the loss cannot be less than 500, 900.
The shock of the explosion was plainly
felt in many sections of Philadelphia,
Miilville, New Jersey; Chester, Pennsyl-
vania, and other points thirty to thirty
| five miles distant.