Scranton, PA Mill Boiler Explosion, Jan 1889

FATAL BOILER EXPLOSION.

A SILK MILL BADLY DAMAGED AND THE ENGINEER KILLED.

Scranton, Penn., Jan. 28. -- The explosion of a 40 horse power boiler at the Scranton Silk Mill at 5 o'clock this morning caused a panic in the southern portion of Scranton, and brought hundreds of persons runnin half-dressed to the scene anxious to ascertain the nature of the disaster. The engine house and boiler room, both stout brick structures, were blown to fragments, and the front of the silk mill was badly demolished.
Several dwellings in the neighborhood were damaged, and in some cases the occupants were flung out of their beds by the violence of the shock.
Those who were first at the scene met ALFRED HALVEY, the owner of the mill, and his foreman, AUGUST ALBERTS, running from the wreck. They were covered with dust and slightly injured, and said that the engineer, NICHOLAS SCHISTEL, and Foreman HORACE ANDERSON were buried beneath the pile of bricks and lumber that lay where the explosion occurred. Efforts were promptly made to rescue the buried workmen, and in a short time ANDERSON was discovered under a heap of tangled beams and pieces of boiler flues.
He was conscious and, although terribly injured, it is thought he will recover.
After ANDERSON'S removal the search was continued for his fellow workman, SCHISTEL, whose body was found in the pit facing the point at which the exploded boilers had been situated. SCHISTEL had evidently been overwhelmed and instantly killed by the collapse of the building, as his body lay under a great mass of bricks, mortar, and rafters.
Close to the dismantled boiler house stands the frame dwelling in which the dead engineer and his wife, to whom he had been married two weeks before last Christmas, made their home, and this building also was almost crushed by the weight of the culm elevator that hoisted fuel to feed the boilers. The engineer's house suffered terribly from the explosion. The end of the building next the boiler house was blown open and the partition separating the rooms was torn away. The bed on which the engineer's wife was sleeping at the time of the accident was broken to pieces, and his wife had a narrow escape from injury.
All the windows in the front portion of the silk mill were blown out. Several houses in the neighborhood were badly wrecked. The residence and store of Mrs. Gaughan, 300 feet away, was struck by the head of the boiler, weighing about a quarter of a ton, which tore its way through the edge of the roof and rolled with a tremendous crash into the street. At the same time a boiler tube 12 feet long that had been flung high in the air descended with great force through the top of the roof, and, after cutting its way through the roof and garret floor, hung directly over a bed occupied by two children, who were terrified by such a startling 5 o'clock visitor.
The damage done to the silk mill amounts to about $5,000. The machinery is covered with debris and considerably injured.
The operatives, 200 or 300 in number, were at work early this morning clearing up the wreck and getting the place ready for work again. The Harvey Silk Mill is one of the first of its kind erected in Pennsylvania, and it has been conducted with great success.

The New York Times New York 1889-01-29
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!