FATAL EXPLOSION AT THE FAVERSHAM POWDER MILLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 852, 28 March 1868, Page 13

FATAL EXPLOSION AT THE FAVERSHAM POWDER MILLS.

(From the Times, December 31 .)

A fearful explosion occurred on Saturday morning at these Powder-mills, by which 11 men were blown into the air and killed, instantly, and a great quantity of valuable property destroyed. The gunpowder works belonging to the Messrs Hall are situated about a mile from the town of Faversbam, and are completely isolated from any other buildings. To this circumstance may be attributed the safety of the town, for the force of the explosion was tremendous, and had there been any habitations near a much greater sacrifice of life would have been inevitable. The force of the explosion was so great that it shook all the windows and broke some glass in the city <jf Canterbury, about ten miles distant. At the powder works, the explosion carried everything before it. Trees of giant size were uprooted and thrown a distance of several hundred yards, and the boiler of the engine, weighing about half a ton, was found deeply imbedded in one of the fields on Ham Farm, a considerable distance off. The fields near the works are strewn with fragments of bricks, and the young trees near the scene of the explosion are cut off as with a scythe. In fact, the whole neigh* orhood presents the appearance of having been visited with a terrible convulsion of nature.

The works were opened as usual on Saturday morning, and all went well till close upon 11 o'clock, when a fearful explosion occurred in what is called the " coming-house," This wag followed almost immediately by two other explosions equally severe. Measures were at once taken to ascertain the extent of the disaster, and it was soon found that there was not one left alivo to tell the tale of how it originated. The three houses which were , blown into fragments were large and substantially built, and stood at a distance of about 300 ft. apart. , They were all thought to be completely isolated, and were protected from lightning and from the danger of one communicating fire to. the others by high mounds of earth which surrounded them, and, as was supposed, isolated all three places from each other. The powder was finished in its manufacture in these houses, and it was, therefore, all the more necessary that extra precautions should be taken to insure their safety. The raw material is brought from the green powder houses to the presj>house, where it is squeezed into cakea by & screw worked by steam. Thence it is conveyed' in cakes to the cominghouse, where it is separated and grained ; and from this place it passes in all ..ut a finished state to the glazing-house, where it is packed in bags or barrels as may be required. There was, it is admitted, a large quantity of gunpowder in a manufactured state in this part of the works on Saturday, but not more, we are informed, than Messrs Hall are allowed to have in stock at one time. A vast number of exaggerated reports were in circulation in reference to this point on Saturday ; but we believe that when the inquest on the remains of the unfortunate victims comes to be held, the statement we have made above will be satisfactorily proved. Enough powder, however, "was left to do incalculable damage ; and the loss to Messrs Hall is very great, without being needlessly exaggerated. At the time the explosion occurred, there were 12 men at work in the portion of the manufactory which has been destroyed. Of these, 11 were blown up with the houses in which they were at work, and (in Saturday night scarcely a fragment of any of their bodies had been discovered. A portion of a leg or of a trunk was found among the ruins, but this is all that now exists of the unfortunate men. The fragments of the building and timbers were cast up in the air to a height of about 200 feet, and the heavier portions of the structure were thrown to distances which might seem incredible to any but an eyewitness. The explosion occurred in the coming-house, and it was followed at intervals of about half a minute by the pressing and glazing houses. When the explosion occurred every one was for the moment paralysed, but in a few minutes abundant help was at hand, but every soul had been blown away with the houses in which they were working. The manager, the foreman, and all the available strength of the works were on the spot in a few minutes, but all they could do was to look on in dumb dismay at the miserable wreck. Later in the day the huge gaps which had been made in the fences by the blowing away of the .trees were boarded up, and a detachment of coastguardsmen and county police posted at all the available points of entrance to prevent intrusion. Many of the friends of those who were known to be working in the mills came up to learn the fate of the workmen, and many a fireside in FaverBham was made dark by the fearful

calamity. The following >re the names of those who were killed :— John Young, married, six of family ; George Taylor, married, two of family ; Edward Young, married, two of family ; William Sole, married, three of family ; William Austin, married, two of family ; Christopher Jennock, married, no family; Thomas Baldock, married, no family ; Thomas Amos, married, five of family ; William Eley, married, one of family ; John Payn, married, five of family ; and Thomas Back, married, three of family. There are thus 11 widows and 29 children left to mourn the loss of their natural protectors ; and what aggravates the calamity is that many of the children are very young, and unable to do anything for themselves. We believe that everything was done by the Messrs Hall to alleviate, as far as kind consideration could, the force of the blow to the relations of the sufferers, and it is only justice to say thus much at a time when, of all others, sympathy is most prized. Besides the damage done to the works, a good deal of property has been destroyed in the town of Faversham by the concussion of the atmosphere consequent on the explosion. A great number of windows were shattered, and on Ham Farm, about a quarter of a mile from the works, the farm steading has been rent from end to end, some stacks of produce tossed about as by a whirlwind, and other damage done to the house and buildings •which it "will cost a good deal to repair.

Two hairbreadth escapes have come to our knowledge since writing the foregoing, that of the engineman al,a 1 , the works, who went out of the house a minute before the explosion to a place at a short distance off,' and was only stunned by the concussion. He can tell nothing of the origin of the explosion, and knows of nothing having gone wrong till he was thrown upon the ground and rendered senseless. A second escape is that of a laboring man who was coming up to the coming-house with a horse and cart, and who was lifted bodily off his feet and deposited in a stream of running water, a considerable distance off. An inquest on the remains of those who have perished will be held to-day or to-morrow.

Preserving the Teeth. —A correspondent advises us, from personal experience, of the efficacy of " biting a live black snake from his tail tdroug his back bone," for rendering the teeth im-oerishable. The only member out of a family of seven, who has not false teeth and the toothache, he attributes his freedom from both misfortunes and the present soundness of these valuable members, after 15 years' practice with them in cracking nuts and biting pins in two, additional to the ordinary dutis of his dental apparatus during that period, to the wisdvm exhibited in his early days in following the advice of a sagacious Indian, as above stated. He makes known the fact for the benefit of humanity, and with a desire for obtaining some satisfactory explanation therefor. Notwithstanding our horror for the toothache and the inconvenience of wearing artificial masticating instruments, we must confess that despite the assurance of our correspondent the remedy to us appears worse than, the disease. — Scientific American.

A New Thames Tunnel. — An important engineering project, which has excited but little public attention, and for "which the necessary Parliamentary sanction has not.yet baea obtained, is already in process of execution, namely, the tunnel or subway intended to be driven under the Thames between London Bridge and the Tower. This work is the third mode of commun: cation below London Bridge which has been brought forward by the same company. The present project has tlie sanction of the Tower authorities, atd arrangements for the small portion of land on the Surrey side necessary for the approach have been already made. The new tunnel project presents, in many respects a curious contrast with Brunei's great work at Wapping, which occupied nearly twenty years in its execution. The existing tunnel, now the property of the East London Railway Company, is about 1250 ft. between the shafts ; the proposed railway -will be about ] 320 feet ; the one cost above L 450,000, the other is estimated to cost the comparative trifle of L 16,000. Dividend was utterly hopeless in the one case ; in the other, with only the same traffic receipts a3 those of the old tunnel, a dividend of 20 per cent, upon the capital is calculated on. If the estimate be not exceeded, it is possible that, with moderate tolls, the traffic receipt will be much greater. Mr P. Barlow, F. R. S. , who is the engineer of this project, proposes that the descent and ascent to the tunnel, shall be by hydraulic lifts, similar to those in use in the large new hotels, and that the passengers shall be conveyed from one shaft to the other in light steel omnibuses of perfect workmanship, and driven by man power upon a system of accumulating force. The friction will, it is expected, be so much reduced by the exactitude of the fittings and the excellence of the materials and worknianship employed, as to make the power of one man amply sufficient for working an omnibus. The bottoms of the shafts will be on the same level, and the subway will dip in the centre to give speed, and to accumulate force for the last half of the journey. — Daily Ntwa.