The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-04
SOAP AND WATER DISASTER
FIVE TANKS FALL THROUGH a
SOAP FACTORY.
Contain Thirteen Thousand aIlons
Each and Kill Several Men
without Any Warming.

without Any warning.
New York, June 3.-Five enormous
tanks, each containing $4,000 gallons of
water, fell five stories through the new
building of David S. Brown Il Co., soap
manufacturers, at Twelfth avenue,
Fifty-first and Fifty second streets, this
morning, burying two, and perhaps three,
men under thousands of tons of debris.
The body of William Frazer, 40 years old,
a surveyor in the employ of the Otis Ele-
vator company. was taken from the ruins
this afternon. These men are missing:
Jacob jacobson, a carpenter.
Andrew Quinn, laborer.
Quinn is said to have been seen after
the tanks fell.
The place was nearly ready for Occu-
pancy. The tanks were to have contained
soap fat. They We're put in by the Cotes-
vile Iron Works, of Cotesville, Penn.
Alexander Brown, the brick contractor;
Henry +. Kilburn, the architect, and
Archie Hamilton, inspector for the iron
works contractors, were arrested and
charged with homicide.
The five tanks shot through the five
floors like q stone dropping through so
much space.
There were fifteen men in the building
at the time of the accident. They were
scattered aroun dthe facotry. There was
not a seconds warning of the fall of the
tanks. They had been filling with water
for testing and were nearly full.
" n
by 20 feet in height.
They were made of sheet iron and were
a quarter of an inch thick. To prevent the
water from bulging their sides, stout
iron bands had been placed inside of each
tank. =
The fall of the tanks, carrying with
them five floors of iron and wood work,
was heard for several blocks around.
At the fall of the tanks they carried
down iron girders and beams Il foot in
width and four inches in thickness, snap
ping them as if they were pipe stems.
There was no stopping as they struck the
floors in succession, so enormous was
the weight of the tanks.
All of the men who had been inside
the building were got together and count
ed. 1t was found that three were miss
ing. They were Quinn, Jacobson and
Frazer, but Quinn turned up later to-
night
A wrecking firm undertook the re-
moval Of the debris At four o'clock
Frazer's body was partially uncovered
and three hours later it was taken out.
Coroner Fitzpatrick said that it was prob
ably the bulgng of the tanks which had
caused the dislodgment of the wall and
caused the fall of the tanks and floors.
Agent John S. Jackson, of the Penn
sylvania iron firm. said that the breaking
of the bands on the inside Of the tanks
had probably been caused by the settling
Of the floor Police Captain Schmittber-
ger said th.t the tanks had been filled
TOO full and that jackson would be ar
rested for H.
Architect kilburn said that he had had
personal charge of the construction of the
| building. which had been planned by him
I5and ii was one of the finest buildings of
its kind he had ever seen The walls of
the factory were Il third thicker than the
specifications had called for. All the
work was of the best material and work
manship and no expense had been spared
in the construction Of IA portion of the
new building or in fitting it up as a fac
tory. He could give no opinion as to
what caused the accident.
Alexander Brown, the masonry con-
tractor. said that the masonry was first
/ class in every respect and had been put
l?up under close supervision.
|. Another phase was put on the question
I=of inculpation by the decision of eX-Uni-
I.ted States Superintendent of Buildings
I:High Angler, now with the street clean
ing department of this city. He took
up some of the mortar in the refuse and
pronounced it of a bad quality.
Its nothing but mud" he said.
Samples of the mortar will be eXamin
ed by experts.
District Attorney Olcott will attend the
inquest and will prosecute those RESPONSE
BILE for the disaster.
There is some discussion as to the
combined weight of the tanks on the
floor and the weight the floor should sus-
tain. 1t was said by representative of
the Cotesville Iron Works that the floor
should have sustained weight of twenty
times the weight of one of the filled tanks.