The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1920-01-03
five men KILLED I
IN POWDER BLAST
Five Dupont Buildings Near
Wilmington Wrecked.
OTHER WORKMEN INJURED
Houses in Rising Sun, Del, Were
Rocked and Windows Broken--Vic-
Tins Were Badly MangIed

Wilmington, Del, Jan 3.-Five men
we're killed and several others hurt
In an explosion at the Hagley yards
| of he Dupont Powder company, on
! Brandywine creek, three miles south
| west of here.
| The second explosion was terrific
| blast. which broke windows in West
| Philadelphia, thirty miles away, and
was heard as far as Woodbury., n. J.
The dead are: Larrum Pinder, Cal
vim SWartwood, Antonio Granguillo,
Giovanni Martinni and Thomas Ansel-
mi
| The bodies of the men were badly
mangled Their identification was es-
tabished from workers disks they
Wore
| Rogers Wilson, general manager of
the plant, and w. I. Cloud, superin-
tendent, took charge of the bodies.
They notified relatives, and then be-
gan an investigation into the cause of
| the disaster.
Static electricity, caused by fric-
! "
| have been responsible. The press mill,
one-story stone building, blew up
! first and the conclusion caused the
corning mill and three wheel mills,
similar structures, to follow.
| These five buildings eaasss - black
powder totaliaaxsaza 5000 pounds.
Binder ~ - IN the press mill,
used in The finishing process, and
| SwartwoOd was in the corning mill,
where the powder is ground. The 9th
er victims were alone in the wheel
mills, where the powder is mixed.
The plants office building was bad
| ly damaged y boy in the Office was
cut by flying glass, but none of the
| other occupants was hurt.
| Houses nearby, most OF which are
| occupied by wOrkmen. were damaged.
Miss Margaret Myers, sixty, who lives
on Rising Sun road, leading to the
plant, was cut by falling plaster when
the porch of her home was torn away.
! A Rising Sun, a hamlet about two
blocks from the plant, damage was
also done. The Christ Episcopal
church had all its stained glass win
dOws shattered.
The plants office is In this hamlet,
nesting in a little valley at the foot
of a steep hill Nearly every building
in the valley was damaged, the frame
buildings were twisted out of shape
and all the windows were shattered.
| 10 hn
plants office the large frame house
occupied by Walter Farmer, an official
of the company, was badly damaged.
| Farmer, his wife and two children,
had just finished breakfast when the
explosions occurred. They escaped in
jury.
The interior of the rplant office VISA
wrecked The partitions dividing the
various offices, were broken down, the
office fixtures upset and every window
broken.
Henry Clay village, about one-quar-
powder workers live, also suffered
damage Several houses literally
were blown apart, as windows. and
the frames were blown out and doors
crashed from their hignes.
The shock was felt in Wilmington
and throughout a radius Of thirty
miles, but strangely, the conclusion
was much heavier in Philadelphia and
Chester than in Wilmington. There
only one large bulk window was brok-
en-, in the Plaza Cafe, on Market
street. The strata of rock which
run from West Philadelphia to the
Hagley plant is said to be responsible
for the explosion being felt SO vio-
lently in Philadelphia.
The home of former Judge E. G.
Bradford, about one-quarter mile from
the plant, was badly damaged. All the
windows were shattered, doors were
blown off hinges, pictures cast from
the walls and furniture damaged.
SO heavy was the conclusion in
West Philadelphia that hundreds Of
persons believed the explosion was
nearby. s.sAs..