The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-19
FATAL BOILER
EXPLOSION
The Engine Room In Van Bergen &
Companu's Foundry on Dun.
daft Street Is Wrecked.
DAVID WILSON KILLED

His Body Blown Fully Two Hundred
Feet from the Scene of the Explo-
sion Lands on Network of Telc-
graph Wires High in the Air-Nar-
row Escape of the Day Engineer.
\ boiler exploded at the foundry of
Van Bergen e. Company. on DundaT
street, yesterday morning, completely
,leInolishing the boiler room. wreck
ing the rear end of the foundry walls
and scattering debris for many hun
dred feet. The engineer in charge,
David Wilson. was killed. being blown
fully 200 feet from the scene of the
explosion. He was thrown high in the
air and landed on a network of tele-
graph wires. From there he dropped
to the ground. He was unconscious
when picked up but slightly moved
several times while being carried away.
The explosion occurred at 75o
o'clock. John c. Ulmer, the night
watchman was relieved by Wilson at
Gas o'clock AS was usual. Timer and
Wilson had a little chat in the engine
room before Ulnler went home. Ulmer
says that when he left he saw that
there We're forty pounds of steam and
that the water guage was full. AS he
started for home. Wilson told him that
he guessed he'd clean his boiler and
dump the ashes. Wilson was day
watchman on Sundays, as his work as
engineer was very light, all that was
necessary being to keep the fires go
ing and steam up. 1t was his usual
custom on Sundays to make a round
of the foundry about once an hour,
the first time about a. m. Yesterday
morning he performed this duty and
registered his time, by the pressure
of a button, at the office at 7.40.
Shortly after this Fred Dix. the day
engineer at the electric light works.
came along on his way to work. 1t
was his daily practice to stop and
talk to Mr.. Wilson as he passed along
by the boiler room of the foundry, but
yesterday morning when he went by
he saw another man talking to Wilson.
SO he says and contented himself by
saying. Hello. Dave!" to which Will
son replied, Hello. Fred!" Dix then
went to his work in the electric light
plant. about minutes walk away.
He had just got into his own engine
room and was reaching for his over
alls when he heard a terrific noise.
He instantly rushed back and saw
that the boiler room he had just left
was. wrecked and that bricks and iron
and wood We're strewn many feet
around. His first thought was of Will
son, and he ran toward the foundry.
Ia I, iv1or rf hi 1,,tt
his attention was attracted a second
later by two or three men pointing to
a spot in the Old canal bed, about
twenty feet back Of Van Bergen &,
Company's store. He ran back there
and saw Wilson lying on his side, with
his face buried in the dirt. He was
over 200 feet from the wrecked portion
of the foundry and he must have been
hurled high in the air by the awful
force of the explosion. for on his de-
scent he had struck the telegraph
wires and broken several of them. Mr..
Dix says he was the first man to reach
Wilson. and he lifted his face from the
dirt and laid him over on his back.
The engineer gasped several times
and then number of men wrenched
a door loose from an adjoining build
ing and carried him to Il little wooden
balcony on Van Bergen & Company's
store. On the transit his arm twitched
several times, but it was the only sign
OF life he gave and he never recovered
consciousness. His body was terribly
burned and scalded and he sustained
a compound fracture of the skull.
The force of the explosion caused
complete destruction of the boiler room.
This was a structure of about thirty
by sixty feet. of one-stOry in height. IT
was on the northwesterly end of the
foundry. Scarcely one brick remained
standing upon another The huge boiler
was lifted bodily, thrown forty feet and
turned around sideways, hitting the
huge smokestack and tearing hole in
one end of it. 1t fell back upon one
end and the furnace end rests upon
what remains of the foundry wall. The
boiler was badly battered and torn.
Part of the crown sheet was torn out,
thrown up over the roof of the foundry
and hurled 25O feet. where it struck an
"a" demolished WINDOW and some
brickwori around it and then dropped
to the ground. This heavy piece of
steel was curled up around it's edges as
If 1t had been pulp. A peculiar thing
noticed by many engineers and me-
chancs was that while the staybolts
were completely missing from it the
threads in the holes We're not cut or
torn. The scattered pieces of wood,
brick and corrugated iron that covered
the roof were picked up many feet
away, some of the fragments having
been thrown over 500 feet. The foundry
walls We're left intact, except the one
where the boiler room joined, which
was almost completely demolished. The
force of the explosion was upward and
away from the main buildings, for with
the exception of the two nearest win
dows, not pane of glass was broken
anywhere else. and in these two it
looked as If some small boys had been
having frolic with stones, for the
frames of the panes and the woodwork
were intact.
There We're about thirty workmen
employed in the foundry on weekdays.
On Sundays Mr.. Wilson was the only
one around. Had the explosion oc-
Cured on weekday the loss of life
would probably have been greater, as
six men usually work in immediate
proximity to the boiler room,
NARROW ESCAPE OF DIN.
The man who Mas seen talking 10
Wilson by Dix had just left the boiler
room and was not more than 200 feet
away on his way up Van Bergen place
when the explosion occurred. He was
opposite the house OF Samuel Davis,
the one nearest the foundry, when the
accident took place. Mr.. Davis, who is
mi,