The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-30

Frightful havoc and the death of one
man and the injury of two others was
caused by the bursting of a huge fly
wheel in the rolling mill department of
the Green Ridge Iron works yesterday
morning. Owen ID. Davis. dragger.
met instant death: David Spring, a
heater, and Ellsworth Price. laborer,
were slightly injured; the roof of the
structure was wrecked, and the shaft
| ing and machinery in the rolling de-
partment were almost completely de-
molshed.
How such great damage could be
caused by anything less than big ex-
! ploslon. is hard to imagine until the
terrific force represented in the giant
| fly wheel, now broken into a score of
| pieces, is understood. 1t weighed four
| teen tons, was fourteen feet in diam
| eter and was thought to be making
| about 450 revolutions a minute when
| the accident occurred.
About 80 men were at work about the
| rolls, engines and furnaces at 1880
o'clock. Iron. three-eights of an inch
| in diameter, was being rolled. The en-
| gines had been stopped a moment pre-
| vious, as the furnace did not furnish
| the molten iron fast enough for the
\ rolls. The delay was only momentary
and the machinery soon started to roll
out a box" just removed from the
| furnace. Three bars had been rolled
and the machinery was going at nor
| NAL speed when, without warning, the
catastrophe happened.
SERIES OF CRASHES.
| Nobody knew at once what had oc-
/ Tbara Serpc M Chps
| and reports and the air was filled with
| flying iron and wood. A dense cloud of
dust filled the place and no idea could
be formed of the extent of the damage
until circulation of air partly cleared
the interior and light entered through
a series of great gaping holes i'm the
| roof. The noise of the destruction was
| heard blocks away and those who look
ed quickly toward the mill saw iron,
| boards and timber falling in a shower
from the heavens back upon the mill
| 1t was long before it would be admit
ted that anything less than frightful
explosion had occurred.
After the first shock a heater saw
| Davis body lying near one of the doors
of the furnace and dragged 1t from the
| wreckage. He was found to be stone
dead. The body was not badly mutil-
ated but the skull had been fractured
and the neck broken, and the back of
the neck and shoulders burned from
contact with the furnace. Search for
missing workmen was instituted at once
| but it was soon found that Davis alone
had been killed and that Price and
Spring were the only ones injured.
| They were not badly hurt, but walked
to their homes.
The rolling department occupied the
| easterly end of the works which extend
along Green Ridge street to the Della
ware and Hudson tracks Beginning
at the tracks the mill was divided into
four unpartitioned parts containing the
scrap shed, furnace. rolls and engine.
The roof of nearly all that part of the
plant was pierced with huge holes
caused by up-hying or descending por-
tions of the big wheel and heavy tim
bers and iron. OF the rolls nothing re-
manned whole except their foundation.
The shifting apparatus and carriages
had disappeared as had the counter
shafting above the space between the
engine and the rolls. The big roof
beams and iron rods attached to them
were either missing or broken, twist
ed and lying in unexpected places.
EXACT CAUSE NOT KNOWN.
Out of such confusion it has not been
positively determined how Davis was
struck. a big beam and a broken piece
Of the fly wheel weighing nearly half
a ton was found lying near him but if
either had struck him he would have
been frightfully mangled He was
about to drag hox from the fur
mace when killed. His father, a labor
er. was raking ashes from the rear of
the furnace.
Opinions as to the primary cause of
the disaster are various. William b.
Cobb, superintendent of the works was
in the spike mill when the wheel broke.
AS has been the custom, William Cox
the engineer was in charge of the
rolling while the superintendent was
engaged elsewhere. Superintendent
Cobb said the hreakage of the counter
shaft suspended above the space be-
tween the engine and rolls broke the fly
wheel. A piece OF the shaft weighing
several hundred pounds had broken
loose, he said, and the tension of the
betting had pulled it in it's fall toward
the fly wheel, breaking the latter.
Another version is that the big fly
wheel itself first broke and was con-
!
dent Cobb's opinion is however partly
supported by the presence of a large
piece Of the counter shafting near the
fly wheel foundations after the acci-
dent
The outer rim of the wheel was sec
tional. Its eight parts We're connected
by heavy pins and formed a flexible
circle. Each section weighed over a
ton and was Joined by heavy movable
steel spokes to the hub about the shaft
ing. This peculiar flexible construc-
tion Of the wheel may account for the
report circulated after the accident
that it had been seen to 'wObble" for
several days preceding yesterday.
EASILY MADE A PATH.
1t flew into pieces ranging in weight
from several hundred pounds to one
piece containing rim and three spokes
weighing three tons, This latter Sec
tion went thirty feet in the air and fell
through the scrap shed hundred feet
away. 1t made a path for itself
through beams, rods and roof as easily
as though all these obStructons had
been of paper.
The mill is owned by Ambrose l..
| Spencer Constant work for two