THE REGENT FATAL ACCIDENT IN WELLINGTON.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2736, 28 December 1881, Page 2

THE REGENT FATAL ACCIDENT IN WELLINGTON.

We take from a Wellington paper the following details regarding the shocking accident that occuned in that city on the 21st inst., by which Mrs Lydia Anthony was blown to pieces. At the Coroner’s inquest Mr W. H. Anthony stated that he was a chemist and druggist of fourteen years’ experience, and that he served his time with Dr Coward of Christchurch. On Wednesday afternoon a customer asked for a pound of blue fire, and he told him it would be ready in two hours* time. Witness made the fire ordered, but on testing it he found the compound flashed too quickly, so he did not send it to the railway station as ordered. After tea witness took the mortar containing the mixture into the back yard, in order to destroy it by burning it. He scooped the mixture out of the mass, and in small quantities fired it on the ground. It “ fizzed ” off, and did not explode, and no sound was occasioned. It was getting dark at this time, and his wife was looking through the kitchen window. Deceased went to the back door and suggested that the compound should be put down the drain instead of burning it, as being the easier way of getting rid of it. Witness told deceased not to touch it, as was going to light up the shop,and would return and finish it. He had lit one light in the shop when he heard a loud explosion, and thinking it to bo that of a cannon, he went to the shop front door and looked up and down the street. On crossing the private entrance he saw smoke rising from the back of the premises, and the thought of fire striking him he ran to the back. Before he reached the yard, and while in the passage, he found his wife’s hand in the passage leading to the back door. He picked up the portion of the limb, and called out to his wife by name. He saw her then lying on her back in the gutter leading to the drain in the yard. Witness saw that both arms were blown off, and he ran into the street and asked a policeman to go for Dr Diver. He could offer no reason as to the cause of the explosion. There was chlorate of potash and sulphur in the mixture, and any heavy friction would cause an explosion. The compound was mixed in a$ iron mortar with a heavy pestle in the shop. There were about eight or ten ounces in the mortar. He did not think that water thrown upon the mixture would cause an explosion such as described, unless the disturbance or the shifting of the powder in the mortar caused a friction which ignited the compound. Clara Helen Walkden, Deice of the deceased, was with her aunt in the kitchen, watching Mr Anthony burning the blue fire. Mr Anthony went into the shop to light up. Mrs Anthony, as soon as her husband went into the shop, asked witness to give her some water to wash the powder down the drain. Witness was looking round for something to put the water in, and, whilst doing so, she heard the explosion. She did not see Mm Anthony get any water, and witness did not give her any. Just before the explosion, and as she was leaving the kitchen, deceased said she would throw some water down the drain in order to wash tiie powder down. The materials used in composing this blue fire were chlorate of potash, dried verdigris, sulphur, and black antimony. Dr Diver said all such compounds are dangerous if not properly handled. He thought that the deceased must have taken a spoon to empty the mortar of the substance. She very likely was in a stooping position at the time, and the friction of the spoon against the side of the mortar created a spark. The unfortunate woman’s injuries were so serious that it is a wonder she lived even the few hours she did. Both arms were tom off, one leg badly larcerated, the right eye burst, and the face much torn. Fragments of the mortar were thrown long distances, and one piece struck.a passer by with some force.