Dreadful Accident.
The Times, 1824-12-20T00:00:00

(Froni the Mdywl&ester Guardian.) On Tuesday evening last, the neighbourhood of Afajor-street, in. this town was thrown into great corfaternation and alarm by an ex- plosion vfhich shook every house in the vicIlity, and induced many persons to thinik that an earthquake bad taken place 1 but on inqui. ry it was tound that the shock was caused by the bursting of the boil. er of a stram.engine on the premises of Messrs. Windsor and Co., mnachIneamskers, in Aajor-street. -Abodt halftpast four o'clock in the evening, Alr. John Windsor, one of the partnera la the firm, betore going home to tea, examined the boiler, when he found that it contained a sufficient quantity of water, and all appeared to be righbt About ten miautes befere fire, as nearly ac we can learn, the engi0eet took his tea from the to13 of the iboiler, and went with it into the smithg, to tite end opposite thb boiler. {e had scarcely reached the spot when a most tremendous shock r took place, which waus immediately followed by the falling of the > greater part of the building, leaving only that end standing in w erhish he then vwas. As aoon as tc terror and alarm whieh auch an occurrence w.a calculated to produce had in some degree subsided, it was tournd that the boiler had burst, and forced in the lower part of the wall of the pftitripal building, forabove half its length; and the upper part, having nothing tor rest upon, had 'allen to the ground, burying in the ruins a number of the work- people. The other building, which, as w~ehave already stated, com- I prised the engine-housYe and the foundry, was entirely destroyed not one brisk being left upon aniother. The attention of the people who had been assembled by the shock, was now directed to the situaion of those persons who were burled Ir the wreck of the building,and of thboe,tvho, having beenl in thatpaurt which had sot fallen, tereatfirst unableto make their escape, as the staircase was at the end next to the boiler The latter, however, were speedily extricated-those in the uppermost story, by getting upon theroofof an adjoining building; and thosein the middle story, some by leaping out of the windows, aad others by letting themselves down with a strap, Every exertion was then made to remove the rubbish, in order to extricate those who were in- volved in the faU of the building. T'he two first found were moulders, who at the time of the explosion werd at work in the foundry, Of these, one, a man named Thomas Wheeler, was 3uite dead; theether, Henry Robinson, was still alive, but was so readfully injured that he died the same night in thclnfirmary. The next person found was a young man, named M'Laughlarn, who tended the furnace for melting the iron, and who had been emploved on the prerhises only ab6ut a fortnight. He wvas taken to the itifir. mary, but died during the night Several persons wlo were mere or less injured were then got out In succeosion; and one who was quite dead. This was an old man, 70 yearc of age, named John Blaize, who was employed as a striker for his son a smith, and worked in the smithy exactly opposite the centre of the boiler. He Was found in a horrible situation, with his head upon the hearth-fire; and the lesh of the face and neckc nearly consumeci. He was of course quite dead when found, and, fromn the other injuries he had received, there is reason to believe that. he had been killed instantaneously. His son William Bluize was severelyinjured,and now lies in a doubtful state. Several of the persons who were extricated, or extricated them. selves from the ruina, with little injury, had most providential es- capes, As it was quite dark when the e*plosion took place, the extent of damage to the premises and to the adjoining property could hardly be t'ully ascertained tbat the next morning a dreadful scene of havoc was presented to view. Thc house on the left of the premises, ad- joining the enginehouse and foundry, and belonging to a AMr. Frogget, v/as almost shaken to pieces, and will probably have to be taken dowa before it can be made habitable. The same house, we belleve, received considerable damase some time ago, by the fall of a chimney belonging to the-same wvar s. The roof and wall of ano. other house, at the back. of Messrs. Windsor and CO.'s premises, occupied by a Mrs; Berri-ngton, was partially beaten in with bricks; and it may. serve sd give somfe idea of the force of the explo. slon, when we state, that .both the waUs of lMessrs. Wind- sor and Co.'s large building intervened between that house and the boiler. A large piece of cast iron, a fragment of the boiler, weigh- ing abont 801b., was projected with such force in snbther direction, that it passed over a house, which bounded the yard on the right of the precedlng plan, and which, to the summit of the chimneys, over which the piece of iron seust have pasted, was at least five and forty feet higli, and broke in the gable end of another house lower down -in Mfajor-street, about 60 yards from the soot were the boiler stoed. Another piece of iron, apparently about the aeine size, was carried nearly In the same direction, nbout six yardls further, and broke -through the roof of a saddler's shop in Fall'sbuildinga. One of the weights used for loading the throttle valve, weighing about three pounds, zas thrown over the buildings on the lefc of the plan, and passed with considerable force through the window of a garret on the opposite side of flinshull-street, in which a carver and gilder was at work, and narrowly missed his head. A large quantity of bricks and fragments of iron were driven with great force in every direction, and broke a vast numnber of -windows, and did other trifling damage, on anl sides of the Vrcnises'; but fortunately no person., so far as we have heard, received any iijury from tbem. With regard to the immediate cause of this fatal and destructive accident. we do not know that any thing satisfactory can be ad- vanced. It wvillbe seen below4 that the engineer, in his evidence on thelnquest, sworepositively that no additional weight had been placed upon the safety.valve; aud the vveight with which it wa8s taSU ally loaded, 421b. to the inch, Is by no means great for such en- gines. It is probable-that the safetv-valve had by some means got entangled ;(and Mr. Windsor unfortunately did not tty It when he examined the engine, 'before he went'to tea.) But wvhatever m.iight be the proximate cause of the accident, there can be no doubt on the mind of any raiional man, that engines of this description are ex- ceedingly unsafe. About tm years and a half ago we had to an- nounce the bursting ofa boiler at Ardwvcic. We believe the engine to vwhich that boiler belonged, and the one now in question, were tie only Trevethick engines in Manchester;. and the hpilers belonging to them are the only ones which bave btret in the town since the otomnenscement of our editorial labours. We trust that no person after this-time, and with these examples before his eyes, will have so little regard to the lives of his fellow-creatures, as to erect another of thenu dangerous engines; and if there should be one still in cx- istenee in thisneighbourhood, it is to be hoped that the owner will forthwith pull it down. I The following is a list of the personswho bave susTered fromi tis dreadful accident :-Jolin Blaize, smith, killed ; Tho-mas Wheeler, foreman of the mroulders, kiUed; Henry Robinson, moulder, since dead; Henry llI'Laughlan, blast-tendes ,since dead; William Old- ham, moulder since dead; Thomnas Winstanley, filer, now in the infirmary, with fractre and severe contusions; -Jonathan Taylor, smith, also in the infimary, severely bruised and lacerated; William Blaize, smlith,s sererelv hurt;* John Hughes, tiler ditto; John (ra- Iham, turner, ditto; kichard Robinsons turner, slightly; Jamles I Richardsgn, turner, slightly; James Warre, filer. - 'THE CORONPER'; INQUEST we held at the Tow-nhall Tavern, in Tib-lane, at Rix o'clck on Wednesday ever4ing. After come difficulty in assembling a jury, Mr. Richard Ormrod, iron.founder, waisirnrd statecd- hla. Visited the preimises vhere the accidelt happened on thrt saptoerve.- ing, but there was sO much confusion at the time, that he did not se any thing which could assist him In forming an opinian L4to 61: cause of the accident. He vas there again the iczt daf! antd theic saw a plece of cast iron in the strect, which appeard ti have forned' part of the boiler: it seemed to be part of the dcor or fronr end. There wag a8 pieCe of wrought ioR fe4ened ar57s the case iron, frorm which he judged that the boiler apd. been re- ptired; and in his opinion it had becn vJl repaireA. That re- pair had not beci done by himl; but he believed thaz his men hatt repaired thc valves a few weeksago, It w hs a bigh..preszraenzine, and required snore-then ordinatyarre and attention ine =h inewer cv nlone but a scientific m.n ws-it to loDk after such an engineJ WVit- ness had never m.de but one igb.pressure engine, and that had a wrought iron boiler, double rivetted, for greater recurity ' b- this case the boiler waH cast iron. He did not consider guch engine Lese asid If -he bad been passing along the street, and had keown that such an engine war at work there, he would have gone on the other side of the street; he would have kept as far as he cotLd fromn it. Joseph Hopkins, a tuiner4 in the- employ of liesesm Whindsor and Co., stated that the firm consisted of Johlu Windsor5 Jameg Windsor, and Mlichael Hyde; they were machinea-makers witness had been in their employ since lIst Easter. The bailding wlhich they occupied hgd been four stories high h but they had taken out thefrst floor, in order to have more room - so that it iris now only ffraesur- ries high.. On the day the acciJent happtned, witness was at ti": work, in the second story, wben his wife brought his " bzr about twenty rinutes past four, as near as be could judgd: she brought a child in her 2trms. The men had no regular bour for bagging, and witness ate his at his lathe, where he remained aibout ten minutes. He then went to a grindstone at the heed of the stairs, to grind his tools. His wife accompanied him, intending to go home; but. when she oliered to leave him, the child began *o cryI 'wishing to come to hinm he therefore laid down the tool which he was grinding, and said he wotdd take a turn up the ehop to pacifv it. He and his wife then valked towards the other end of the shop, and had neatly reached it, when he saw the lathe.bearinger at that end suddenly rise towtrds the ceiling. He at first thought a strap had lapped; but he soon fond that the other end of the shop, vwitv the e bad been working, had fallen-down. fie did not at first know what was the matter; but on Dooking out of the window, he saw something in the yard red hot, which he juded tohEs a part of the boiler, and he then conduded that the boiler had burst. There were, at the time when the .tecident happened, abeut 4-5 menL and boys on the premises. Mr. James Windsor, one of the masters, wasini the second story, and witness let him downihrough4s, windovr withl a strF He theu let down his wife and child, And then sude the strap fast. ad slid down it hirnself. Witness neve heard any complanits of the en'ie: he did not know any thing about such en. gines himselfh ordy5e lhe d seen in the newspapers that they wvere not considered safe. Coroner.-Ay; but you must not believe all that you cee IB the newspapers. Some very strange things get into the newspapers now. a-days. Exaamination reaumed.-The engineer is a young tan ; but I con- sidez him a sldiful man. He was on the premisea, and within tetL yards of the engine, at the time of the excident. Me wans perfectly sober and ateady. I conceive the cause of the accident wsz an over. pressure of steam ius some way or other. Filliam Hail, the esgiacer. stated, that he was 21 yearssof age; he had been flveyears an engLn~ecr along with his father. Hlenever saw any thing wrong in the engin, except a flawv or crack in tltefront of the boiler, which had had a plate put upon it. iEe rever felt an3r doubts of the safety of the boiler. He nejer sa but two high- pressure engines in this town, besides the one in auestion. One was a small one ncar Kenedy's factory, which ran oti weels; the etber was at Holline's, at Ardwick.0 Both ose engines had wrought- iron boilers. Witness could not tcl how the accdent iappenedz he had a regular thing to go by-the fafety-valve, which was H goo order at the time. He had just taken his tea off the boiler, and ,1nu into the smithy to eat it, or he should have been killed. There ws.5 the usual wveiht on the safety-valve, viz. 421b., which was 1flb. under the ordinary pressure at which such engies wrere worked;, they were workged lip to 641b. Thi WaS all the evidence at{duced. No one was called to prove any connexion between the persons deceased and the accident; wor was it ever asked if they worked on the premise AIr. James lFintd0or was called in, but was not, worn. Thecoron ner read over to hint Mr. Ormtod's testimony, as to the danger of using such etngimes, in order, as he said, that Mr. W-mdsor might take proper care for the future, for his own eake, as well as that of the poor fellows who worked for him. The room was then cleared, that the jury might deliberate apon their verdict. In a few minates it was announced that they had found " That the deceased were accidentally killed by the birasing of a steam-boiler."- We cannot allow this inquest to pass without a few observations on the extraordinary manner in which the Coroner chose to conduct it. The worthy functionary very truly observed " that strange things get into the newvspapers newadays;" and certainly, when anv of his proceedings find their way thitner, they do cut a rather exttraordinary figure. Whea he held an inquest on the qznibfrunatc persons who lost their lives at SMr. tough's factory, T'M had to ob- serve that he never connected then with the accident into which the jury w ere inquiring:X and oo this oca:sion he has pursued tb2 sam extraordinary, unaccountable, and illegal course. Trhe juryr reanned a verdict that the deceased were accidentally killed by the bursting oF a steam boiler; but they bad no evidence to justity them in coming to that, or indeed any other conclusion. They saw four dead bodies; they then hesrd some testimony abont the bursting of a holler in Major-street; but as to whether any parson was klled there, they did not hear a single word in the way ol evidence; and for any thing which legallv appeared befirre them, the persons whose bdim they sawr might sever have been in Al.jor-stree* in the whole coumri of their lives. We now beg our readers to tmark what a strange asurydity this sort of conduct on the part cf the Coroner has prodlced. One of the persons killed was called Henrv Robinson; but by some mistake (which, under the circumatances of the case, might easAy oceur) the naame of Wim. Oldham (who was one of the persons hurt by the acc- dent) found its way into the inquest warrant. The jury were sworn to inquire. and the witnesses to give evidence, touching the death of William Oldhatn, and a verdict was returwqd, that he was 5 acci- dentaily hilled by the bursting of a iteam cboiler,ti'nugh-he-was-at thatmoment alive: and no inquest at al vwas held upon Benry Robinson, who was killcd. NowD, if the Coroner had pursued the regular course in conduct- ing the inquest, this strange verdict could never havebeen returned ; for he wonld have had all the deceased persons identified by wit. nesses who knew them; he would have bad evidence that they wvorked on the premises, and were killed by the acddent. The mis. tak- could not then have escaped detection; the jury might have beer. re-sworn, and the proceedings would have become regular. But, excepting when the oaths were administered, the names of the per_ sons on whom the inquest was held were never heard from one end of proceedings to the other; and the consequence was w hat we bave stated. This is making a complete farce ef a cororner's inquest. Since the preceding observations were written, se have learned that Oldham is dead, and an inquest will be helt upon him. In what way the Coroner will patch up the blunder which has been made, re shall probably then see. * Thl, was the engine wre have prevlously alltded to; the boier of' which burst on the 13th of July. 1822, as detaled in the Guardin of the foflowing day DREADFUL ACCIDENT.