The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-15
FOUR MORE BODIES FOUND
TAKEN FROM THE WRECKAGE OF
THE COLLAPSED GAS HOLDER.
Parts of Two New York Streets Piled
and Possible Cause of Accident.

NEW YORK. Dec. H.-Four more bodies
were found to-day in the wreckage Of the
collapsed gasholder at Twentieth street and
Avenue A. This brings the list of the dead
up to six, as follows:
Plus Balm. engineer in Fuldner's furni-
ture factory.
JOHN GRAY, seventy-five years old,
Waterman at the gas works.
AUGUST WlsNID II r. sixteen years DID,
son : Of pr, the EH1, c0ntraet9rs foreman
PETER CONLIN, laborer:
GEORGE W BkEMER, twenty-five
years old, timekeeper for the Logan iron
works.
No one is missing, so far as the police and
persons living near the gas works can tell.
When dawn lighted up the district devas-
tdted by the collapse of the tank spec
tacle of ruin was presented. Twenty-lirst
street was barricaded by twisted and bent
iron stanchions, Orders and upwriShts piled
to a height of twenty-five feet Twentieth
street is also filled with bricks, household
goods and timbers piled high in a promis-
cuous mass. Building department laborers
succeeded in clearing Avenue so that the
cars could run. All night long hundreds of
men worked assiduously to discover the
bodies that might be in the ruins In the
basement of the furniture factory of Hen
ry Fuldner there was six feet of water
Three men a raft searched for the body
Of the missing engineer, Plus Balm. who
was in the basement attending to his duties
when the deluge from the tank swept away
the rear wall of the building His body was
found under a mass of debris
The tank collapsed was 10 feet in diane
ter, 100 feet in height, and the iron SUPPORTS
over which the immense cables ran were
over 200 feet in height The lower tank, into
which the upper one fitted, was twenty five
feet in height, and rested on the mason
work of the pit This pit is $50 feet deep.
The builders were testing the strength of the
tank at water pressure. Immense pipes had
been pouring water into the tank all day.
The upper tank, or cap, had risen about
Twenty-Five feet. The wOrkmen were pre-
pairing TO leave the place when the mason
work of the pit crumbled away like clay.
1t was said that there was 5000 coo gallons
of water in the tank at the time of the
break. The water was over fifty-six feet in
depth. The steel plates of the tank were
rent aSunder by the pressure like so much
paper. The great force of the water vented
itself on the rear walls of the buildings on
Avenue A, and all were torn away with the
exception of part OF the rear of the gas
conpdnyS engine house. The masonry and
brick were thrown into the street and piled
into the Railways OF the houses and buildings
on Avenue side. The rushing waters cut
the rear of Fuldner's furniture factory. and
huge slabs OF asphalt were carried by the
water into the buildings. Tremendous iron
JSaiiiS anu ubilBliAS were swept DN tuC
water as II they We're so much timber and
carried away down Twentieth and Twenty
first streets TO the river front AT the foot
OF TWenty-first street We're two barges
loaded with coal. The rushing waters sent
beams and joists with such great force
against these coa-laden boats that they
pan ted their mOOrings. The steammer PAU
Koch was also lying at the foot OF Twenty
first street and her mornings were also
parted
As TO the cause of the collapse of the gas
holder nothing is known. The theory most
commonly believed is that the tank burst
because a settling OF the foundation one
side sent go gallons of water surging
with irresistible force against the northern
slice o. The structure. II is said that the
foundations on which the holder rested
stood on made ground, which would be very
kelly TO buckle under tremendous strain.