The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-10
TOWN BLOWN UP.
Pleasant Prairie, Wis.,, Destroy
ed by Powder Explosion.
One Man killed and Number of
Persons Hurt.
THE LOSS Is $1,5OO,OOO.
Windows Broken i'm Chicago 55
Miles Away.
Milwaukee and Other Nearby
Cities Suffered Severely.

Pleasant Prairie. March 1O.-Hardly
a house in the thickly populated farm
ing country in a radius of five miles
from here is habitable today as a re-
suit of the explosion last night of five
magazines filled with dynamite and
black powder at the Dupont Powder
company plant.
One man, F. S. Thompson, was killed,
one was seriously injured, several hun
dred were painfully hurt and the great
number of residents of this village,
Bristol and the surrounding country
have packed their remaining household
goods and gone away until their homes
are reoullt. The property loss is esti-
mated at 81, 100000.
There is stiH at the plant, liable to
instant explosion, sufficient gun pow-
lder to cause far greater damage to the
community than the blast last night.
The five magazines which exploded
4 last night contained $50 tons of finish
ed dynamite, 130 tons of dynamite un-
finished, $4,000 kegs of finished giant
powder and $4,000 kegs of unfinished
giant powder.
There are eight small cars of dyna-
mite stored on spur near the plant
according to Sheriff StahL
/ The superintendent refused to state
the amount Of powder in the buildings
but said three wheel mills, one powder
building and twenty smaller separate
store buildings all contained explosives
in some quantity.
Pleasant Prairie is 10 miles west of
Kenosha, Wis. The powder mill is
mile north of the village, which has a
population of about 700.
The force of the explosion complete
ly demolished the houses on the
Geneva road which were nearest the
mill and every house in the village
was wrecked.
The wreck of the village was follow
ed by hegira of the entire popuIa-
ton. Blown from their beds and with
their houses tu- lbling about their
heads. the residents of the village
loaded their half-clad families on farm
/ wagons and moved in a long process
sion of battered and shivering refugees
in search of shelter in Kenosha
A special train was rushed to Pleas
ant Prairie from Kenosha over the
Northwestern railway to remove the
women and the worst injured All the
available doctors and nurses in Ken
osha accompanied the train and at
tended to the wounded.
That no greater list of fatalities fol-
lowed the disaster was due to the small
number of men at work in the plant
Several attempts to search the ruins
were made by Sheriff Andrew Stahl
this morning but on each occasion he
successive explosions as the fire reach
. ed packages of powder
An attempt just before daybreak was
stopped by the heaviest of these ex-
plosions and the sheriff said the fire
, must die out before the ruins could be
| approached.
) There is hole in the ground where the
5 dynamite house was, a hundred feet
deep.
Twice Blown Up
The escape of Superintendent Clar-
ence Brady was remarkable. He was
in the soda house with Engineer
Flynn.
: The men were blown through the
building and landed on the roof of an
adjoining magazine. This exploded
and Brady and Flynn, the latter bad
ly injured, were thrown a hundred feet
from the building.
The shock was felt as far as Cleve-
land on the east and to the Mississippi
river on the west. In Chicago. 55
miles away. hundreds of windows were
broken and buildings were rocked.
Kenosha, Milwaukee and other impor-
tant towns suffered severely.
The magazines contained 5000
kegs of giant powder finished; $4,000
kegs of giant powder in process OF
manufacture; $50 tons finished dyna-
mite; 130 tons dynamite in process OF
, manufacture. All went up in the ex-
. plosion.
= When daylight gave a clear view OF
! the ruins it was seen that the fire was
out. Three holes marked the sites
where three of the magazines had
I stood. The holes were each more than
fifty feet across and as deep. One had
broken into a spring and was half full
of water. Part of the engine house
and the hundred foot brick chimney OF
the plant still stand.
Started in Glaze House.
1t is believed the first explosion
took place in the glaze house. In this
. house more than 1,100 kegs of powder
are dried at a time in steel cylinders
Each cylinder holds 125 kegs of pow
= long and S1s feet in diameter. They
5 are enclosed in steel jackets through
which live steam is forced and as the
cylinders revolve, the powder is dried
and brought to high heat. There
1 were nine of these cylinders.
D The extent of the glaze on the grains
! of powder determines its degree of ex
plosiveness. When the powder il
nearly polished and is dry and hot 1
e is in a dangerous condition.
: The initial explosion was followed
by the explosions of the dynamit,
magazines.
The property occupied by the pow
der company is approximately 49,
: cording to superintendent Clarenc
= Brady. He said there were five mali
: magazines, two lesser magazines an,
d four other buildings in which tn
+ process of manufacture is carried oil
Ii in which the preparation is highly ex
plosive OF these eleven buildings, bu
one a small corrugated iron magazin
for dynamite, now stands, about half
n mile from where the main building
: were.
a There are still five buildings con
d tanning blasting powder needing only
n spark to cause an explosion with
repetition of last nights damage. ac