A CORNISH SENSATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 13 February 1904, Page 5 (Supplement)

A CORNISH SENSATION.

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF. NITROGLYCERINS. LONDON, January S. On Tuesday last the whole of West Cornwall, which covers an area of about , 30 square miles, was thrown, into a state of panic by a terrific explosion at the dynamite works of the National Explosive Company. which are situated on the "Towans." or sandhills, nt Hayle. These works, -which give ioaplnyment to nearly 700 people, have been in existence some twelve or fourteen years, nud up to Tuesday last only three lives had been lost there through accidents with explosive"-, which is a suffi indication of the care exercised and the urecautiou.; adopted in the carrying on of tli<* (iaugerous operations inseparable from the manufacture of cordite and kindred explosives. On Tuesday the expic«ion occurred just before 11 o'clock in the moining, when all hands were at wor!:, the. scene of the accident being two frai! sheds in the danger area, about 00 yards apart, where the precipitation and filtration of nitro-gly-cerine was carried on. In. ench of these houses there were two in<?.ii nt worl; nt the time of the explosion. the terrified officials reached the scene, the sheds were diffused in fragments over a wide area, and the four hapless workers were represented by bloody odds nnd puds of bor.e, flesh and clothing. 'vpvt from fhis Hi— fated quartette, only othor worker was injured severely. Th's was a Swede named Holman. who \?as sent spinning heavenward byVthe foive of the explosion, and in Jiis fall broke "iis back, nml was as one dead when picked up. though ::live and able to talk with his rescuers. I'ew of the oilier workers sustained incapacitating injuries, but very remarknUle escapes are recorded. One man passing within a few yards of the sheds was hurled through the door of a building a long way off; ih»ee yonng chemists working in a far-off laboratory were knocked do.vn and stunned; the majority of the workers got a had shock: and a few received outs from flying blass, and bniTding materials, but in reality Holman was the only person outside the workers in the sheds who received more than superficial injnry. There were two distinct reports within a second of each other. The concussion -las remarkable, and in places ten and even fifteen miles away startled people rushed to their doors at the sound of breaking glass. The impression of those outside the immediate area of Ilaylo was that a sever* earthquake shock had b«en experienced. In l-layle the shock was followed by oathnnri of black smoke, which, spread itself like a tmre (.loud over the works. There was at once n rush of men. ■women, and children towards the works—hundreds of hatless and hnlf-clothed people making their way over the mile and a half of intervening ground, and many scenes of a most distressing character were witnessed, the crowd being confident that all inside the factory had been enveloped. Tn the course of an hour, however, it was fully realised that the accident find not amounted to a catastrophe. In the neighbouring towns of Teuzance. St. Ives, and Camborne, many had relatives engaged at the works, and they took the earliest trains toassure themselves of the safety of their friends, and Hayle was soon filled by an excited crowd. An extraordinary feature of the disaster is the damage done in the fishinp; village of St. Tvpp, which is separated from the works hy three or fo\ir miles of sea. Here the shock was even more severe than in the town of Haylo itself. Shop fronts and house windows fell into the streets, nnd the roads were covered with shattered glass, some oT it plate glass three-eighths of an inch thick, and two or three houses were minus a wall where the shock had passed: while the line old stained glass window at the eastern end of the Parish Church was quite ruined. At Penzanee. ten miles from the. works, the concussion broke a number of windows.