FOLLOWED HIS THUMBS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 8

FOLLOWED HIS THUMBS

MAN'S REMARKABLE ESCAPE,

Attributing to gymnastic training his escape' from a violent death, Mr. Frank Green, a machinist; Moorah-street, Parkville, Melbourne, related last 1 week a story of -wonderful experience. Many men have been „ caught bymachinery as he was, but few have escaped to tell the tale. Lying in his bed at the Melbourne Hospital. calmly reading ■ a book) Mr.' Green looked none the worse for what he had beGH through. A few days before he was working at the coach factory 01 Keep Bros, and Wood, in , West Melbourne, and while standing near .vie, shaft of the machinery portion of his clothing was caught on- the .coupling. It was spinning around at about 300 revolutions to the minute, but Mr. Green maintained his presence of mind. As a gymnast oi long expert ence he applied one of the" first Tules of the gymnasium when on the horizontal bar —going through "the forward torn" —he gripped the shaft with both hands, and "followed "his thumbs around."

Over and over he was whirled, ,but he was able—owing to his experience on the horizontal bar—to use his weight against the pull of" the shaft, and so tear his clothing. He was successful, and every garment was wrenched off.. Then he loosened his grip of the shafting, and secured a hqjd of. a piece of quartering used as a hanger above the .shaft, and clung until the machinery was stopped. Quietly hoisting himself to a plank running across the machinery, he rested. All that was left of his clothes was a piece of his underpants around his knee, with an elastic band, his boots and socks. His injuries were merely bruises on the arms and legs. ■ ' , Though Mr. Green did not lose his presence of mind, he cannot remember how he managed to seize the quartering, and how he climbed to the plank where his fellow-workmen found him.