Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-10-14

y
Weybrdge. two miles west of this vii
lage, exploded between l and O'Clock
Monday afternoon, killing instantly Pat
rick Desmond, the head of the gang of
men operating the quarry for Mr.. Joseph
! Battell, and iniurng two others. James
Henderson and Albert Davis.
The quarry is an old one, it having
been opened nearly half century ago.
Mr.. Battell reopened it last spring in order
to procure stones for the foundations of
/ his block, for the retaining walls along
the railroad near his block and also for the
stone bridge which he has contracted to
erect over the creek in the village. The
men to work it were hired in Barre, where
they had been thrown out of employment
by the strike of granite workers. Mr..
Desmond had had charge of the quar-
rying from the start. About 20 others
were employed under him at the quarry.
The quarry is on the west side of the di-
rect road from Mddlebury to the monu-
ment church in Weybrdge and is close
it on the other side of the highway is a
house occupied by Edward Ainse and
family. The boiler house was some 80
feet north of the quarry and was about
20 feet square In it were the boiler, the
engine and windlass for operating the
derrick and blacksmith shop for making
and repairing drills and other tools. The
derrick stood between the boiler house
and the quarry. The boiler was of the
horizontal pattern, what is known to the
trade as the locomotive pattern. 1t was
II feet long by th ee feet In diameter and
was made of plates one-fourth of an inch
in thickness. 1t was bought in Rutland,
on the advice of Holmes Bros. boiler
makers of that town, who were paid to
make and did make a thorough eXamina-
ton and test of it. After it had been
brought here Mr.. Allan Calhoun made an
examination and test of it, applying to it
in the test cold-water pressure of lO5
pounds. Steam engineers regard cold
water pressure as the equivalent of a
pressure ordinarily kept on the boiler was
GO pounds.
William Otis had had charge of the
boiler for the last two months or more.
Monday forenoon he stopped work tenn
porarily, in consequence of hurt
shoulder, which panied him, and came to
the village, intending to go back to the
quarry in the afternoon. The engine of
the hosting machine needed some slight
repairs in order 70 make it work well.
This repairing he intended TO do on hi,
return. Mr.. Otis also says that the
boiler leaked "A little and needed cauking;
but he is emphatic in his contradiction
of current reports that he quit work be-
cause he thought the boiler or engine in
a dangerous condition. Before leaving
he drew the fire from underneath the
boiler.
Mr.. Otis information is about the lat
est of any certainty attainable. After
his departure Mr.. Desmond seems to
have gotten up stean. and to have un-
dertaken some repairs about the appara-
tus, but Just what they were it is not easy
to say. One story is that he was caulk-
ing the boiler when it exploded; another /
is that he was working about the pipes /
from the steam dome on the top of 1t. At
at any rate, he was in very close prox-
Unity to the boiler. One of the men who /
was in the engine house few moments
before the explosion thinks the steam
gauge showed pressure of - pounds.
At the moment of the explosion Davis
was near the foot of the derrick and
Henderson was just entering the boiler
house.
DesmOnd's watch, which was found on
Tuesday, stopped at ID o'clock, which
was probably the exact time of the ex-
)losion. A piece of the boiler shell half
he size of an ordinary bed blanket was
carried G22 feet to the west, and Des-
nond's body, or the greater part of it,
vent with the flying fragment. The
head and trunk were discovered few
eet beyond the section of boiler plate
md the rest of it was picked up in various
parts of the field, one piece here and an
'ther there. His clothes were shredded
md were left 20 or 80 feet from the boil
n house. Henderson was thrown
through the air and into the side of a
zig pile of waste stone at the right of
he derrick and perhaps 40 feet from the
ngine house. His right elbow was
rushed and particles of broken rock and
nders were blown into his face, ewes
nd abdomen, and he was a good deal
ruised all over. Davis was thrown
yer and one of his eyes was filed with
inders, as was his face, which was also
omewhat badly scalded. The men at !
york in the quarry had their faces,
lands and clothes blackened by the nv-
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