The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-07-10
IS NEARLY FROZEN
Kansas College Professor Has
Narrow Escape.
Confined in Cold Storage Room
for Four Hours.
WAS TEN BELOW ZERO
Rescued by Girl Who Heard the
Noise Inside.
Prof. Otto Maurer of X. S. A. C.
at Seymour Packing Plant.

Prof. Otto Maurer of the Kansas
State Agricultural college was nearly
frozen to death in Topeka saturday
afternoon.
That statement seems incredible
when ore remembers the torrid wealth
er, but it is nevertheless a fact. He
was Tor four hours locked in a cold
storage room of the Seymour Pack
ing company, where the temperature
was 10 degrees below zero. Had not
one of the girl employees heard the
unusual noise made when he pounded
upon the inside door Maurer would
surely have frozen to death in a short
time
professor Maurer Is a member of
the faculty of the Kansas State Azri-
cultural college. He is one of the
members of the bacteriologicaI de-
partment. This summer he has been
working in the laboratories of the Sew
mour Packing company anaIyzing the
canned and frozen egg compounds and
doing research work.
Saturday afternoon when the tenn
perature of the thermometer in the
front of the packing plant showed A
reading not far from the 100 mark.
Professor Maurer decided he would
nave to gather a few canned egg sam
pies stored in the big cold storage
room.
Going to the room which Is situated
in the rear of the main building he
stepped inside the freezing atnos-
phere and closed the door behind him.
Now the cold storage room of a
packing plant is guarded like the rs-
frigerator of the modern home. Tho
door of the room is opened only when
necessary and every employee IS ad-
monished not to leave the doors open
doors that would permit the warm
air to enter into the storage
In this storage the temperature se-
mains usually at from / to 10 degrees
below zero. The men when they pack
cases in here work with gloves on
their hands and coats buttoned up
tight around them.
! Professor Maurer intended to stav
only a few minutes and he entered
hatless, coatless and with the light
clothes that man wears in the heat
of the summer.
Door Failed to Open.
After attending to his duties he
turned to the door and yanked at the
handle. 1t wouldn't open. Again he
jerked and again the stubborn door
stuck. A third pull and the cold
sweat stood out on the professors
brow. The door wouldn't open and as
it was early in the afternoon, no en-
ployees would visit the storage room
until closing time or possibly until
the next day!
For few minutes Professor Maur-
er was dunn mbfounded. AS he stood
leaning against the icy door his body
chilled and he shivered as the 10
below-zero atmosphere penetrated his
clothing and his skin.
Frantic after his minutes Of fear and
after the result of his illusions of a
night in this place with nothing to
wear but a light shirt light trousers
and the lightest of underwear, the col
lege professor yelled at the top of his
voice. The very muffling of his yells
I'm the cold room told MIN that no ono
from outside the thick walls could
hear his cries and come to his rescue.
Once more he tore at the handle OF
the door. Fe kicked it with his foot
and scratched at the Daneied 'front.'
But to no avail. Finally after a half
hour of jerking and kicking and tear
ing the handle was torn from it's
fastening in the wood and the profess
sor fell to the floor with the handle in
his hand.
At this point he say in agony the
result. The handle ripped from the
door left no means to opening the bar
ricade to his escape and nothing but a
fat frosty panel greeted him.
But the college man did not give Up.
Chilled to the bone by the biting cold.
frantic with fear an dspurred with the
thoughts that no escape would mean
ultimate Danger. ne tore down q pile
of canned eggs and threw the big cans
at the heavy door.
half hour later a German girl
a girl from the Maurer fatherland-
happened to be passing the storage
room. She heard a booming sound
one of the egg cans crashed against
the door. Then she heard other sounds
of turmoil and rushing to her foreman
she informed him Of what she had
heard.
The foreman with the girl rescuer
hurried to the scene and wit ha simple
turn of the outside handle he swung
open the big door. Failing out of the
opening with hands scratched and
bleeding and with moustache coated
with frost, the wildeyed professor
struggled out of the door into the sum-
mer air.
He was little worse for his expert
ence and was soon revived.