A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT. TWO MEN KILLED. Auckland, June 21.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 14

A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT. TWO MEN KILLED. Auckland, June 21.

A frightful accident occurred at the New Zealand Freezing Works at 11 o'clock this morning. Two men named John W. Lusher (of Auckland) and H. E. Kennedy (of Sydney) were testing the carbonic acid cylinder, which was apparently leaking, and were trying to find out the leak. The men took each a handle of the cylinder and placed it in water in a barrel, so that by bubbles coming up they could locate the leak. The effect was instantaneous. The cylinder burst at once. Lusher was killed outright, his brains being scattered upon the walls. Kennedy's head was bashed in, and he waa tsrribly mutilated. He lived only a few minutes.

Mr George Drummond, of the firm of R. Drummond and Sons, coppersmiths, &c. f of Albert street, was an eye-witness of the terrible accident, and narrowly escaped death. Drummond's firm made the copper cylinder, which weighed about 651b, and he took it to tho premises a few minutes after 10 o'clock this morning. The cylinder had been made to the order of Kennedy and Lusher, and after its completion was connected with the city main at Drummond and Co.'a premises for about a fortnight. The firm themselves did not guarantee any pressure, but merely made the cylinder as strong as possible, and according to the order of the firm. This morning Mr Drummond first put the cylinder into a back room of the Freezing Company's premises, and afterwards it was brought into a room behind the office, the scene of the accident. Kennedy and Lusher then proceeded to test the cylinder, while Menzies, Hirst, and Drummond stood close by, the five men being only a few feet distant from each other. The victims of the occurrence were in tho centre of the group. Kennedy and Lusher put the cylinder into a barrel of water, and as soon as the bottom touched the water it blew up like a shot from a gun, the bottom part of the cylinder stopped in the barrel, and the upper portion with two valves weighing about 3£lb each was ehot through the ceiling, Drummond says he was dazed for a time with the pressure from the explosion, but the first thing he saw was Kennedy and Lusher lying on the floor, but he did not know whether they were dead or alive. Dmmmond then rushed up to the office of the freezing works upstairs, and told them of the accident, and a doctor was telephoned for. Kennedy was breathing when Dr Wilkins arrived, but Lusher was killed instantaneously. Drummond says he attributes the accident to the cylinder being submerged in the cold water. The cylinder was made to hold 13gal. It was 2ffc by about 14£ in in diameter. Drummond could not say what pressure was on when the cylinder was put into the water. When the news of the shocking affair spread throughout the city it caused a great sensation, and sympathy was expressed on all sides. When news reached the municipal offices the flag was at once put half-mast high— one of the victims (Lusher) being a son-in-law of his Worship the Mayor (Mr J. J. Holland), his marriage having taken place about two years ago— and also at the priacipal establishments in the city. Kennedy and Lusher had made arrangements with the Northern Club and several hotels to have an apparatus and one of the machines, which are in use in many parts of the world, erected- on their premises for the purpose of making and dispensing Boda water, lemonade, &o. With regard to the cause of the explosion, Professor Brown (of Auckland University) saysit was probably due in the first place to a portion of the liquid carbonic acid escaping into the copper cylinder, where it would partially volatilise, becoming very cold, and on the cylinder being put into the barrel the liquid carbonic acid would give off' more gas, owing to its being of highertemperature than the water, and so rapidly increase the pressure. The leaky condition of the cylinder showed plainly it was used to itsutmost strength, and the increase of pressure consequent on dipping it into water would be sufficient to cause the explosion. A short time ago Geo. Cozens, of High street, was approached by the deceased Kennedy, who waa desirous of Cozens entering into business with him in connection with the patent, Kennedy stated to Cozens that according to German test tubes a temperature of 250deg. would be needed to cause a pressure of 37501b per square inch. Mr Cozens being distrustful of the patent and the strength of the tubes looked up Remault's tables of cylinder tests and found that 32deg. Fahrenheit (freezing point) represented a pressure of 5201b to the square inch, and so on until 122deg of heat represented a pressure of 16491b to the square inch. Cozens declined to go into the venture, assuring Kennedy he believed there was grave risk of accident in the proposals of the latter, and saying he considered the risk was too much, and some defect might cause a terrible explosion at any time. The inquest takes place to-morrow. June 22. An inquest was held to-day, lasting over four hours, into the circumstances surrounding the death of John William Lusher and Harvey Emerson Kennedy, who were killed at the freezing company's buildings on the previous day through an explosion of a copper cylinder, which was being tested in connection with the making of aerated waters. After all the evidence had been heard, the jury retired shortly after half-past 5, and a few minrites after 6 they returned with a verdict of "Accidental death," the jury being of opinion that the cylinder was of a faulty construction, and that Kennedy erred in further testing it after knowing that such waa the case.