GREAT EXPLOSIONS

Evening Star, Issue 20138, 1 April 1929, Page 6

GREAT EXPLOSIONS

mt HEAVY DEATH ROLLS APPALLING DEVASTATION Tiie recent gas explosions in London streets have recalled previous noteworthy explosions. One was that at an explosive factory at Silveri-own, in January, 1917. About fifty people were believed to ba lulled, while hundreds were injured. An eye witness says : “ A great dare shot up on tho south side of the Thames, lighting everything for miles around, and the terrific explosion that followed fairly Jilted, me off my feet. I got up and raced for tho scene, fioon 1 found myself surrounded by huge flames darting up into the sky; masonry came crashing down. “ People were lying dead in the roadway, and I came upon the remains of a tire engine, by which lay two firemen with their bodies torn asunder. . . . Three streets of small workmen's dwellings seemed to have disappeared altogether ... A gate was the only tiling standing of one factory.” Compared with this, the recent gas explosion in Hulborn was a small matter, though the material damage was very severe. WINDOWS SAI.ABHED FOR TWENTY MILES. What was probably (he biggest British explosion of tliis present century was the one at Ardeer, in Ayrshire, in. march, 1913. The Ardeer dynamilo Works of .Messrs Nobel occupied ajarg« samlv trad fronting the Firth oJ Clyde, The" huts in which the explosives wero made were separated by sandhills. The explosion occurred in a building used as a drying house for gun cotton, and the shock was so fierce that four’ neighbouring buildings filled with explosives blew up. Tor a radius of Iwc-ntv miles almost every window was smashed. Even in the far-lying mining country of Lanarkshire tho shock was fell, and everyone poured out in terror lest, some disaster had occurred in tho coal pits. Near Ihe factory hundreds of dead birds were picked up, and tlia beacon at Irvine Harbour was extin-

guished. The most important explosion that ever oecurred in Britain was that ot October 2, 1874. when a barge laden with five tons of gunpowder blew up on .Regent's Park Canal. Fragments of the barge were picked up near the elephant. bouse in the Zoo. 1 be. banks of the eanal were blown in. and the neighbouring trees Imn to ribbons; the roof of the Zoo aviary was broken, and. nearly all the. wonderful birds escaped,'I bis’ explosion was because it led to the passing ol the Explosives Act. which has saved a multitude of livee and millions of pounds of property., OTH Li! GREAT EXPLOSIONS.

Explosions ran have other causes than dynamite or gas. On October 16, 1924, a steam lorry was standing in iMain street, (Ireenock, laden with cyliudcis of compressed oxygen gas. Unloading had just begun when a elyinder slipped, foil, 'and exploded. A tramcar passing at the time was set afire, and nearly, all the forty passengers were hurl. Houses for 150 yards up and down tho street had their roots damaged, windows blown in, and chimneys knocked down. Another extraordinary explosion was one that occurred at a hat Jactovy at. Denton, near .Manchester, >pint used in the proofing department blew up with such appalling force, that at Oldham, five miles away, windows were broken by the concussion. Eleven workmen were killed and over thirty injured. Few people have any idea, of the explosive force of water. In 1906 the gicat 42iu main of the Liverpool water supply from Lake Vrynwy burst under the bed of the I liver Eller. There was a roar like thunder, and a column ot water as thick as a man's body shot fully a hundred feet into the air, carrying on its crest vast masses of mosoniv and lumps of rock. Huge quantities ot earth and shingle were ripped from _ the hillside by tho falling water and tilled the whole" of the river bed.