Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-02-07
THE CITIZEN.
A Strange Tale.

The strangest thing that has come tc
| light in Bellevue Hospital New York since
the finding a few years ago, of a set OF
false teeth embedded in the heart of a wo-
man who had died suddenly, was revealed
on Monday, December oath, in an opera
ton performed on John Scanlon. Scanlon
came to Bellevue the previous Saturday
morning, suffering with what every one,
including himself, supposed to be a bad
dislocation Of the left elbow joint. When
he was operated upon Monday, however,
the doctors pulled from his forearm, IN
pieces from half an inch to a foot and a
half in length, eleven feet OF lead wire one
sixteenth of an inch IN diameter. Scsnlon
is a brawny machinist, 80 years old, in the
employ of the East River lead company
Until Saturday he had charge OF the ma
chine that makes the wire found in his
arm.
The machine is essentially a steel box,
from which molten lead is forced through
an aperture or die, one sixteenth of an
inch in diameter, by hydraulic pressure of
six hundred tons. The stream of lead be-
fore it reaches the air hardens into long
thin wire which is afterwards wound on a
wheel. At times the aperature becomes
cIogged and the stream of lead stops.
When this happens the attendant seizes
the wire in his hands and sets 1t going
again by sharp pull
Scanlon was at work Saturday morning
and the machine clogge q, tie reel went on
turning ond broke the wire about ten inch
es from the die. Scsnlon reached over as
usual, caught hold of the wire and gave 1t
a smart pull. Suddenly there was an ex-
plosion in the metal receptacle. The whole
machine was enveloped IN steam, and
Scanlon was knocked senseless. When he
reganed consciousness ne was in an am
bulance on his way to Bellevue. The
mans arm, which gave him some pain,
was examined by the doctors who said
that his elbow was out of joint. There
was little cut about two inches long
extending across the arm about three
inches above the wrist, but under the cir
cumstances no attention was paid to 1t.
The usual practice tor putting the elbow
bones back into place was resorted to, but
the pain in the arm did not cease. Sun
day morning a more thorough examination
was made and what was thought to be bits
of broken bone could be felt about the
Joints. 1t was decided that Scanlon had a
compound fracture of the upper part of the
bones of the forearm, and time was set
for an operation Monday moring.
Scanlon was put under the influence oi
ether DR.. Rathbone, assisted by the
house staff, started the operation. The
knife with which the surgeon commenced
to cut away the flesh that covered the
bones had hardly penetrated the skin when
1t struck against foreign body that the
surgeons delicate touch detected to be
metal. Upon further cutting eleven feet,
or more exactly, 134 inches of lead wire
was brought out The wire was cOiled and
tangled together and broken into many
pieces Part of it was lodged between the
two bones of the forearm, but the most
was embedded in the big muscle there, and
in small bits about the elbow joint. Scan
Ions arm was evidently bent when the ac-
cident occurred, and the elbow joint stop
ped the wire. which had shot out of the
machine under the force of the explosion
and penetrated the arm where the little
cut was found going on by its own momen-
tum. Scanlon was much relieved by the
removal of the wire, and is now getting
along we'll at the hospital. The muscle OF
the forearm was considerably cut up by
the wire, b ut will heal quickly and the
arm will be as good as ever.