The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-20

Honolulu was yesterday given an op-
portunity to appreciate the good SER
vice OF the Honolulu Rapid Transit
Company such as it has never expert
enced before. Two seemingly unavoid-
able accidents at the power house, one
in the moraing and one in the evening
paralyzed the system for several hours
and made people walk to and from
church or seek hacks and automobiles;
and in this additional energy of walk
ing or the additional expense of hiring
rigs they We're enabled to appreciate
what the cars of the Rapid Transit
system mean to them.
At 9:15 o'clock in the morning
lower tube in boiler No. in the Rapid
Transit power house, Alapai street,
burst and that boiler was put out of
commission Fortunately nobody was
of the firemen was slightly scalded
about the hands and arms.
Less than ten hours elapsed when
similar accident occurred and two men
were hurt.
A Nothing could have been a greater
surprise than the bursting of the lower
tube in No. 1. 1t was only a few days
ago that the boiler was cleaned and
everything that is required to be done
by ordinary regulations in the conduct
of boilers had been done, and more.
All the chief engineer can say in this
connection is that there may have been
a case of capitalization in the tube
which caused the trouble crystalliza-
ton through vibration, or otherwise;
there is no means of arriving definite
ly at the cause, the unfortunate occur
renee being one of those inexplicable
events which occasionally take place
in spite of the best regulated observa-
tion.
OF course the morning accident af
fected the Easter Sunday morning
church crowd and as luck would have
it. the second accident, came in the
evening just about the time when it
was ND to the cars to handle the home
returning church crowds. But it must
be said for the management of the
. Rapid Transit that everything that
could be done was done to alleviate
the inconvenience occasioned the pub
lie by those remarkable accidents.
Announcements were made in all the
churches to the effect that the car
system had been seriously affected by
an accident and people were advised
how to connect with those cars which
We're running.
Manager c. G. Ballentyne and Pres
ident F.. Tenney Peck whisked about in
an automobile, as fast as the law
would permit. notifying cars to go to
the barn or continue as the case might
be. and leaving notices at the churches
and. this being by no means the least
of their consideration, personally call
ing on the brave men who were in
jured in the accident of the evening.
It was about $50 in the evening
when lower tube in No. boiler burst
sand the engine room of the power
house was for few moments filled
with steam.
First Assistant Engineer Frank Boy
er. a faithful and trusted employe and
a man of ready resource. realized in a |
flash what might happen if the fuel !
oil feeding apparatus was allowed TO |
run after the escaping steam had ex- |
tinguished the flame. He realized that !
there was the possibility of the run
ming oil generating gas in the chamber |
of supply and being ignited by the heat
of the boilers. thus possibly resulting /
III an explosion LI1dt greatly
jure property and might mean several
lives.
Without a moments hesitation he
waded through the boiling water and
scalding steam that was flooding the
cement floor and filing the engine
room and. reaching the oil regulator,
tuNaed off the flow, sustaining very
pa$sful though not necessarily serious
schds on his feet, ankles, legs, hands
and arms.
Fireman j. Brockman was the first
TO suffer in the evenings accident, he
happened to be directly in the course
of the spouting steam when the lower
tube in No. burst, and he got it
fairly in the small of the back, the
hesh being badly scalded.
For little while following the Sec
ond accident, the entire system was {
necessarily paralyzed and headquarters
was in constant touch with people at {
the ends of various lines inquiring why
II was that cars were not showing up $
on schedule time. They were all in )
9rmed that there had been an accident
sNad that they would be accommodated
as soon as il was possible to put the {
INES in partial operation. q
In the meanwhile, of course. the
haeks did big business and it was v
impossible. almost. for awhile, to get s