FEARFUL DEATH AT WOOLWICH ARSENAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1556, 14 September 1886, Page 4

FEARFUL DEATH AT WOOLWICH ARSENAL.

A shocking death happened at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, on July 17. Most of the workshops were closed for the customary half-holiday, but in one of the forges of the Royal Gun Factory several men were emp'oyed in casting a great ingot of steel for the construction of a6B ton gun. The mould was a cylinder standing on end in a pit of about 10ft square, and the iron finer of the pit formed the bot'oin of the mould. Into this was poured about eight tens of molten steel from a patent gas furnace, and the casting v.’< uld have In en perfect if the usual period of two hours had been allowed for its growing cool. But in about one hour only after the metal had beehrun one of them descended into the pit to block up the mould casing preparatory to its being removed. The steel bad, however, barely set on the outside, and as soon as the cylinder was raised from the floor the liquid fire poured out in a fearful deluge. The man attempted to reach the ladder bywhich he had. descended,. but was instantly'caught arid overwhelmed by the molten flood. The manager was immediately called, but no part or trace cf the man could be observed in the seething well, and the metal was visibly cooling on the surface, threatening to encase the lemains of its victim in a solid block of steel. The men at once set to work with iron rods, hooks, and ladles, and, notwithstanding the heat, succeeded in extracting a shapeless mass of human cinder, which was pronounced to be the interior of the trunk. The head and limbs could not be found ; but after the steel block had cooled and solidified some fragments of the body were seen projecting from the unyielding surface. The poor fellow was thirty-two years of age, and his widow is left with five children.