A Terrible Explosion.

Manawatu Herald, 23 June 1894, Page 3

A Terrible Explosion.

A frightful accident occurred afc the New Zealand Freezing Works at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning. Two men, named John W. Lusher, of Auckland, and H. E. Kennedy, of Sydney, were testing a carbonic acid cylinder, which was apparently leaking, to try and find out the leak. The men took each a handle of the cylinder, and placed it in water in a barrel, so that by bubbles coming up they could locate the leak. The effect was instantaneous. r l he cylinder burst. Lusher was killed at once, his brains being scattered upon the wall. Kennedy's head was bashed in and terribly mutilated. He lived only a few minutes. George Drummond, whose firm manufactured the cylinder, and who was an eye witness of the accident, says that the cylinder was made to the order of Kennedy and Lusher, and was connected with the city main at Drummond and Co.'s premises for about a fortnight. This morning Drummond first put the cylinder into a back-room of the freezing Company's premise?, and afterwards it was brought into a room behind the office, the scene of the accident. Kennedy and 1 Lusher then proceeded to test the

, cylinder, while Menzies, Hirst aad* Drummond stood close by. Kennedy tittß. tHishM put the cylinder into a barrel of water, ana a3 the bottom touched the fluid it blew up like a shot out lrom a gun. The bottom part of the cylinder stopped in the barrel, and the upper portion, with two valves weighing about 3^l b, each shot through the ceiling. Drummond says be was dazed for a tiirtej but the first thing he saw was that Kennedy and Lttsher Were lying, on the floor. Ifetinedy wa9 breathing when Dr Willritfs arrived, but Lusher was killed instantaneously. Drummond says he attributes the accident to the cylinder being submerged in the cold water. Lusher was the son-in-law of the Mayor of Auckland, Mr J. J. Holland, and was married only about two years ago. Professor Brown (of the Auckland University College) says the explosion was probably due in the first pla"ce to a portion of the liquid carbonic acid escapiflg into the copper cylinder, where it would partially volatilise, becoming very cold, and on the cylinder being put into the barrel the liquid carbonic acid would give off more gas owing to the higher temperature of the water, and so rapidly increase the pressure. The leaky condition of the cylinder showed plainly it was used to its utmost strength, and an increase of the pressure consequent on dipping it into water would be sufficient to cause the explosion. — Press Association.