The Invercargill Accident.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 177, 18 July 1901, Page 3

The Invercargill Accident.

Invercargill, July 16.

The inquest on the fireworks fatality was resumed to-day, when the carpenter who made the socket for the signal rocket gave evidence. He deposed that Captain McGilvray wanted him to bore a two-inch hole through a rail, but as he had not a suitable auger, he made a substitute, at the captain’s suggestion, by nailing two battens on a 4 x 2 upright, forming a square box to' hold the rocket. The timber of the platform now bore cuts with pieces of metal in them, caused by the explosion. He gave no one permission to discharge fireworks. Charles Reid, second officer of the Monowai, detailed the correct method of using a ship’s signal rocket, and said that firing it in any other way was extremely dangerous. Sergeant-Major Wall, instructor on War Office explosives, described the rocket. Among other things it contained a quantity of gutta percha, Boz of gun powder, and 2oz of guncotton. When the guncotton exploded the iron clynder would be blown into fragments. He did not regard the socket used in this case as safe, as it was not strong enough to withstand the explosion of the gunpowder in the base of the rocket, while its shape, rendered it dangerous. He would expect that if a t >cket were fired out of such a box the gunpowder, instead of forcing the rocket upwards, would •exert its force on the box in the line of resistance. Guncotton was four and a half tifues stronger than powder, and if the signal exploded near the ground he would expect to find fragments of the metal easing

by. The gunpowder produced hnd not deteriorated. Accidents of this kind might happen without negligence in the bauds of experts. A socket 2in square on the inside for a rocket If in ih diameter was not safe. The -inquest has not yet concluded.