The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-05-15
(From the Jew York World.)

Don a bed of pain, frightfully man
gled afraid to live, and %dreading TO die
is now lying a man who holds a secret
the announcement of which might revo-
~lutionize the warfare of the world.
If this man dies the secret will die
with him.
His name is Frank Wurtenbergcr
He in the the Mount Vernon Hospital
carefully nursed suffering the greatest
torments-and clinging to his secret.
IF l die" he said yesterday to his
brother, Alfred W~urtenberger Il shall
die Of that terrible pain"
The doctors say that Wu~rtenberg5r
will live, that the explosion in the East
Chester laboratory will 10 end the i'll
VentOr's life as he was about to CON-
plete his work on the most terrible eX-
plosive known to science-eight timea
more powerful than dynamite or lyd-
dite. Moreover although the mangled
man seemed 10 be blinded by the awful
explosion the doctors declare that his
sight has not gone,
The great secret is then saved to the
world. For better or worse a new
and deadly power is to be added to the
destructive agencies which man has
WreStled from nature.
TRUST COMPANY HAS FORMULA.
If Wurtenberger had died only a for
mula representing his labOrs up to d
rn1Lr4 Io.l -yD,11l I-r1 s-~l - :
anticipating the possibilities of disaster
in handling this agency Of death, Wur-
~tenberger had this formula placed in q
trust company vault Now he will him
self be able to lay the complete work
before the United States government,
in accordance with his cherished plans.
The recent startling climax which SO
nearly cost the life of this intrepid man
"a man who has daily juggled with
death for years-is very dramatic in its
settings.
Far ont in the lonely, DOGGY marshes
of East Chester, W~urtenberger built
himself a laboratory, two miles from
the nearest inhabited dwellings,. His
neighbFrs of daylight Were the sea
gulls and a few croaking marsh hens,
and those of night we're the crOaking
frogs One old COlored man was the
only human being allowed to enter the
premises, and, as a matter of fact, no
sane person cared to approach the
weird hut, where the absorbed Ger
man scientist ~incubated dev1liSh COM
pounds which might wipe the place Off
the local map upon some untOWard
occasion.
While WurtenbergeT has not been
able TO fully explain what happened on
the day when the windows of his lone
~ workshop were blown out, the roof
lifted, n himself horribly mangled,
the story gathered by his brother i'll
hating sentences runs in this way:
STORY OF THE EXPLOSION.
The inventor in the silence Of the
marsh had for h~ours:been experiment.
ing with "a few graias of his powerful
explosive ,~endeavOring to find a way
by which it could be exploded with an
electric current. Incidentally. it should
be explained that the explosive cannot
be fired by any amount OF conclusion.
though "a match, or a fuse, or a glowing
ember will instantly set off the loose
powder.
The loose powder when not confined
burns quietly, but in a new form OF
cOulUFSSSCU SllChS, LIZ WHICH, hO pa
ticles are cemented together with Slu-
cose CT something of that nature, tTe-
menduous explosion is caused by 4 live
flame.
It WIS with this local power that the
inventor was experimenting. Only a
few grains in the eartiIen dish remem-
ber-not enough to have caused any
havoc. the inventor thought. What
o.+,o1l1~ h nnonn6 no dnQC NOT know.
except taIat as he leaned over the dish
adjusting the mechanism, there was a
friehtful roar and flash, and he was
hurled through the air and against the
opposite wall of the room, blinded and
terribly Tacerated. His torn garments
burst into fame, which he fought with
his bare hands, and being sightless
and HORRIBLY wounded, the burning
cloth ate deeply into the flesh before
he was aware Of the added torture.
Alone, screaming in agony, madden
ed beyond human control, he dashed
blipdix round and round the room,
o~verturning deadly chemicals, breaking
ebulliating tasks and glass stills, reel
ing from the shocks as he ran full tilt
in the walls of his smoke laden q
burning prison.
CRAZED WITH PAIN.
He was so cfazed with pain hat all
sense of location left him, and the n
door of his pen which led to the cutter
air he never found.
Fortunately, his colored man found
him~at the end Of half an hour wrlth-
ing weakly On the floor, but II was
another hour before a private convey
ance could be brought back to the door,,
and his tortured form carried to the
hospital in Mount Vernon.
DR.. Shipman, of mount Vernon, wne
started to his assistance when notified
by telephone, who accompanied him
fer a portion of the ride to the hos
pital. and who has since had the case
in hand. a that wurtenberger will
live, and that he will not lose his sight.
The patients fine physique and his in
Sons+ah la resolve not 70 reveal his Sc