The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-04-21

portunity to appreciate the good ser
vice of the Honolulu Rapid Transi
Company such as it has never expert
enced before. Two seemingly unavo1d
able accidents at the power house. ons
lin the morning and one in the evening
Iparalyzed the system for several hours
and made people walk to and from
church or seek hacks and automobiles
land in this additional energy of walk
ing or the additional expense OF hiring
rigs they were. enabled to appreciate
what the cars of the Rapid Transit
system mean to them.
| At 9:15 o'clock in the morning a
lower tube in boiler No. 1 in the RAPID
Transit power house, Alapai street.
burst and that boiler was put out of
commission. Fortunately nobody was
hurt in the morning except that one
of the firemen was slightly scalded
about the hands and arms.
Less than ten hours elapsed when a
similar accident occurred and two men
were hurt.
Nothing could have been a greater
surprise than the bursting of the lower
tube in No. l. 1t was only Few days
ago that the boiler was cleaned ana
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
" at the cause, the unfortunate occur
renee being one of those inexplicaole
events which occasionally take place
in spite of the best regulated observa-
ton.
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 1t
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
were 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.
1t was about $50 in the evening
when a lower tube in No. boiler burst
and the engine room of the power
house was for a few moments filled
with steam.
First Assistant Engineer Frank Boy
er. a faithful and trusted employe and
a man of ready resource, realized in
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 rum
ming oil generating gas in the chamber
of supply and being ignited by the heat
of the boilers, thus possibly resulting
in an explosion that might greatly in
lure 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, |
turned off the flow, sustaining very |
painful though not necessarily serious |
scalds on his feet, ankles, legs, hands |
and arms.
Fireman ]. 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 |
flesh being badly scalded.
For a 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 |
it was that cars were not showing up
on schedule time. They were all in
formed that there had been an accident
and that they would be accommodated
as soon as it was possible to put the
lines in partial operation.
In the meanwhile, of course, the
hacks did a big business and it was
almost. for awhile. to get
hack by ringing up any of the numer-
Gus stands on the telephone, all the
rigs being out. Sunday evening is
the next busiest evening to
a Saturday evening and Easter Sun
day, with its special services, added
all the more to the demand for trans
portation.
The Rapid Transit Company oper-
ates. when all it's cars are running,
nearly half hundred cars. Ordinarily,
with all cars on all lines running on
regular schedule, twenty-three cars
are in operation. Last night, after the
second accident. ten cars were called
in and the system was operated with
thirteen cars.
Cars on the King street and Punahou
lines and on all "ten-minute'' lines
were reduced to half, about. and we're
run on twenty minute schedules in
stead of on ten-minute schedules. The
system between Aala Park and Pawaa
junction was cut out and people desir-
ing to approximate that route were