The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-01-16
EXPLOSION STILL A MYSTERY
INQUEST DOES NOT DEVELOP HOW
ACETYLENE EXPLODED.

fire at the Madison nObel. Inc cduS
of the explosion was not ascertalned
and the mystery may never be defin
itelv explained. 1t doubtless was due
in some manner, to the acetylene ga
plant, but just what'happened has no
been shown.
The Jury was composed of William
w. WOrrell, Winfield S. Gale, William
A. Jones, James T. Royle, 5. Ear
Asay and Elwood H. Stokes. TheFpro
ceedingsswerei in charge of coroner Gas
kill. The examination OF witnesse
was conducted by prosecutor Kelsey
At the conclusion of the testimony
the prosecutor stated.to the jury tina
no evidence showing criminal Liability
on the part of the owner of the prop
erty had been presented.
| The jury's verdict was as follows:
''We, the coroner's jury, summoned
to investigate the cause of the deaths
of Charles Gray, Robert NJ. Snyder ant
! Nathaniel Thomas do find that Charlie
GRAY came to his death by being burn
led to death, and Robert NJ. Snyder by
being suffocated, on December %, 1916
by an explosion and fire at the Madison
hotel, located in the township of North
ampton; and Nathaniel Thomas dieC
at the Burlington County Hospital, il
the township of Northampton, OF
January 8, 1917, from burns received
on December % by fire at the Madison
hotel.
eve are unable to determine by thu
evidence what caused the explosion
and fire."
The principal witness was Benjamin
Armstrong, colored, because he was il
the hotel cellar that morning and as
sisted in cleaning and reeharging tn.
tacetylene, generator. The other man
Nathaniel Thomas, who was in the
cellar, died subsequently from injuries
received at the fire.
Armstrong said he was summoned
by Thomas to assist in cleaning thu
machine, work that witness had done
on number of former occasions. Al
the work of cleaning and recharginE
was done exactly as at other times
! After the cleaning process, the general
| ing tank was filled with water, the lie
closed, and Thomas placed three pan!
of carbide in the hopper. He ther
pulled the lever that put the machine
in action, and everything seemed to b.
all right. The receiving tank began t
fill with gas and got about half way
up to its capacity. About half a min
ute later it began to jump and act diff
ferently than ever before.
| White water, he stated, began to rur
out Of the machine, covering some o.
| the cellar floor. Thomas told witness
ito go to the barroom TO get brooms
with which to clean the floor. Before
Armstrong reached the stairway
the explosion occurred, and he was
blown across the cellar. He es
ca ped by crawling through one of the
basement windows.
Armstrong said the only light in the
cellar was an electric lamp:no matches
were struck, and no one was smoking
| The heater was located about 25 feet
from the gas plant. The lid of the
generator was closed when the Jump.
ing motion began. He smelled nc
more gas than was usual when the
cleaning out took place. The explosion
occurred about 25 minutes after they
had gone to the cellar.
DIR. H. E. Longsdorf testified as to
the cause of death of the victims.
County Detective Parker read a
statement made by Nathaniel M.
Thomas while he was at the hospital,
which has been published. The state
ment was incomplete in details, be-
cause the injured man was suffering
from his horrible burns. In this state
ment, it will be recalled, Thomas said:
"Well, the machine hadn't been
working right, you know. l filled it
up with water, put three hoppers of
carbide in the machine and turned it
on. She was working all right,
thought, but seemed to be bubbling up.
l went over to shut down the lid, but
/ didn't get the lid on, and that is all
/ know. was right over it.
Henry Clayton, hostIer, said he took
care of the heater as part of his duties.
He had attended to it and had left the
cellar about Is or 20 minutes before the
explosion. He had closed the fire and
ash doors of the heater; the slide in the
fire door also was closed. Witness
noticed no odor of gas; saw no light ex-
cept the electric globe, and saw no one
smoking.
Herman P. Burr, of Birmingham,
was in the barroom and left about ten
minutes before the blow-up. He once
heard Gray, the bartender, remark
that ''they must either get new gas
llldC1AluC vi ACW Odt tCnOCls vi
other occasions Mr.. Burr said he had
heard it stated that the machine was
out of order.
John G. Garrett, plumber, testified
that he had installed the lighting
plant, which was known as the Colt
system. 1t was put in six years ago
next April. There was safety pipe,
leading out doors, to take off overplus
gas. Witness said he had never con-
demned the plant, and as far as he
knew it was in good working order.
1t was absolutely safe when installed.
A. II. Stidfole, plumber, stated that
he had been called on several occasions
to do work on the generator when it
was not working properly. He had
sometimes found back pressure of
gas. Splitting of carbide in the water
would cause the overflow mentioned
by Armstrong, and would cause gas in
the cellar. The cellar was always
damp, and had an open we'll beside
the gas machine, in which water COM
ing from the ground was drained and
then pumped out by an automatic
pump. The accidental dropping of
carbide into this well would fill the
cellar with gas. The generator was
safe, but he had advised Mrs. Emma
C. Snyder, ownerfof the hotel, to dis
card the plant and connect with the
town gas.
George Tomlinson formerly had
been employed to take care Of the ma
chine and later was called in occasion
ally to inspect it.. He reported to Mrs.
Snyder that it was leaking and not
working properly. When asked if he
had found the leak, Tomlinson said he
had not located it, and judged there
was leak only because the machine re-
quired more water than formerly.
Albert Street formerly attended to
the machine, during a period of Is
months. Only once was there any
trouble, when the carbide did not feed
properly. He did not notice any leak.
William Hollingsworth, who also
formerly was caretaker of the gas
plant, said it seldom was out of order.
On the morning of the explosion he
had occasion to go to the cellar, and
saw Thomas running water into the
tank. This was about 10 minutes be-
fore the catastrophe. He had been in
structed never to smoke while in the
cellar.
Harry Anderson, Charles Storey,
Logan Harmon, Seford Harmon and
John Branin, all of whom were in the
barroom when the accident happened,
told of the falling of the ceiling and
the difficulty of escaping from the col
lapsed building.
IL u