DISASTROUS EXPLOSION AT STEEL WORKS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2605, 23 March 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

DISASTROUS EXPLOSION AT STEEL WORKS.

Ox Friday, January 25, a disastrous explosion occurred ac the Bessemer steel pits of the London and North- Wnstum Railway, at Crewe. A crane workio« a ladle, containing seven tons of molten steel, gave way and the vvliolu of the boiling metal fell mto the pit, causing a frightful explosion. The hot metal (l;w like shots from the pit, and uo fewer than twenty men were more or less injured. Thirteen of the injured were at once taken to the company's hospital. The clothing of several of the men were burned. Two of them, named Samuel Falkner and John Knott, are in a dangerous condition. The workshop was much damaged by the flames, being almost unroofed. Some miraculous escapes are reported. The fly-wheel which regulated the ladle was found broken into many pieces. During the afternoon the chief officials of the London and North-Western Railway Company visited the works where the explosion occurred, and inspected the machinery. The cause of the accident was undoubtedly due to the oollipse of the fly-wheel, which was found broken in half a dozed pieces. This caused the spur gearing to npsct the cupola, containing boilini.' metal. A number of men sought refuge in a tunnel, but here they suffered terribly from the molten metal. A man mimed John Nott, who was engaged with the machine, had his clothing burnt off him, and the metal burnt into his flesh ; his sufferings were dreadful, and there is no hope of his recovery. Six of th" injii-. d >■ a'p. in the Able to V.-* -.■• :■ ved t.i thfcir hom\s in cabs, leaving cvfi-'ii ir. M'.c iiospual. Four of these ai'c iu a dangerous condition.