Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-02

very much disturbed, as far rs could be
learned, none was hurt.
An old colonial house on the Rrandy
wine, near the yards, formerly occupied
bv Frank l.. Connable, a du Pont official,
but now unoccupcd. felt the full force NJ
the shock Windows and doors were
broken and other damage was done.
These holses are located about half
way between Walkers Banks and tho
Upper tanks
HAGIrY OPFICE9 wRECEEp.
Tho office building Of tho du Pont Co,
Mt IIagley ward, WAS badly damaged, while
the porch was blown completely of tho
dwelling adjoining. which ls also company
property.
which e near Christ CHURCH, sustained all
sorts 0f MINOR damage. such As broken
windows. doors. &c, plaster shaken off
The walls and 20 on number Of women
and children Irving IN these houses re-
ported having been cut by flying glass
Part ~ the fence surrounding Mrs
Frank 6 du Points place, near there,
was blown down.
A number Of houses m Henry LAY
sustained broken windows ami other
minor damage.
TELEPHONE SERVICE swAHPFD.
The heaviest volume Of local calls eve
hand led in the Wilmington central office
of the Diamond state Telephone Co. o.c
Cured between g 4. m and approximately
10 30 Il. ri. today This abnormal volume
OF calls was due directly to the unfortunate
explosion ut Hagley mills Of the du Pont
Cornpany. It appeared from the central
Office as If every subscriber II Wilmington
took his receiver of at the same time
II was not entirely 4 question Of not hav-
ing suffi cient operators to take care q this
business, but Il was the almost s.multane-
Gus effort On the part Of nearly every
telephone user in Wilmington 70 reach
some other telephone or person; the result
was an overload on. not only the operators,
but the machinery as well
FORMER ExPL osIONs.
The most serious explosion In recent
wears In the matter Of lives lost occurred
at Hagley yards on November 30, 1917,
when thirty persons were killed. None Of
those who could explain about the explo-
SION lived and the closest con lecture that
could be made was that the iron shoes on
horses feet which were hauling powder n
the rough 10 3 Hagley mill to be ground
caused 8 spark that resulted In the ex-
piosion An investigation revealed the
fact thst there was no plot TO blow up the
Hagley mills as vas current rlIrnor
| The powder that exploded caused small
/ loss in property or powder and consisted
/ of powder pellets 70 he used ii the manu-
/ facture oi shIapncl shells.
/ Back in 1888 there was another ex-
/ plosion at Hagley that cost eleven lives
In 1854 on May 81, a procession OF
powder wagons loaded with the explosive
was blown up while 1t was passing -Four
teenth and Orange streets and five were
| killed Ii Is thought that bag con-
tanning powder had a hole in It and the
i powder leaking out unnouced 70 the Street
/ was set of when horse shoe caused q
spark.
There have been other explosions
which have resulted IN deaths, but the
list was small, the heaviest being the
one noted IN 1917.
COMPARATIVELY FEW CASUALTIES.
In spite OF the manifold dangers in the
very nature OF the industry. they say the
casualties IN the explosive business are tar
/ less than III many so-calicd safe industries
In government statistics, the powder III
dustry Is fifteenth in the list, which means
i that the casualties are greater N fourteen
other lines of work Attention was direct
/ Eu LptldN IL ttlt t>ANN NtAtAA -
months operation at Carney's Point,
| y l.. where .0Oo. 600 pounds Of smoke
! less powder were turned out daIy, dur
/ ing that time, there were but i've casuil-
ties none of which was directly due 70 the
peculiar hazards of the industry Any one
/ of them might have occurred ii any
other sort of plant, II WAS stated.
Hundreds Of houses III the territory
/ surrounding the scene of the explosion
were partly wrecked and Christ Episcopal
i Church. near the Hagley yards, suffered,
i many OF the stained glass windows beng
| ruined aud the building se yerely wrenched.
| At tho little office ut the entrance T.
/ HagIey ward, where the clerical force
necessary to the plant are nstilled, the
! cxnlosion was the most terrific and APP
i uailing noise and shock they have ever
! experienced When the explosions came.
/ practically simultaneously the clerks fled
j terror stricken t. the open aud their fears
were not ailayed by the sight OF the flying
/ debris and human portions Of bodies that
came hurting through the air, apparently
| from everywhere The office Was wrecked
and put out OF commission for present
uses.
At the Office of the Joseph Bancroft
4 Sons Co. 1T Rockford, large panes Of
glass we're shattered and many plues III
the mill buildings destroyed
The force OF the explosion was severely
felt at Walkers Banks, opposite Henry
Clay. Practically no house escaped bro
ken window pancs aud IN many Of the
/ houses the plaster was Knocked loose and
fell from the lathing Flying glass from
! broken window panes, resulted in minor
injuries to many housewives and children.
On keglnlll road which runs opposite
and adjacent to Hagley yard, houses suf-
fered severely. some Of the houses are
occupied by du Pont employees and all
Of them were partly wrecked
At the home of Robert Williams were
two persons who are i'll, Mrs. Williams
and Mrs Mary \ Thompson. The house
was rocked hy the explosion aud the bed
steads on which the sick lay were shaken
and it is understood one bed frame broke
terrorizing the patient II was necessary
to obtain new furniture for the bedrooms
80 far IS the probe into the explosion