New-York tribune., 1907-03-02
EXPLOSION AT HOTEL.
KNICKERBOCKER IN PANIC
Part of Building Wrecked By Burst
ing Wheel-One Hurt.

HS " NCCt-ONG GfUIt.
The bursting of large fywhecl with crash
like dynamite explosion caused panic at the
Hotel Kniclerbocker at broadway and 42d
street, late yesterday afternoon. Parts of the
building were wrecked, and one man was badly
hurt Many women tainted. The hotel was
plunged in darkness. Till late hour the huge
building was lighted by candles
The wheel is said to have been defective, and
gave way to centrifugal force It was one Of
four attached TO the electric generators in the
sub-cellar on the 42d street side It's diameter
was ten feet and its weight seven tons
The fragments, some Weighing five hundred
pounds. tore huge hole in the floor of the hotel
barber shop, directly over the wheel Another
Of the larger fragments partially wrecked the
costly marble switchboard in the c1qjneroon,
Stil another fragment shattered an asbestos
bound conduit for electrical wires The chief
engineer stood within two feet of the flying
metal, escaping without injury
Iony Dominicis the proprietor of the barber
shop, who from his long service in the Hotel
Teq Eyck. in Albany. has been called '"The
Governors Barber" was the injured man. He
was seated at desk in the barber shop only a
Ioot away from the breach in the floor made
by the flying fragment. When he stepped
dazed, out of his chair, he toppled down through
'he aperture. falling twenty feet and breaking
his right arm.
Ihe five manicure girls in the barber shop
tainted and one was so overcome by hysteria
that she had TO be sent home in an automobile
SHOCK FELT ON SEVENTH FLOOR
The accident happened little after o'clock
AT that hour the hotel. which was opened last
october and is housing nearly four hundred
guests. was busy place In the many dining
rooms guests were seated at tables: the several
CARES were well patronized. and through the
upper part of the twelve-story building the
guests were preparing for dinner and to leave
the hotel
The shock was felt and heard as far as the
seventh floor Crowds rushed to the hotel
Screams were heard corning from the upper
floors. and cries of women came up from the
corridors. The proprietor of the hotel James
ID. Regan, ordered A L. Barney the manager.
to supply at once hundreds of candles. there
being no gas in the hotel. The hotel employees
were sent upstairs to calm the guests. and the
doors We're locked. ingress and egress to all
persons being for the time denied
The police came and could not get in for some
few minutes. Inspector Hussey FASTENED to
the scene and also had trouble getting inside.
Meantime the report spread that many were
injured
The eight hydraulic elevators stopped for five
minutes, for some reason not given, and guests
had transportation refused on the elevators for
a time, as matter of precaution
With the arrival of the reserves the crowd.
numbering thousands, in Broadway and 42d
street was rushed back from the hotel one
young woman pleaded to be allowed to go into
the hotel, where her mother was waiting for
her. Finally she was admitted.
CHAOS IN SUB CELLAR.
Down in the sub-cellar the barber shop. tho
basement grillroom. the florists booth the hair
dressers and chiropodists' parIors excitement
ran high Those who got down there first found
five partly lathered. half-shaved, half dressed
customers. who had Aedsrom the BARRIERS chairs.
reviving many young women employed in the
manicuring parlors.
The concrete flooring two and half feet
thick supported by steel glrders three feet apart
a foot two from the desk Of the proprietor
Of the barber shop. heaved up a few inches. and
three feet of the concrete dropped with the frag-
ment that had dislodged it. down into the en-
gine room
The repairing of the damage was begun at
once. It was found that big steampipe which
had been hit by a flying steel fragment was un-
injured
The management excluded the newspaper men
for forty-hve minutes. and allowed only one
reporter to go downstairs.
on behalf sof Mr.. Regain Philip X. Mindn
last night said that estimate of the damage
resulting from the accident could be made.
The contractors who installed the electric gem
Grating engines are Mckenzie. Quarry & Fer
guson, of this city.
III the hote! had not been built like steel
safe set in the rock. fragments of the fly wheel
might have caused far greater damage" said
Mr. Mnd
A Mrs. Minzesheimer wife of a wealthy Chi
cagO stock broker. n guest of the hotel. went
downstairs at o'clock. and observing the
myriad candles, asked
why. what has happened?'"
The clerk at the desk told the woman what had
happened.
one cool person was found in the basement
He was the boy in charge of the cloak rOOm
fifty feet from the barber shop. He did not
leave his post His name could not be learned.