FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT IN AUCKLAND.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 65, 15 August 1874, Page 3

FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT IN AUCKLAND.

The Herald of the Bth reports : —One of those terrible accidents which often happen through carelessness to those whose duty it is to attend to machinery, occurred at about ten o'clock yesterday morning at the Union Sash and Door Company's factory, Mechanics' Bay, to a young man named John Brown: No one witnessed the accident. The first that wns known of it was that the youth, with his arm torn to ribbons, staggered round to a man who was attending on the nexi machine, from a knowledge of ' the construction of the planing machine, the manner in which the accident happened is easily inferred. The stains of blood and the fact that the oil can was found under the machine also clearly indicate its cause. The young man had been for three or four years employed at the same machine, and so long as he followed the instructions given him, it was highly improbable that any harm would result. He, however, had been known to lean over the machine to oil its bearings, instead of going round it, and of the danger of this course he had been repeatedly warned. On Thursday last he was cautioned with regard to it. There can be no doubt that the accident occurred in consequence of his leaning over the " cutter heads" to supply the opposite lubricator with oil, and in doing so, fell upon the planing irons. His left arm was dragged down to the planing bed, and the bone fractured in many places. The muscles of the forearm were torn up. The agony suffered by the poor man must have been something intense, for the planing knives could only have scooped the flesh and bone away by little and little with each revolution of the engine. At the time of

the accident it happened providentially that Mr V/eir was passing in his carriage and he at once gave np the use of it, and Brown was taken to the hospital. On arriving there it was found that he was almost in a state of collapse from loss of blood and the shock to the nervous system. The loss of blood was in a great measure prevented by the immediate application of a ligature on the upper part of the arm. But although this was done the injured man nearly bled to death in transitu. When the sufferer arrived at the hospital he was at once attended to by Dr Philaon, who removed the remnants of the fore arm simply with a pair of scissors, and then performed the operation of amputation of the humerus. The arm was taken off close to the shoulder-joint, and from enquiries made yesterday afternoon, we learn that the patient is likely to do well.