Show AN UNLUCKY SPARK th Orea of th world the greatest explosion 0 gunpowder the world haa over known took place at the da font works on tho ath of october 1800 with their usual cautions policy alie ponta have never stated jost how great a quality of powder exploded at hi alini but it is certain that three and three mills in the upper yard were blown up one after another and n 1 estimate will put tho quantity of powder exploded at tons in ilia explosion 13 men and 1 woman wore while 22 and S women were injured some fatally tho explosion a little titter 8 in tho afternoon it began in tho magazine for hexagonal powder the kind used in largo guus and the most being made not in grains but in reddish sit sided cakes about an inch and a half in diameter and an inch email hole running through the center these cakes look like nothing so much as the nuts ou a wagon wheel at tho linio of the explosion cakes of powder wae being packed into large wooden boxes lined with tin each hex being about 3 ewt square chotin linings projected ebojo tho topa of the bocca about two inches and when a box wae packed folded down over a tin fitted closely upon the cakes of powder it was the duty of one of tho workmen william green to solder these tin edges dawn upon the tin cover a hot iron being used tor this purpose on the day in question what he had feared came to pass A fellow workman william mcgarvey was bringing him the hot irons from a charcoal brazier abent 23 yards distant green stood at the door of open magazine and all around him wee we e uncovered boxes billed with tho powder ready to be sealed and stowed away there were also dozens of boxes that bad been sealed just what happened will never be known for neither green nor mcgarvey waa left to tell tho story but the probability is one of the soldering irons was a little too hot and by touching a particle of dirt on tho tin cover the deadly spark cleveland SI offett la magazine |