The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1902-02-25
BURSTING WHEEL
KILLS THREE MEN.
APPALLING DISASTER AT POWER
HOUSE IN SPARTANBURG.
A Whirlirg Wheel Bursts-A Big Ely
Wheel of the Railway Engine Ran
AWAY and Flew TO Pieces With
Distressing Loss of Life-Cause
is Uncertain.
[Spartanburg Journal, 10th.

| Inc most taGal aCclQonG tnaL ever
occurred in Spartanburg happened
last night at 10 o'clock at the power
house of the Electric Railway and
Light Co., when one of the fly wheels
of an engine running a dynamo that
furnished power for the car current
bursted and killed Assistant Engin-
eer I. Lawrence Wilson, Gas Maker
Thomas Pike and Fireman Robert
Sample, colored. These men in the
twinkling of an eye were cut down
like grass before Soy the by a Sec
ton of the fly wheel weighing about
250 pounds, their bodies torn and
mangled and their limbs shattered
and amputated. Sample lived about
fifteen minutes after the physi-
clans reached him. Mr.. Wilson
lived for several hours and
retained consciousness and gave an
intelligent account of the accident,
and Mr.. Pike was still living this
morning, though unconscious and
with no chance of recovery. He died
at l p. m.
These men were alone at the power
house at the time of the accident and
as there was nobody to telephone or
give notice of what had occurred, it
was some time before any body
reached the terrible scene. The
electric lights went out up town
at once and the electric light
people tried to telephone the
power house to learn what
was the matter, but, of course
could get no response. A fireman
from Beaumont Mills was the first to
reach the power station, closely fol-
lowed by Engineer F. H. Knox and
Superintendent ]. G. Norcross and
others. The place was enveloped in
darkness and was as still as the death
it contained. When finally lighted
the scene that met the eyes of those
who had come beggars description.
BODIES OF VICTIMS SCATTERED.
The bodies of the victims were
scattered over two rooms Of the
power house and out in the yard, a
big engine was wrecked, the electric
generator smashed into a tangled
mass and the roof and floor Of the
building were torn up by the huge
pieces of the wheel that had been
thrown through them. Big steel
rods and pieces of iron were twisted
like wires and the steam chest of the
engine was broken open and through
the aperture all the steam in the boil
ers rushed. This was the cause of
the shutting down of the lighting
dynamo, which was some distance
from the place of the accident and
itself uninjured, as was the engine
which furnished it power.
By curious fatality all three of
the men we're apparently standing
at the time the big fly wheel bursted
right in line with it and in the very
place where its flying pieces came
with most force and destruction.
Three feet to either side of where
the unfortunate men stood nothing
was touched and they could have
stood in safety, but in the path OF
the flying missiles from the shattered
and swiftly flying wheel everything
was ruined and every human being
slaughtered. The splendid machln-
ery was demolished like toy and
the substantial building battered
and bruised.
THE CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT.
The cause of the horrible accident,
as is frequently the case with sud
den loss of life and destruction OF
property, will probably never be def,
initely known. Engineer Wilson be-
| fore his death told his brother, Chief
Engineer Wilson, of the circum
stances preceding the accident. Hf
had noticed short time before the
bursting Of the wheel that the
governor was not working properly
and was giving out knocking sounc
and did not seem to be regulating
the speed of the big engine as l
should. He telephoned this fact t
his brother, the chief engineer, an