The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-04-12
| great deal of difference at the noz-

matte record of where the water
stands i'll the standpipe each day.
A. No. sir, have not.
Q. Have You any rules for requiring
you to be at the power house during
a freq
"A. Well, yes and no too. T hardly
know just how to answer that, Cap
tain. When Mr. Eargle is down there
The is our chief engineer and is in
charge when he is there-I do not
feel that it is necessary for me to be
there. I happened to be up town in
this case, but knew that Mr.. Eargle
was on duty, for he comes in at II
O'Clock or little before, and the fire
broke ont about II o'clock. I did not
feel that it was necessary to go to
the power house.
Q. You felt that you had compct-
ent men there and there were no rules
that required you to be at the power
house?
A. No, sir, it was not necessary for
me to be at the power house. I would
have gone, but did not feel that it
was necessary when Mr.. Eargle was
there.
Mr. Eargle's Testimony.
Mr.. y. +. Ear"le, being duly sworn.
! says:
Q. Mr.. Earglc, what position do
you occupy with The commissioners of
; public works9
A.. Engineer at the city power
house.
@. Were You in charge of the wat
er plant on The day Of this fire9
A. Yes. sir.
9. What WAS the condition of the
plant at that time. Standpipc, pump.
etc?
a. We'll. II o'clock is my hour to
go to work. and | work through II
O'Clock on Saturday night, and that
mornin" | went TO the well to gel ii
drink Of water and saw that the res
crvoir was full. 7 only found five
feet out. AS rule We hardly ever
put up five feet, but on Saturday
morning we put from four to five
feet. Tn the meantime / was stand
in" in the front door of the power
house and got an alarm, and the fire
man answered the phone and said ii
was fire in Mr.. r. G. Williams
store. and he put his hand on the
whistle cord and I started for the
pump and it worked all right and 7
knew that the standpipe valve had
been shut off and I ran it up to 100
pounds pressure and it ran all right
until all at once ii made lon" stroke
rn one side and the appearance Of il
seemed that the valve had broken
in two. and the bolts that hold the
screws TO the valves one or the other
had come out, and the pressure kept
dropping back until T had none and
| had to stop my pump and | was
certain that that was the trouble. ]
examined it and found nothing that
could cause it and I went to the 9th
or side and Mr.. West came and VIC
finished taking il off in very short
time and placed il back and by that
time Mr.. Boyd had gotten there and
he said. "lcts try it again. and we
did, and my gauge showed that there
WAS no pressure. had to stop and
pump.
Q. How long was that pump stop
ped!
\. cannot tell you. but about fif-
! teen minutes | suppose. 1t took me
only Il short time to take the plate
Off and examine the valves. | was
on the other side when Mr.. West
came.
Q. How lon" was il between the
time that the pump stopped and Mr..
West got there9
a. Not over ten minutes.
@. And during all that time you
hah not notified anybody up town9
\. No, sir, T got several messages
from people up town, but did not
think I had any time for that, but
thought the best thing that 7 could
do was to get my pump right.
O. What was The matter with the
pump?
y. gave my pump a GOOD cNamin-
alton and tried to find something and
found one valve worn little and
found another valve that had new
! iniii in it. After 7 had taken the