New-York tribune., 1918-01-25
Witness Tells of
Mixing Chemicals
In Bomb Factory"
Mysteries of Fertilizer
Plant in Hoboken Re-
vealed at Rintelen Trial

( The mystery Of the Hoboken labora-
tory, or why German fertilizer makers
! pull down the blinds, was slowly un-
| folded yesterday before Federal Judge
/ Harland B. Howe at the trial Of Franz
vcn Rintelen and fifteen others, &c
cused of Teutonic bomb plotting. Peter
Madesen, onetime sailor and later gen.
eral handy man for Dr. Walter Scheele,
told Of secret doors, of wooden parti-
tons that rose up unaccountably and
! of newspapers that were draped over
transoms, windows and similar places
where no self-respecting newspapers
81 ould be.
That was at the afternoon session
Of the trial. Earlier in the day Karl
Gustafsen, Swede, who worked as
ships carpenter aboard the good craft
Kirkoswald, had told of how, lying off
the port of Marscillcs late in May, 1915,
he had discovered some "short lead
pipe" in the ships cargo of sugar bags
The fact that the strange little i'm
plements burned his hands when he
picked them up aroused his suspicious
Mystery to the Witness
The Kirkoswald had sailed from Ho-
boken on May 19. Since then no one
had touched the sugar bags. Alto
gether it was quite mysterious-he
couldn't make it out. Assistant United
States Attorney James W. Osborne,
jr., who is prosecuting the case for the
low countryman, Madcsen, to supply
the missing link.
"I was working under Captain Won
kleist." testified the witness, indicating
the captain where he sat in the centre
of the group of defendants. captain
Won Kleist was in charge at the fer
tllizer plant of Dr.. Scheele."
This is the plant which has been
referred to heretofore in the trial as
the "Clinton Street, Hoboken, factory"
and from which Detective Sergeant
Henry j. SneH, Of the police bomb
squad, testified that enough bombs to
blow up score of ships had been
taken to one Of the piers of the Atlas
Line, subsidiary Of the Hamburg
American.
private office in the laboratory, which
had been specially built over sep
arate wing of the small ne-story
plant" Here it was that the sliding
panel and the partitions and the news
paper muHlers were employed. And
here, it was alleged, Won Kleist and
Scheele held forth in secret session be-
hind locked doors.
Aided in Nixinu Chomicals
"Did you ever help Captain Won
not intended for the fertilizer you
made ?" the District Attorney asked.
Il did" responded Madesen.
What were those chemicals used
for?"
They didn't tell me-" said the wit
ness.
When the prosecution attempted to
demonstrate precisely what the chem
icals had been used for the defendants
attorneys leaped to their feet, shouting
objections, and the accused men-who
up 10 this point had preserved a strict
~ Teutonic calm-set up d great mur-
waving their arms like signal corps
on drill duty.
The court. while allowing the de-
fences objection, permitted Nh Os-
borne to put into exhibit box con-
tanning dusty bottles marked "sulphuric
acid" and "hydrochloric acid" and per
manganate of potash" which Lieuten-
amt George Busby, of the bomb squad,
had uncovered at the Hoboken factory
after the fertilizer concern had gone
into abrupt dissolution.
Another legal storm was unleashed
when the government asked Lieutenant
Busby about fires or certain ships.
Gustafsen had identified the dead
pipe found on the Kirkoswad as sim
liar to the bombs seized by detectives
at the Scheele plant. Captain Otto Won
" olpert, in charge at the Atlas Line
per- had been identified by Madesen
as a caller at the same factory. On top
OF these things. to go into specific fires
was more than the defence thought
should be permitted
"A ire shouted one of the attor-
neyS. "Is fire"
And all the defendants nodded their
heads approvingly
purlng the trial former Ambassadors
James ". Gerard entered the comrt
room and greeted Judge Howe He -.
NAMED during the closing hours of tho
hearing. u 'he
The trial will be resumed TODAY
Two Girls Killed, Six Hurt