The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-03-10
Thousands Of Pounds Of Explosives
Let Go at Dupont Powder
Works at Pleasant
Prairie, Wis.
RESIDENTS TERROR STRICKEN
Their Houses Wrecked, They Make
Hurried Exit From Town-Dam-
age in Other Plaees-Cause
OF Disaster Explained.

Pleasant Prairie Wis, March TO-
This village wrecked, people terror
stricken, one man killed, three others
missing, one man seriously hurt and
many other persons slightly hurt. is
the result of the explosion that last
night destroyed five of the six powder
mills of the Dupont Powder company
here. The dead man is E. s. Thomp-
son, foreman of the glaze house En-
glneer Flynn was seriously hurt
The cause of the explosion was Civ
en- this morning by DR.. Arthur J.
Lowe of Pleasant Prairie. Supt. Brady
positively had refused to make a
statement.
"The explosion took place in the
glaze house." said Lowe. "Over eleven
hundred kegs of powder are dried at
a time in the glaze house in steel cyl
inders. Each cylinder holds 125 kegs
of powder. The cylinders are enclos-
ed in stee! jackets. through which live
steam is forced and as the steel glaze
cylinders revolve the powder is, dried
and brought to II high heat. There
were nine of these cylinders in the
glaze house. The extent of the glaze on
the grains OF powder determines its
degree OF explosiveness When thepow-
der is nearly polished and Is dry and
hot II is in a dangerous condition. IT
was then that the explosion took place
and the initial explosion was followed
at brief intervals by successive ex-
plosions and of the dynamite maga-
zine"
Lowe has lived nine years in Pleas
liant Prairie. He stated he had often
inspected the glaze house. The prop
erty occupied by the powder company
Is approximately 100 acres. There are
forty buildings in the plant, accord
ing to Brady He said there were five
main magazines. two lesser magazines
and four other buildings in which the
process Of manufacture is carried on.
or these eleven buildings but one, a
small corrugated iron magazine for
dynamite detonations, now stands,
about half mile from where the main
, buildings stood.
According to Lowe, part OF one of
the glaze cylinders was hurled two
miles and crashed through the roof of
2 a two story building opposite the rail-
' road station, In which general store
T is kept by II. II. King. The hole
I through the roof and ceiling of the
3 King building is eight feet square.
-. ranur1ar mill
4 out this morning when daylight gave
e clear view of the ruins. Three holes
marked the sites where three of the
lMagazines had stood. The holes were
v each more than fifty feet across and
$ as deep. one had broken into spring
Y and was half full of water. Trees FOL
half a mile around were stripped OF
their branches and shorn off even witf
the ground.
The magazines contained 5000 kegs
Of giant powder finished; $4,000 kegs
y OF giant powder in the process o.
manufacture; 150 tons of finished dy'
Mantle; and 100 tons of dynamite II
the nrocess OF manufacture. All wen
up In the explosion.
: The force OF the explosion complete
y IN, demolished the houses on the Gene
va road which were nearest the mill
and every house in Pleasant Prairie
was wrecked. Almost equal damag'
. was done in Bristol four miles west.
II ,rhe wreck of the village was follow
ed by the hcgira OF the entire popula
s. tion. Blown from their beds and witt
the wrec<age of their houses tumblind
= labout their heads, the residents loade'
T" their hnlf-clad families on farm wa
70 CONS and moved in a long procession
~ of battered and shivering refugees II
'' search Of shelter in Kenosha.
A special train was rushed to Pleas
- ant Prairie from Kenosha over TN
'r Northwestern railroad to remove tn
women and the worst of the injured.
All the available doctors and nurse
I'm Kenosha accompanied the train an
attended to the wounded. At day
y break a few residents of Pleasan
Prairie were attempting to rescu
D. some OF their household goods fror
re their shattered homes, over which
ne number OF men had stood guard dur
I'd ing the night Almost Immediately al
he ter the crash the village was invade
at by curiosity seekers and Others an
re asserting that lootlng and vandalisr
r. was beginning. Sheriff stahl impress
nd ed a hundred deputies and cleare
the village. The first work was TO &c
ng every one out of town and away froi
s. the danger zone. Intermittent eA
n plosons continued throughout n
night, accompanied by bursts of liam
ed and showers of flaming cinders. Thei
,at are still Ave buildings containin
Ter blasting powder, needing only u
MI slightest sparks to cause an explosio
with repetition of last nights dan