NEW KIND OF BOILER

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 36, 10 August 1918, Page 9

NEW KIND OF BOILER

BOER FARMER. AND MINE.

A Boer farmer and Iris son, who found a mine on the shore nea,r Eland's Bay, South Africa, are fortunate, to be still alive. An official report made to the Admiralty' tells the story :— .'.."Mr. ——• and his son found a large, cast-iron,receptacle'on the beach. They consequently brought up their cart, and then first unscrewed a large brass cap and some/pulley wheels. They then, rolled' the receptacle into the sea-, ■ filled it up .through the hole with salt water, and screwed back ,the brass tap. As Mr. and his son lifted the-.-re-ceptacle- into the cart a- substance resembling brown tar began to trickle put (T.N.T. softened ■ by the . sun). .They lighted the substance with a match, and: the' result so seriously frightened them that they left the cart in the vicinity and told the local policeman. When. Constable rame with . them at a later date the mechanism of the thing (as he ■ termed, it) did not excite his interest, so he rolled it into the bushes a-nd covered it with, branches and reeds. It remained there until an officer _ from the.flagship arrived to collect theparts. "From this officer's report it is dear that Mr. .: and his son had (previously to becoming frightened) thoroughly, if not tactfully", dismantled 1, the mine. The'primer was apparently.opened with a tin-opener. Such portions of thfi horns of the mine .-as the' officer eventually induced Mr. and his friends to disgorge proved to have been cut off with a hammer and cold chisel.lt, also appeared that the flame from the burning "T.N.T.y rising ■' some 200 ft, frightened the inhabitants on the coast, .so .that' the wiser ones took refuge . in, the hills, and others sought safety rmtier their beds. -Mr.-- , after some persuasion, eventually confessed that he had mistaken the tiling, for a new kind) of boiler used,in the manufacture,.of wireless telegraphy." " \ The", report recalls, tho story of ten Irish fishermen, who, thinking that' a mine was a rum barrel, pyccß-ded to open it, with the result that' of the ten nine were blown to bits.