Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1912-04-04
EXPLOSION or LAST SATURDAY
MORNING WAS NO NEW EX-
PERIENCE HERE.
BLACK friday CAME once
Nilro-Glyccrinc Shocks Have Reduced
Many Plants 10 AtOms-l3ut i'ew
Have Been Killed.


history as having been one Of the biz
accidents OF the Mid-eondnant oil
field. Hut oil men. who have liveG
In this vicinity for q number Of years,
have, seen other explosions just az
disastrous as this one, and ihey con
tlnually live In fear oil such thing9
happoninE, In fact, tho history OF the
oil industry shows that these acct
donts are bound to occur eyer So
often, no matter what the precau-
lions taken were.
At ] O'Clock on the morning of
Friday, July II. 1911, residents q
Tulsa were stopped i'm their tra9kJ
by a rumbling noise, which sounded
like the peal Of thunder. A faw win
dow lights were loosened out Of their
frames, but the damage in the busi'
ness district was Slight as compared
with last Saturdays accident The
cause Of the explosion was socn
found. Barney Sullivan. seasoned
hand In the handling of oil field eX'
plosiyes, who had been married but o
few months, had gone out early IN
the morning to haul some nitro -glyc-
crime from magazine OF the Kansas
Torpedo company, -four miles north
east OF the city, to an oil well thai
he was to- shoot on that day
While loading the cans of glycerinc
on to his wagon, Sullivan in some
manner let one of them slip, 1t n
,1.,nf f..en al
lowed blew him to little bits, de-
stroyed the wagon and killed the team
Of horses. The entire magazine, con-
tanning 200 quarts of nitro gycerinc,
blew up. An old negro, a hundred
yards away, was rendered uncon-
scious by the shock.
II was black Friday for fair
that day. During the early morning
hours torch set fire to two big gas
wells near Usage junction and the
explosion that followed set fire to
S,e00 barrels of oil in tankage, which
was all consumed.
At 10 o'clock in the morning Of the
same day, gas in The creyices of the
earth ON the Shipnan farm, seven
miles down the river, spontaneously
exploded, killing six horses and doing
much property damage Several per-
sons near the territory affected were
temporarily stunned and huge chasms
were torn in the earth.
During the month of February
1904. a nitro slycerine plant north
west OF town blew up. A teamster
was killed outright, as well as his
horses and several hundred dollars
worth of plate glass in the city was
shattered.
Six years ago the plant Of Mack
Mccoy, near the city, was blown up
but no one was killed.
One afternoon in the month of De-
cember, 1910, two well known 'yegg-
men" We're cooking soup on the
banks Of the Arkansas river at West
Tulsa They had stolen some nitro
glycerine from magazine adarby
and We're preparing the concoction
which they intended to use in blow
ing safes. No one ever knew how ii
happened, but an explosion was heard
and a cigar box full of the remaing
of the two men was found after much
search A notebook that had been
his identity as one of the widest
known crooks I'm the United States.
Safe blowers never buy nitro-glyc-
crime outright for fear of arousing
suspicion. Therefore they will travel
long ways to find an oil country
where there is a chance to break open
a magazine and get the necessary
supply Of explosive. Every once in
a while the magazines around Tulsa
are visited by these men.
In July of last year two boys at
Beggs were practicing with a target
rifle. They saw what they presumed
was an empty can sitting In the yard.
One of the boys fired bullet at
the can. The can cont aimed nitro
glycerlne When the bullet struck
1t the explosion occurred that killed
one Of the youths and so injured the
other, Elmer Bradley. age II, that he
was brought to Tulsa and plGCed in a
hospital for several months. lie lost
his eyeslght permanently.
And thus 1t goes. Wherever the
earth is pierced for oil and gas. these
accidents occur. Generally, the old
est handlers of the deadly stuff are
the ones who are killed. No matter
how careful they are. the inevitable
happens. and the most OF
them know this.
A city ordinance in Tulsa prohibits
the hauling of nitro-glycerine through
the streets or alleys at any hour of
the day or night. Nitroglycerine fac
tories and magazines cannot be placed
nearer than three miles from town.
Rnt an EXPLOSION like last SatnrdnY'a