The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-08-10
IN KINNEY
Ingenuity Overcame Many Obstacles in
Rescue-Astride a Plank Ie4 Fee.
in Air for Hours.

TWO men were prisoners inside Of 9
new reinforced chimney at MiIIiken
brothers steel plant, Mariners Ho~bcr.
Staten Island, for five and a half hours
thls afternoon They were on a pIank
SIX feet lnng by two feet wide, and Ten
1eet from the top Of the chimney. which
Is 164 feet high.
lie rescue was effected after q
long struggle on the part Of the other
employees about the place and members
OF the fire departmnr who were called
- ala IN getting the two men down.
n pair that were high up in he
chimney are Harry Towne, the foreman
OF the job and Conried Briel. his as
slstahr Inc two are expert chimney
builders.
The two men went up to do SOM
cementing near the top. and thus nuf
on what Towne afterwards said were
the finishing touches" A ladder 1GS
1eet n in II foot sections, had been
rugged up inside of the chimney. Towne
n Briel climbed up this at l O'Clock.
after they had lunched.
olOOD ON LASI PLANK
They cemented the top or rim of the
chimney and then climbed down 10 the
Scofolding that had been built ten fee,
below the top. 4 small ladder that hal
been used in reaching the top was
dropped below, and the pair began t.
rip up the floor of the s%caffolding. Tha-
had ripped up all the planks but one.
the largest and center piece of ne
scaffold. They stood on this as they
dropped the last Of the other plankS.
n last plank they dropped did no.
go straight to the bottom, as did he
Others. 1t struck the side of the chin
ney, and, glancing in, crashed heavily
into the upright ladder some distance
below the two men. The force Of the
crashing plank snapped the ladder, and
the upper half Of it tumbled in a heap
below.
h two men found themselves mar
OOned high up and with only a plank
two feet wide to stand on. The two men
stood on the plank and yelled for what
seemed to them days. 1t was really
about ) o'clock when the wOrknlen
about the plant walked into the CHM
ney at ground level and heard the cries
Of the two lofty prisoners.
FIFTY YARDS OF SHIRT.
The crowd wondered what was the
matter, but soon a narrow strip OF
tape-like rope came slowly down the
shaft, and it was then seen that the
pair on the plank had made a rope Of
their shirt. BY the time they had WOW
en- his tape, an enOrmOu crowd, in
Guiding the members of the hook and
ladder truck los, had arrived from
West Brighton, in charge of Battalion
Chief Martin.
Martin and his men got a long on
inch rope and attached it to the shirt
line that TOwne and Biel had lowered.
The two men sat astride the plank
high up, and yanked this rope up. When
! they got hold of the inch rope, they
threw it over the top of the chimney.
it stuck in the soft cOncrte and
could not be budged one way or the
other. When they had got the irch
rope TOwne and Briel thought, as they
said afterwards that they were 'hunka-
dory,'' and let their shirt line drop.
Then they were without another line
to lower for more rope. After a while
TOwne and Briel again sat aStride OF
the plank and got busy. Soon a tape
line made of their u~ndershirts came
slowly down the inside of the chimney.
PASSED UP SECOND ROPE.
They did it. all right, but 80 thin
and frail was the line that Battalion
Chief Martin readily saw that it would
not support a rope an inch thick and
sent up first q thin fishing line. When
the chimney builders had got their line
they yanked up another stretch Of heavy
rope.
This cleared the chimney rim with
out getting stuck, and the weighted
end of it spun down to the ground on
the outside of the big concrete shaft
Chief Martin and his men took this
end and anchored it to the railway
tracks of the North Shore rapid transit
line and left a man TO flag any trains
that might come along.
Briel was the first to slide down the
rope on the inside Of the chimney.
Towne came down as soon as BrLe.
had landed.
Both men were badly scorched by
the rope in sliding down. AS their
bodies were practically nude, the skin
was rubbed off in many places.
1t was 7:40 o'clock when Towne
reached the bottom Of the chimney.
Bob men were famished for water. but
otherwise were all right--New York
! Special to Washington Post.