The Washington herald., 1907-12-18
HURT BY OLD BOMB
Fireman Badly Wounded as
War Relic ExplOdes.
HIDDEN IN VAULT "A YEARS
Hand Grenade Was Stored with
Others I'm Old New York Custom
and Were Being Dumped In Sound
When the Accident Occurred.

New York. Dec. 17-One Of the musty
hand grenades OF civil war days. which
were last week found stored away in
vault in the old customhouse. exploded
to-day when the batch of them was being
carted away from fire headquarters, 70 be
dumped into the sound
Michael ]. Howell, of truck q one of
the firemen in charge Of the load. had his
right arm torn Off and his left leg badly
shattered He is in Flower Hospital. His
condition is critical. but he viii probably
pull through.
There were l5O of these old war time
relics. They were found last Friday in
vault on the third floor Of the custom
house. For years nobody in the old
building had known what this vault held.
The door was of heavy sheet iron. with
an immense keyhole in the center. The
key had long since disappeared, and no
body had taken the trouble to try TO
force the door until the workmen who
are tearing down the building ran up
against it.
WOrkmen Find Bombs.
1t was a several hours job TO break the
massive hinges. and when the wOrkmen
thrust a lantern inside and got peep at
the contents, they dropped their tools and
hustled down TO the Office Of the foreman.
James Trent What had frightened the
workmen were two kegs OF powder. They
had not any idea that the botte-shaped
pieces Of metal. with what looked like the
feathery end of an arrow shaft sticking
from each, were dang erous.
One look by the foreman. however, was
enough, and he called up the police, who,
in turn, notified the bureau OF combusti-
bles at fire headquarters The entire
batch of relics was taken from the
customhouse on Saturday. It was found
that each OF the grenades contained
about one-eighth OF a pound OF gunpow-
der and a good charge OF scrap iron. The
body OF the grenade was made OF sheet
iron. At ona end. inside the iron cover,
was a Illuminating cap. against which a
metal plunger, about four inches long,
rested.
Explosion Made Certain.
The other end of this plunger was nat
tened. From the other end of the bottle
shaped bomb ran the arrowshaft,' the
feathers of which insured the grenades
falling with the business end down.
Howell in company with Edward H.
McNichol. a feilow-irenan. left head
quarters with the customhouse collec-
ton and some other explosives late this
morning. They had orders to take the
lot TO the fire boat Seopher Mills. From
there they were TO be taken 10 Oak Point
and dumped into the sound.
Howell and McNichol could not get
within several hundred feet of the FIRE
boat with their wagon. and they started
TO carry the grenades down by the arm
fuls. The plungers were in most of the
grenades, but the firemen weren't ap-
parently much impressed with the danger
OF a weapon that had been loaded forty
four years.
Fell from Wagon.
McNichol had gone down TO the boat
with dozen more bombs and Howell was
jus: about to load UP. when the horse
started forward. Several Of the rusty
pieces went rolling toward the back OF
the wagon. One, Of them dropped out
Howell made a grab for it, and the next
moment he was lying bleeding and un-
conscious. The right arm was torn of
clean at the elbow. one of the pieces OF
scrap iron was driven through his left
leg. bone and all. just above the ankle,
and his right side was badly cut.
McNichOl quickly bound Howell's arm
wit he !,