The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-01-02
THREE CLOSE CALLS.
NARROW ESCAPES HAD BY WORKMEN
IN A PULP MILL.

81 never hear Of persons narrowly es-
| Gaping death or surviving extraordinary
injuries" said the New York represen-
tative of q big pip mill company, that
I do not Think of some remarkable in
| stances of the kind that have occurred at
one of our mills in the northern part Of
| this state. On one occasion a workman
named Wolf was engaged in cleaning a
machine used at a certain stage in the
process of pulp manufacture. The prin-
cipal feature of this machine was two
very heavy iron rollers-one above the
other. When in operation. the upper
roller was pressed closely down on the
lower ore, and they revolved in opposite
| directions. To clean these rollers the up
| per one was raised seven or eight inches,
the machine of course being at rest.
"In the course of his work Wolf, who
was a young German, thrust his head
| and shoulders between the rollers to see
better to clean the lower roller. While
he was in that position some careless
person turned on the water power. The
| rollers started at once, and before the
alarm could be given and the water
turned off Wolf was drawn earthrOugh
| between the rollers and dropped or the
| other side, as much like pulp, SO far as
appearances went, as anything could be.
I happened to be in that part of the mill
at the time and saw the frightful mishap.
81 ran to where the limp form of the
workman lay and dispatched a messen-
ger at once for a doctor, merely as a
matter of form, however, for that any
thing could be done for the shapeless
mass of humanity never entered my
mind. It was impossible to lift the body.
We shuffled it on toa blanket and car
ried it to the unfortunate mans home.
l noticed that, although there vas not
the slightest evidence of consciousness,
Wolf was still breathing and that his
heart was beating. When the doctor
came, he declared that from the shout
| ders down there was positively not a
single whole bone left in VOLTS body.
| He said there was not n chance in ten
| thousand of the man living.
"'It would take 10 doctors a week to
set his bones,' he said.
"He incased the body in plaster from
the neck down, and when he came next
day was amazed to find that Wolf was
still alive and had regained conscious
ness. Wolf lay incased in plaster for
several weeks. His bones knit and grew
together again, but in such a way that
when he was able to get around he was
covered with knobs and ridges and queer
corners and angles from head to feet.
DIT ho uo a1iy-n Hn uoc NI1r niohf
Waterman for 10 years after that and is
alive today.
"Another time a workman in a diff
ferent part of the mill named Sanneman
was caught in a big belt by a felt apron
he wore, and before the works could be
stopped he was whirled seven times
around the pulleys, striking the ceiling
with tremendous force each time. He
was taken up for dead. I examined him
| before the doctor came, and there wasn't
even the sign Of an abrasion or mark on
his body. Ten minutes later, when the
doctor came, he was as black as coal all
over. There wasn't a spot on him that
was not discOlored. The doctor exam
ined the man carefully, and to his
amazement found that there was not a
bone broken anywhere about him. His
injuries were so slight that he was at
work again within two days. Yet he
had passed seven times through a space
between the pulley and tie beam not
over seven inches wide.
"Once the dam of one of our mills be-
came so clogged with logs that they in
terfered with the water power. 1t was
necessary to release the jam or shut down
the mill. The work would necessarily
endanger the lives and limbs of all who
engaged in it, and volunteers were asked
for, handsome extra pay being offered.
Plenty of men were ready to take the
risks, among them Pat O'Brien, pn Irish
man, 81 years old. He insisted on being
one of the gang and Joined it against the
protest of the superintendent.
THE work of releasing the log jam
went all right until the key log that held
the main jam was to be removed. There
lay the danger. The key was removed,
and the men made a wild dash to escape
the rush. They all got out of the way but
four, among them the old Irishman, Pat
O'Brien. These four were caught among
the logs and went over the falls, a sheer
descent of So feet. Men and logs went
over together, and everybody supposed
that the men would be ground to atoms.
But a most astonishing thing happened.
In falling a number of logs fell on end
in a group, their upper ends topping to-
gether, forming an almost perfect tent, or
peaked hut, with the down stream side
open. The men had escaped injury, not
only from the logs in the fall, but from
the tremendous plunge itself, and it was
as they landed in the water below that the
tent of logs formed with them beneath
its shelter. This saved them from being
drowned by the water that plunged
down from the great height.
There was constant danger Of the
shelter of logs being forced from its
Judgment by the pressure of water. In
view of the latter danger, when it came
to rescuing them, the three young men
of the party urged OLD Pat O'Brien to be
hauled up first. He obstinately refused
to be hauled up until his companions
had been rescued, when he took his
chance and was landed safely above.