The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-14
HURT BY HIS OWN EXPLOSIVE
WURTENBERGER FRIGHTFULLY
INJURED IN HIS LABORATORY.
The Substance Said TO he Twenty Times as
Powerful as Observation-Disclosures
In q DesOlate Place TWO Miles From
East Chester-(lOthes Blown or.

MOUNT VERNON, n. Y, April 13.-While
experimenting tonight in. his laboratory
in East Chester, Franz Wurtenberger, a
German, the inventor OF a new explosive
described as twenty times more powerful
than dynamite, was, it il feared, fatally
injured by an explosion. He was brought
to the Mount Vernon Hospital tonight,
where a corps Of physicians are working
over him.
His face and arms are terribly burned
and the hair is completely gone from his
head. The physicians say that if he sur
wives he will probably lose his sight.
The laboratory, on account of the dan
gerous experiments conducted there, is
located in a desolate place in the salt
The inventor was alone when the explosion
occurred, and he walked up and dow the
room shrieking with pain for fully an hour
before medical assistance could be OBJ
tanned.
j. l.. Crieder, division engineer Of the
New York, Westcheeter and Boston Rail-
way, WAS the first person to reach the
laboratory, and he describes the sufferings
of the inventor as being something dreadful
to see. He found him rushing about the
building calling madly for help, while burned
skin was hanging from his arms. His ears
were nearly burned of. while his clothes
had been taken of to the waist Ivy the eX-
plosiCn.
Mr.. Crieder ran to the nearest telephone
and called up DR.. Vandenburg of Mount
Vernon. He also got an ambulance and,
after considerable delay, the man was taken
to the hospital, where Drs. Shipman and
Sinnott worked over him to a late hour He
is rational, but is suffering such intense
agony that he can give no account OF the
accident.
Two months ago he gave a demonstration
for the benefit Of the United States Govern
ment and the officials OF the New York,
Westchester and Boston Railroad at the
railroads. excavations, a short distance
from his laboratory, with his new explosive.
At that time, ii is said, about thirty promi-
nent United States chemists attended the
demonstration and decided that it was a
success.
1t is said that the Government officials
wanted Wurtenberger to perfect his in
vention so that it could be touched of by
an electric spark instead Of a fuse and that
if he could accomplish this the Government
would pay him a million dollars for the COM
position of the explosive, Such is the story
told here.
Wurtenberger, 1t Is believed, was work.
ing on the electric spark idea when the
accident occurred. 1t has been learned
that he has shut himself UP almost con-
stantly in his laboratory since the visit OF
the Government experts, and from what
he recently told intimate friends he thought
he had discovered a way of setting of the
new explosive by means Of the spark.
1t is also said here that officials Of the
New York, Westchester and Boston Rail-
road were backing him in his experiments.
When seen tonight the officials were very
r~eticent in discussing the explosion. They
said the explosion was caused by the in
ventor accidentally igniting a varnish
compound with which he was experiment
ing by means Of an electric spark.
Intimate friends of Wurtenberger said
tonight that he had an idea his explosive
would revolutionize the warfare Of the
world.