THE RECENT EXPLOSION AT WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6501, 28 December 1881, Page 5

THE RECENT EXPLOSION AT WELLINGTON.

THE INQUEST. (tfe te Zeeland rtm«, Deo. 8U The City Coroner (Dr Johnston) held an inquest yesterday, at the Hospital, aa to the causes which led to the death Of Mw Lydia Anthony, the wife of W. H. Anthony, the manager of Messrs Barraud and Bon, ohcmlete, Lambton Quay, who met her death on Wednesday evening lest by the eiploeion of come chemical compounds on the promisee of the above firm. .... Mr Duncan M'DouiaU woe chosen foreman of the jury, and Mr Fitz Gerald attended to watch the ease on behalf of Mr Anthony. Dr Diver, bring sworn, stated that hearing the eiploeion on the night in question, he went to the scene of the catastrophe, where he found the deceased lying in the yard of the K, miiet attached to Messrs Darraud'e shop, o witness stated that having attended to the deceased lady, ho deemed it advisable to order her removal to the Hospital, where he. assisted by Dr Henry and other medical gentlemen, performed certain operations, which have already been described m the columns of the Neio Zealand Timet. The deceased succumbed shortly alter admission

to 111* Hospital, and died at 9 o’clock on Wednesday night. William Henry Anthony deposed that he wa* a ohemiil and lor (he dm of Messrs Barraud and ion, ohemiata, of Lamb* ton Quay. He hod been fourteen yean in the trade, and served his time with I)r Coward, of Christchurch. Ho bad been the manager of Messrs Barraud’s boaineM for the laab eighteen month*, previous to which ho wae manager of a chemist’* chop at Christ* church. On Wednetday afternoon laet a customer visited the shop and asked fora fiound of hiuo fire. Ho understood it to bo or the Christmas festivities. Had no further conversation with the customer, who did not say for what particular purpose he required the Are. Told him it would be ready iu two hours' time. Witness commenced to make the fire ordered, and composed it from a receipt in Beasley’s Beoeipt Book, form of receipt Ho. 5. The receipt was as follows Kino parts chlorate of potash, dried verdigrie 2 parte, sulphur 1 ounce, and to (hie he added 2 ounces black antimony. In testing it, he found the compound went off too quicUy. It *' flatbed” too quickly, eo ho did not send It to the railway station ae ordered. After teatime, witnois took the mortar containing the mixture into the back yard, in order to destroy it by homing it. He scooped the mixture out of the mass, and In small quantities fired it on the ground. It" fizzed” off, and did not explode, and no sound was occasioned. It was getting dark at this time, and hi* wife was looking through the kitchen window. Deceased went to the back door and suggested that the compound should be put down the drain instead of burning it, os being an easier way of getting rid of it. Witness told deceased not to touch it, as ho was to light up the shop, and would return and finish it. He had lit one light in the shop, when he heard a loud explosion, and thinking it to be that of a cannon, he went to the shop front door and looked up and down the street. On crowing the private entrance, he saw smoke rising from the hack of the premises, and the thought of the fire striking him he ran to the back. Before he reached the yard, and while in the passage, he found hie wife’s hand in the passage leading to the back door. He picked up tbe portion of the limb, and called out to hit wife by name. He saw her then lying on her back in the gutter leading to tbe dram in the yard. Witness saw that both arms were blown off, and he ran into the street and asked a policeman to go for Dr Diver. Witness wae alone on tbe premises,exoept the niece of the deceased, Hiss Clara Wal kden, and his little boy, a child aged two yean and two months. Miss Walkden was in tbe kitchen when the deceased spoke to witness just before the explosion. Tbe order to make the fire wa* a customary one in Wellington, and witness had frequently compounded Bluo-fires such ab he had made on the day of the accident. There was nothing unusual in completing on order for a pound of blue>fire at a time. He had frequently made up similar orders. He of course was aware that the mixture was somewhat of a dangerous one, and therefore he kept it back, in order to destroy it. He could offer no reason as to the cause of the explosion. There was chlorate of potash and sulphur in the mixture, and any heavy friction would cause an explosion. The com* Eoond was mixed in an iron mortar, with a eavy pestle, in the shop. There were about eight or ten ounces in the mortar. Was not aware of any law being in existence forbidding the mixing of a compound, snob a* described, in the city j nor was there any city bylaw in existence. The black antimony was added with a view to make the fire slower; and it certainly would not add to the explosive nature of the compound. Could in no way account for the cause of the explosion. He did not think that the explosion would have occurred by the powder boingthrowneven very violently on the ground. The mortar used in the mixing of [the compound was an open one, and was about ten inches in diameter. Did not think that water thrown upon the mixture would cause an explosion such as described, unless the disturbance or the shifting of the powder in the mortar caused a friction which ignited the compound. The powder was “ blended ” gently in the bottom of the mortar with the pestle, bat not against the sides of tbe mortar. The day after tbe accident witness found an empty pail outside the back door; but he did not know if deceased used it in connection with the compound in the mortar. The pestle was not in the mortar when the explosion occurred, so far as he knew.

Dr Diver (recalled) said he had often made chemical Area from receipts taken from different books when studying practical chemistry in laboratories, and afterwards. He thought it was part of a chemist's business out hero to make up such compounds for retail sale. After the experience which Ur Anthony has had in the trade he should be quite com* potent to undertake the compounding of snob receipts as described. All such compounds ore dangerous } but he did not think that the receipt used by Mr Anthony was more dangerous than others of a similar kind, if properly handled. The course pursued by Mr Anthony to destroy the compound by burning it in small parcels was not a dangerous method, as it is done on the stages of the theatres every night. Witness thought that the deceased must have taken a spoon to empty the mortar of the substance. She very likely was in a stooping position at the time, and the friction of the spoon against the side of the mortar created a spark. Thought the deceased must have had the mortar in her hand at the time of the ex* plosion. He arrived at this opinion from the nature of the wounds on the deceased.

Clara Helen Walkdea, being sworn, deposed that she was the niece of the deceased, with whom she was living at the time of the accident, on the premises on Lambton Quay. About a quarter past seven o'clock on Wednesday evening last, witness was with her aunt in the kitchen, watching Mr Anthony burning the blue fire. Mr Anthony at this juncture wont into the shop to fight up. There was no fire in the yard. Mrs Anthony, as soon at her husband went into the shop, asked witness to give her some water to wash the powder down the drain. Witness was looking round for something to put the water m, and, whilst doing so, she heard the explosion. She previously hod seen her aunt go into the yard. Did not see Mre Anthony get any water, and witness did not give her any. Just before the explosion, and as the was leaving the kitchen, deceased said she would throw some water down the drain in order to wash the . powder down. So soon as witness heard the explosion she ran into the yard, and picked up the little boy, who had gone into (he yard with his mother. There wos a bucket in the yard, and deceased had sufficient time to have taken water from the tap after the loft the kitchen. About two minutes elapsed between the time of her auut leaving the kitchen and the explosion occurring. Mr Anthony and his wifellved together on most affectionate toms.

The Coroner summed up briefly, and, in doing to, remarked that the jury would here but little difficulty in arriving at a verdict as to the cause of death. He did not think, however, that the duty of the jury would bo fulfilled union they eipreseed an opinion a» to the danger of railing oheuioale for stage or other porpoiea in the heart of a city like Wellington. It waa ridiouloua that the civic authorities were ao careful of the lirea of the oitiaena that they made it imperative that a competent plumber ahould alter the gaa Sot the houses, and yet they had no by-law regulating the mixing of >ua ohemiosl oompouuda. Personally, he knew Mr Anthony to be a competent and careful ohemlat. The blame reeled with the Municipal authorities who ought to forbid the preparation of dangerous chemical* in the city. Certainly no blame or negligence could be attributed to Mr Anthony. Die jury deliberated in open Court, and after a lew minute* returned a verdict of •'Accidental Death,*' adding the following rider That the attention of the Government be called to the fact that large quantitf.ee of dangerous eiplorive powder are railed up in the city and cold without any etepe being taken to regulate or limit euoh tale.* 1