Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-31
TWENTY-FIVE MEN WORK
Two of Them Caught in an I'm
expected Downpour.
PULLED OUT NEARLY DEAD
Tragedy the Result of Trying to
Learn Cause of Interruption to
the Feeder to Furnaces.

Learn Cause of Interruption to
the Feeder to Furnaces.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, January 31.-Nicholas
Nadendock. a night Waterman employed
at the manufacturing plant of the In
dependent Ice Company, at sd street and
the East river, is p obably dead at the
bottom of pile contain 'ng twenty-five
tons of finely sifted steam coal. Rescuers
who worked for several hours after the
night Waterman was buried in the coal
avalanche finally had to abandon the
task after two of them had been buried
in a succeeding slide and third had
been ie. ked out by his companions just
in time to prevent his being killed. The
two rescuers who were buried were dug
out before they were suffocated and are
at the Presbyterian Hospital. They were
so near dead when brought out that
artificial respiration had to be resorted to-
The imprisoned night Waterman is lying
TANNED feet downward into the top OF
narrow coal chute too small for h s
body to pass through. The coal on top OF
him is in a large hopper, which In turn
is connected by chute to an Immense
coal bunker two floors higher up. The
gateway controlling the flow of coal from
the bunker into the lower hopper, at the
bottom of which the night Waterman
lies, has given way, and force of men
who worked for several hours this morn
ing were unable to repair the damage
1t was for that reason that rescuine
Hadendock from the bottom of the hop
per was impossible, and that the force
Of workmen found the work too danger
Gus to continue.
Chute Was Clogged.
Ice Company there are ten large boilers.
in which the coal supply is mechanically
ed into the fireboxes. On the second
floor above is the hopper, in which the
coal accumulates to the amount of TWEEN
ty-five tons or more, while on the tor
floor are the large receiving bunkers. in
which the reserve supply is kept. 1t Is
hoisted to the bunkers from East river
canal boats. and from them fed through
a chute to the hopper, and thence through
smaller chute to the engine room.
Last night Engineer Charles Mohler
noticed that his fires were getting low
and that the coal did not seem to be
coming through the mechanical feeders as
it ought to.
He accordingly sgnaled up to the night
Waterman. who was on one of the upper
floors and asked him to make an i'm
vestigation. He waited for the ex-
pected rattle of the coal through the
chute and then finding that 1t did not
come, he started to look things over for
himself.
Mothers Startling Discovery.
Going to the coal hopper Mohler found
it filled to the top where he had ex-
pected to find it empty. On the top
floor he found that some of the plank
snoring in the coal bunker had given
way, which liberated more than the
usual amount of coal into the chute lead
ing to the hopper. He concluded that
the chute leading from the hopper to
the engine room had become clogged in
in the hope of prodding loose the jam.
He found he was prodding human feet.
and on reaching his arm up could just
touch pair of shoes.
Startled by his discovery he ran out of
the plant toward the east sSth street
police station. The first two policemen
he met came back with him. but they
were unable to do anything, as the only
possible way to make rescue seemed
to be to shovel out the twenty-five tons
Of coal in the hopper. Two firemen. who
came from a nearby engine house, reach
ed the same conclusion. and a force OF
twenty-five men was hired at once and
put to work with shovels digging at the
coal.
Two Rescuers Buried.
They were half way through their task
and were getting vel down toward the
smaller end Of the hopper when there was
a rumble above. and with roar another
lot of coal came streaming In from the
bunkers. All but two of the workers
were warned in time. and these two,
Charles Cooper and Mohler, the engineer,
were buried beneath the second ava
lanche. Cooper disappeared completely,
but the top of Mothers head was left
showing above the coal, and enough of 1t
while the attention of others was con-
centrated on saving Cooper. He was
finally dug out unconscious and almost
dead.
Mohler was brought out in little bet
ter condition.
Part of the working force then went UP
to examine the bunkers and concluded
that another slide was not likely to occur
While they watched others went to work
to shovel out the hopper again. They got
so far along with the work that the hop
per was SO small only one man could
work in 1t and he could pass up the Goa
only in small buckets full.
Work of Rescue Given Up.
To make sure that he would not be
caught In a slide If one should come, a
rope was fastened around his waist, and
the others remained at the hopper's edge
ready to hoist him up. A cry from above
warned them that the coal was flowing
again and they pulled their fellow work
man out just in time to see the place
where he had been working filed in with
the fine black fuel Nobody wished to
tackle the job Of emptying the hopper
again until some way could be found to
stop the flow of coal from the upper
bunker. and the work of rescue was ac-
cordingly abandoned temporarily. 1t was
thought that the coal in the bunker above
would have to be shoveled out into the
canal boats before work In the hopper
would be entirely safe.
Nadendock, the watchmap, it is thought,
entered the coal hopper on the engineers
signal that 1t was empty, and while try
ing to- find the source of the trouble was
swept down by a slide of coal and car
ried to the bottom of the shift. He was
married, and lived with his wife at 532
EaNt SD street