New-York tribune., 1910-12-20
was ignited the whole place went at

L
once.
| Driscolfs Summary Of the Situation.
The story sounds like the usual fishy
kind to me We know that the gas pipe
was broken by the car overrunnins the
bumper. but after that every one tries
| to shift the blame. The motornan says
he told the yardmaster a pipe was
| broken. The yardmaster says the mo-
| torrraan didn't say anything about the
pipe. Every one is trying TO crawl out
from under. We have had the motor
man arrested. That fs the only arrest
| gun our investigation.
| After Commissioner Driscol1 had given
| the police account Of the cause Of the
accident A R Whaley, general manager
and superintendent Of the Grand Central
terminal, was asked If the Central
agreed that the police story was correct.
TT is all right he said, except for
the way the gas was ignited. I can't
agree with that. ] don't know what set
| it off, but I can't believe a spark from
the third rail did it.
why, look at the under side OF the
boards that formed the first floor of the
| building. They are not even scorched-
If g spark from the third rail had fired
| the gas there would have been sheet
OF flame and those boards would have
been blsckened, at least
what is your theory?' Mr.. Whaley
was asked
'T haven't any theory he seid. f1t
wouldn't be fair to the men. We are
| investigating and trying to find out
Some one may have lighted his pipe.
May be it was a cigarette.
You know, that was a big open space
under the building, where those pipes
were. We didn't have anything stored
there and we didn't have anything stored
in the building. There We're two floors
to the building; the first was a meg
zanirie floor, where We had q carpenter
shop, and on the second floor we had
the stors ge batteries
Mr. Whaley was asked II there were
any tanks of Pintsch gas near where
the explosion occurred.
Storage Tanks Uniniured
ouf StoidSN Sldllci Is on Ine hr16Ee
at 47th street" he said. 1--WE have big
tanks there to store the gas and a com
rressor there. The gas is led from those
tanks around under the building where
the accident was. That pipe that was
broken was the one that the cars are
charged from. The cars are backed Ip
an the tracks and hose connections are
fssd- between them and the pipe The
storage tanks at 47th street were unin-
jured'
There We're two gas tank cars on the
last track he was told, the track next
TO the Lexington avenue retaining wall
Those We're empty tanks" MIR. Whaley
said. THE gas is brought down to the
yards in those tank cars and transferred
to our storage tanks. The cars are then
sidstracked by Lexington avenue until
we are ready to send them back
How about acetylene?" was asked
THE Central has no acetylene in these
yards" Mr.. Whaley said. 1.-The storage
place for acetylene is away from here
entirely"
WAS there any explosive stored in the
huiIdins?''
No he said; there was no explosive
there of any kind"
"Eow about dynar1lite?' was asked.
I'VE keep our dynamite in g. small
magazine with watchman in charge all
the time" he said. I'VE don't keep
very much on hand. The powder wagon
comes around every morning and re-
plenishes the stock. We keep less than
one thousand pounds on hand and IT is
given out a stick at a time, and with
every stick accounted for as TO where If
is TO go. We made an examination
after the explosion and found that the
dynamite was intact
There wasn't pipe in the house.
The gas pipes were outside and the
building was lighted by electricity. If
anything happened to the electric ,,lar,
the men would be in darkness. but as a
matter of precaution we had given the
men order not to smoke in the building
One Man May Hold Secret.
Now. whether orders were broken O.
not i don't know. There were three
Elen working in the carpenter shop. Two
of them were killed, but we understand
that one OF them is still alive in one of
the hospitals. and we hope that he viii
get well. and then, perhaps. we can find
out from him the truth of how the ex-
plosion occurred.
But there are two points that have
not been satisfactorily explained to me
One Is how the gas collected in that
building in sufficient quantity to explode
with the force that it did, and those
three men could stay there at work.
There are three of us in this room, now.
| and If there were an $ or 10 per cent
solution Of gas in the room, We couldn t
stay here We would have to get out
where We could breathe. Pintsch gas
| has a strong and distinct odor. 1t is
| rauch stronger than common illurninat
| ing gas and must more pungent. You
couldn't stay in a room filled with that
gas. and as soon as it began to come
in you would have to get out.
The second point is how the gas coll
lected in that open space under the
building They tell me that the people
in the tenement houses all through the
neishborhood smelied the gas and many
of them were examining their gas flxt-
ures and connections. trying TO find
where the leak was. Yet, the yardmen