The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-14
Wave Ten Feet High EnGnIGs Every
thing Before 1t, and Washes
Women Out Of Flats.
ANOTHER HARVEST BY DEATH
FAST EMPRESS TRAIN MOWS DOWN
A GANG OF SNOW sHOvELERs.
Twelve Men Step from Ono Track to
Another, and Eight Are Hurled
Into Eternity without Warming

NEW YORK. Dec 13.-The great steel gas
tank OF the Consolidated Gas Company, at
Avenue A and Twentieth street, the largest
of it's kind in the world, collapsed at $50
o'clock this afternoon 1t went down with
crash and Il roar like a great explosion
Masonry of granite blocks and bricks 20
the height of fifty feet fell like child's
toynouse of blocks, and Ioosed from bond
age eight millions of gallons of water
deIuged the streets and in a ten-foot wave
carried death and destruction through the
surrounding neighborhood 1t is not known
how many were killed and injured. The
dead so far recovered are:
ANDREW WENDT, workman.
PIOUS BAUM, engineer, in adjacent fac
tory
JOHN GRAY. seventy-five years old,
watchman, Manhattan.
The injured are:
CATHERINE O'CONNELI, four years
old, leg fractured, contusions.
MARY ANN O'CONNELL nineteen. body
badly lacerated.
TIMOTHY DUNN, aged ffty-dve Green
Point, l.. l.. general contusions and sub
mersion by water.
JOHN WAGNER, aged thirty-eight, gem
eral contusions.
WILLIAM KANE, face lacerated, gen
eral confusion.
CHARLES QUIGG, aged twenty-nine, Of
Brooklyn, severely injured about the body
and face, M
PETER wAEI1ER, Ggsffoestt u ee
About fifteen Others so far as has been
learned, were injured more on less severely
or almost drowned. James O'Connor, fore
man in FGldnor's factory, adjoining, and
believed to have been in the basement with
Engineer Baum who was killed, is miss
ing. Two others, George Brenner, time
keeper, and George Winke, fifteen years
old, son of Foreman Winkie, are4also miss
ing.
The steel tank was IFS feet in diameter
and 100 feet high. Rising out of the ground
to a height Of fifty feet was a great circu-
lar wall of granite and brick many feet in
thickness. This was filled with eight mill
lions of gallons of water. A gang of men
were at work under a foreman filing the
pit with water to make the first water
test" The great tank seemed to withstand
the test well. The laborers We're e, I be-
ginning to gather UP their tools to .Anock
off. There were many people on the street
and crowded street cars coming and going
Suddenly came an awful crash. The men
below had scarcely time to fly from beneath
the falling walls. They were picked up by
the mass of rolling water and hurled hun
dreds of feet away Into the basement, the
first and second floors of factories and tene-
ments rushed the flood. Workmen were
shot out of the factory windows and carried
a block or more as If mere straws Women
were washed out of the flats from the first
floors and almost drowned.
Mary Ann O'Connen and her little four
| year-old sister Catherine were seated at
the front window of the second floor of No.
| SS5 Avenue A. Before they could turn TO
| flee rush of water struck them. smashing
| through the door and carrying them half a
block distant. Both were badly injured, the
| little one perhaps fatally.
Henry Fildner vas taken up bodily and
| carried almost to Twenty-fi first street His
son was also carried out of his office by the
water, but was caught in the debris. and
! but for the timely arrival of some work.
men with axes he would have been drowned
| Andrew Wendt, one of the killed. was
near the base of the tank when it collapsed.
He was caught by the rushing waters and
borne almost an incredible distance His
mangled and almost naked body was found
against an elevated railroad pillar at Twen-
| ty-irst street and First avenue, more than
q block away
| w. j. Logan, of the Logan iron works
of Green Point, L. T., the contractor who
was building the tank, arrived on the scene
within a few minutes after the collapse and
was at once placed under arrest William
| III. Bradley, chief engineer Of the Consoli-
dated Gas Company. and said to be Jointly
| responsible for the work with Contractor
Logan. was also placed under arrest. Both
were charged with homicide and their bail
was placed at $4,000 each.
| After the masonry of the tank COLLAPSED
the tank proper careened and fell in a bat
| tered heap to one side. The giant uprights
were bent as if made of paper, the whole
making one great mass OF scrap iron. The
loss OF the tank is said to be complete. $500.
| 600. The collapse of the tank caused the
rupture of some of the great water mains
which were constructed to feed it and for
some time these poured their torrents into
the streets. Eventually they were closed.
The downtown district suffered greatly
on account of the accident, for all the gas
supplied by the Consolidated Company in
that part Of the city was shut off, This af-
fected the downtown restaurants, down
town hotels. the elevated stations, all the
ferry houses and whatever business houses
are in the habit of doing business at night
Inc morning newspapers SuIefeo more than
any one else. Those that use linotypes had
a vast amount of trouble as a result of the
failure of the gas pressure. Some of the
newspapers were supplied with gasoline
burners adapted for use in connection with
the linotypes in towns where gas cannot be
readily had. and for time it appeared as
though the return 10 old-fashoned methods
of setting type by hand would be inevitable.
Finally, however by shifting the burners
and elevating them enough heat was gen.