OCR Text |
Show EXPLOSION AT " I DU PONT PLANT I Terrific Blast Heard Twenty- H five Miles Away Wildest H Reports Are Circulated. H DEAD WERE EMPLOYES I Cause of Disaster Not Known Company Blames No M Outside Agencies. M Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 10. Three M men were killed and a number Injured H in an explosion of smokeless powder H early today at the plant of the Du H Pont Powder works at Carney's Point, N. J. One man is missing. It had H been reported that a large number of H men had lost their lives, but after an H investigation the superintendent said that only three were dead and possib- H ly four. H The cause of the explosion is not H known but, according to their superln- H tendent, there is no suspicion that H the blast was due to outside agencies. H The report that arrests had been made H was denied. H The dead are John Walsh Nyack, Ny., Richard J. Larney, Philadelphia, H S. T. Clyde Wynn, address not known. JM Victims Were Employes. H The superintendent of the plant said H the victims were employes, but that H they had no business in the part of H the works where the explosion oc- H curred. The blast was a terrific one H and was felt 25 miles away. Wire H communication with the plant was cut H off by the shock with the result that H the wildest rumors prevailed until H daylight cleared up the extent of the H accident. . IH The property loss is small as the ex- H plosion occurred in a small building H of No. 1 plant of the works. It was H some distance from the main build- H ings. H Wild Reports Circulated. i H One of the reports in circulation H was that government agents and sec- H ret service agents from the Du Pont H company had been watching susplc- H ious persons who went to the plant H from Wilmington, Del., by boat aud H that two carrying bombs and fuses H had been arrested. C. N. Landis, a H reDresentative nf the comnanv. brand- H ed all these reports as false. "Nothing ever occurs at the powder " works of the Du Pont company but M ' that some one loads one or two men J up with bombs and dynamite and puts H them under arrest." said Mr. Landis. I "There is nothing to the plot theory " H Smokeless Powder Explodes. j H Philadelphia, Jan. 10. Six workmeu H were killed and a score severely 1 H burned early today in a terrific ex- H plosion of two tons of smokeless pow- IH der at the Varney's Point plant of the H Du Pont Powder company. jH The force of the explosion was so H gieat that it lifted a ferryboat which M was just leaving the dock at Carney's H Point, fairly out of the water, break- H Ing all the windows and smashing a H part of its cabin. None of the passen- H gers, most all of whom were employed H at the Du Pont plant returning to H their homes in Wilmington, across the I IH river, were injured. Tho report of i IH the explosion was distinctly heard in VM this city, 25 miles distant. H Story of Employe. H According to an employe who wit- H nessed the accident, the explosion oc- H curred In No. v2 wet house and No. 2 H blending tower of plant No. 2, shortly I B after the midnight shift of workmen M came on. He declared that it was JM caused by outside influence and it was VM reported "that two men with dynamite H and nitroglycerine in their possession H had been arrested. This report, how- ( lH ever could not be confirmed. Wire wM communication with Carney's Point IH was severed by the explosion, and of- VM ficial3 of the company in Wilmington H declared they had absolutely no ad- IH vices except the fact that there had H been an explosion. It is known, how- VM ever, that recently the force of secret ( IH service agents about the plant had H been largely increasd. H Divisions in num- h The plant is divided into three di- H visions, No. 1, 2 and '3. Approximate- H lv 15,000 workmen are employed and m the plant was running twenty-four JM hours a day. Only smokeless powder H and picric acid, the latter an ingredl- H ent of the deadly liddite used in mak- H ing shrapnel, are manufactured at J H these works. Most of the structures , H are one-story in height, of scantling H and covered with sheet iron. H The blending towers, four stones H high, are the tallest buildings. Here H is where the powder is sorted. The H towers resemble grain elevators. For H purposes of safety chutes extend from , H each floor and down which the work- H nen slide to safety in case of accl- d6?he wet house is where the : powder H is taken after it is mixed. Here It is m steamed under pressure for one hun- H dred hours and then goes in turn to m thT drying house and the blending H tQThere have been several fires at tha H Carney's Point plant, but this : Is the H first time that an explosion has oc M curred there. j H |