EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2322, 23 February 1892, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT.

An Australian paper recounts an extraordinary accident which recently occurred at Deniliquin. The wife of a butcher named Mathewson was in the act of reaching to the shelf for a bar of soap. Right under the shelf was a box containing about 100 glass balls, which had been purchased by Mr Mathewson some 18 months before. Little seems to have been known of the properties of these balls, and they were left lying about the place, occasionally being used as playthings by the children. They are of hollow glass, about 2£ inches in circumference, and are covered with a substance resembling parchment. Between the inside of the parchment and the cover and outer surface of the ball there is a thin coating of an explosive compound, from its effects dynamite. The balls are used at times by those who are practising pigeon-shooting. After obtaining the bar of soap Mrs Mathewson accidentally let it fall from her hands into the box containing the bogardus balls. A terrible explosion immediately took place, and an immense volume of flame shot up. Mrs Mathewson was thrown violently down, and her clothing burst into flames. At the same moment the fire extended to the walls of the building. The suddenness of the explosion and the consequent excitement caused Mrs Mathewson to faint. As her clothes were burning at the same time her condition was critical, and had Mr Mathewson not been in the house at the time a terrible calamity would have occurred. Mrs Mathewson was found to be severely burned about the face and hands.