Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-09-29
FLYWHEEL FLEW IN
ALL DIRECTIONS
When 1t Burst At Electric Light
Plant and Killed Little Girl
Juice Cut OFF

Manager George Fawkes of the
Kentucky Utilities Company, has
been the busiest man in town by
far since half past two o'clock or
Tuesday morning when the big
flywheel at the electric plant
burst, carrying death and destruc-
tion in its wake, Mr.. Fawkes pro-
badly hasn't had two hours SLEEP
since the accident, for he has la
bored night and day trying to get
things in shape to give his patrons
lights and power again.
Outside of the breaking Of the
big fiywheel, which put its en-
gine completely out of business.
the most serious damage done at
the plant was the breaking of a
big section of the main stea;n
pipe which conveys steam from
the boilers to the generator Ell
gines. The damage to this pipe
prevented operation of the two
auxiliary engines at the plant.
Machine shops at Lexington were
called on and workmen were busy
installing new section of pipe
at a very early hour Wednesday
morning. The juice so necessary
to many business plants IN Rich
mond-including the Daily Regis
ter-WaS turned on about 10: so
Wednesday morning.
Pieces of the big fly wheel
which ran off and busted" are
being found all over the west end
OF town. A piece of spoke similar
to that which killed little Fanny
HUNTER, was hurled through the
roof of the addition to the Home
Tobacco Warehouse, about as far
distant from the plant to the east
as the Hunter home is one west.
The immense gaps i'll the roof of
the electric plant show that pieces
of the wheel flew in almost every
direction, A new hywheel has
been ordered from the makers of
the big engine.
Story of the Accident
The little hand-bill extra" set
by hand and Kicked off on Il job
prcss-which was all that the
Daily Register was able to issue
in the way of newspaper be-
cause of no current, told the fol-
lowing story of the terrible acci-
dent:
A large hy-wheel at the plant
Of the Kentucky Utilities Co, at
the intersection of Laurel street
and the l.. & A. railway, burst
shortly after 2 o'clock Tuesday
morning. 1t wrecked the ma
chincry department of the plant,
and portion of the wheel passing
through the roof, was hurled to
the home of Wallace b. Hunter,
more than q quarter of mile TO
the west, where it. pierced the
roof, shattered a bed and instantly
killed Fanny Hunter, his 1l-year-
old daughter. 1t then passed on
thro the opposite side of the
house and imbedded itself III the
ground a few feet from the house.
The wheel, estimated to weigh
1000 pounds, plowed thro the top
of the roof of the electric plant,
carrying away 1O-inch steam
pipe leading from the boilers. This
resulted in Il resounding escape Of
steam. which drowned the crash
ing of the roof and filled the en-
ginc room. The wheel flew to
pieces large portion being found
along the railway track a block
distant. Night Engineer J. M.
Sharp stated he had just oiled the
engines and stepped to the boiler
room, when the wheel let go.
Charles Dalton was sleeping on a
table at the other end of the plant.
Both were uninjured.
Chief Engineer Orville B. Hill
stated he left the plant shortly
after 9 o'clock Monday night and
that the engine was running ap-
parently in perfect order. He
gave it as his opinion that the
only thing that could have caused
the wheel to burst was the possi-
bic sticking of the governor. The
engine was used to drive a gener-
ator of about $50 horse power and
was about 10 feet in diameter
with a l4-inch width at the o,tt-
side.
The machine room was imme-
diately filled with kissing steam
and the escape Of Engineer Sharp
was apparently very close. The
wheel in going through the roof,
after tearing away the steam pipe
carried away about II feet of the
roof entirely across the building
II