The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1899-09-02
CHICAGO ARCHES FALL,
Twelve Towering Frames Crash
to the Ground.
MANY MEN KILLED.
Dead and Dying Laborers Taken
from the Tangled Mass
of Steel.

Chicago, Ill.,, Aug. 29.-The twelve
iron arches put up as the skeleton for the
proposed Coliseum at Fifteenth street
and Wabash avenue fell yesterday after
noon. carrying down thirty painters and
bridge builders then at work on the job
Nine men were killed, eight injured, two
are missing, and the rest escaped. The
arches fell not singly nor in pairs, but all
at the same time, in the same direction,
and with the same motion. There was
no warning. The men who one moment
had been working in supposed safety
high up in the air the next were riding
to their death on swiftly-falling rafters,
crushing out their lives when they
crashed to the ground.
1t was little after 80 o'clock, and
the bridge builders on the northern arch
were letting down some heavy timbers
which had been used as part of a trav-
eier to carry the iron rafters into position.
There was hardly breath of air stirring
or anything which could suggest the least
danger. Suddenly the arches began to
sway from the north to the south. The
first motion was scarcely perceptible. The
return was more so. Then the twelve
great arches came back with a giant
swing and with q united and uniform mo-
tion hurled themselves and all they car
ried in one great ruin to the ground be-
low.
The cause of the buildings collapse was
and yet is a matter for dispute. The
theory generally received was that the
arches simply had been pulled over by a
donkey engine used in lowering the tenn
porary wooden beams.
As stated. the arches were all up, but
the false work remained around the
northern one. The beams composing this
were being let down to the ground by
ropes running through blocks attached
to the lower side of the arch, eighty
feet in the air. The engine turning the
drum around which the rope was coiled
was under the arches and 100
feet to the south of the northern one.
The theory of Architect Frost is that
this block through which the rope ran
was not directly in the middle of the
arch, as it ought to have been, but was
east Of the center in order the more
easily to reach the beams which were
being handled. The result was a trans
verse strain on the arch which pulled it
out of place, and, it being started, all
the others went with it,
The dead:
CHARLES WALPOT, brdgeman.
EDWARD MURRAY, bridgeman.
FRANK LOGAN, bridgeman.
STEPHEN J. THOMPSON. bridgeman.
RlCHARD sHERMAS. bridgeman.
LEROY FOuKNIER, bridgeman.
ALBERT NORMAN, bridgeman.
EDWARD SWANSON.
JOSEPH KING. 25 years old.
SAMUEL SMITH.
WILLIAM JOHNSON.
OSCAR OLSON.
The injured:
JOHN MARSHALL, right leg cut Off, left
leg broken, fractured skull; will die
PETER PELhlTIER. right arm and side
JOHN WHITE, back and head injured;
JOHN HAWTHORNE, scalp wounds; not
J. J. DOwD. skull fractured; not serious.
CORNELIUS TOOMEY, head and scalp
wounds; not serious.
ANDY MORRISON, bad wound in back
and confusion Of chest; will recover.
Slightly injured:
j. ]. JOHNSON. foreman.
DANIEL REARDON.
H. T. ZIMMER.
JAMES FLACK.
j. HANSON.
The difficult task of removing the heavy
iron arches and twisted girders that form
the debris of the frame work of the Coli
scum was continued tooay. Up to noon
none of the injured workmen who were
removed to the hospital had died. J. J.
Dowd. at first thought to be fatally in
iured, is now reported to have a chance
for recovery. Five men are reported by
the police to be missing and thought to
be under the debris.
The inquest WILL it is said, be delayed
until the full list of fatalities is known.
The accident to the Coliseum will not
put an end to the construction of the
Building As soon as the debris is cleared
away the work will be recommended.
According to Daniel W. Church, the loss
occasioned by the catastrophe will be un-
l.
the loss at a higher figure. No alteration
will be made in the plans for the build
ing, the three hinged truss being the one
used.