of a Boiler at a Sugar-House in Well-Street. 373 

 had been got ready to be worked in this xnanner ; and on the 

 15th of November a trial was made of ''^^^^f^'-,.. . ,, 



The fire was lighted between three and four o clock in the 

 morning At nine o'clock Mr. Hague the engineer can e to 

 The .e^ises, and it was proposed to prove the boder by a;^p y^ng 

 a larae fire. Mr. Constant the proprietor objected to the large 

 firePbut through the obstinacy of some of the -»g"-- s men 

 ^s i believed, the fire was urged unnecessarily and even the 

 safety^valve, provided for the escape of steam when the >nt«^"^[ 

 pressure shovdd reach a certain point, was ---^X^^^'^J^l'Zl 

 ?he steam from escaping. The consequence which ^ight have 

 been anticipated followed. About half past ten o clock the 

 boiler exploded, and with such a force as to brmg down the 

 whole building/burying a number of people ^ the ruins The 

 house was about 70 feet high, and of proportional ^^P^^ and 

 width. The eifect of such an explos on may be more eas'ly con- 

 ceived than described. Most miraculously, several of the people 

 who were buried in the ruins escaped without personal injur) 

 the lower part of one of the walls keeping up one end ot the 

 ^ofsts^f a part of the lower floor, which was thus thrown over 

 ihem as a shed. In the course of the day ten other people were 

 dug ou of the ruins, seven of them less or -o-^urnt lacerated 

 <n-\ruised, who were sent to the hospital, and thj^e of them 

 dead Among the latter was Mr. Spear jun. aged 15, sun ot 

 Mr H. A? Spfar of Broad-street, who was there at the time on 

 business, his father having sent in a great quantity of sugar to 

 be manufactured. , , . f. 



The effects of this accident did not however end here After 

 the ruins were partly removed, air getting to the w-^ jh I 

 had come in contact with the scattered fire of the furnace te 

 ^^dlole, at night, burst out in a violent flame, which .communi- 

 cated to two contiguous sugar-houses also belonging to Mr. 

 Constant, which were entirely consumed. 



Great blame attaches somewhere ; and the accident >« the e s 

 excusable, as this is not the first arising from ignorance o uiat- 

 tentTon in the application of steam of high temperature to dif- 

 fe eTpurposes.^^ Only a few months ago a loco-motive engine 

 was exploded in the country, and several people lost their lives, 

 fom the folly of a man (ciuing himself an engineer, a name 

 now given to^every person who is employed to throw coals under 

 a boiler ) locking down the safety valve, that his machine might 

 go off in style! ^And latterly, a salt-pan heated by steam was 

 Wown up by a similar imprudence. Such madness cannot be 

 sSen?ly leprobated. Nothing is more -a-S-b^^^^-^. 

 .team, in the hand, of men of common prudence 5 but nothmg 

 more dangerous when fools and pretenders are suffered to play 



Aaa 



