56 
Account of an Explosion. 
Ms face and arms scorched by the explosion ; his hair was 
burnt, and it was more than a fortnight before his burns 
were healed. He was not the only victim of this event ; 
another boy, who happened to be upon a scaffold, in a 
little room on the other side of the warehouse, seeing the 
flame, which had made its passage that way, and think- 
ing the house was on fire, jumped down from the scaf- 
fold, and broke his leg. 
In order to ascertain in what manner this event took 
place, I examined, very narrowly, the warehouse and its 
appendages $ and, from that examination, and from the 
accounts of the witnesses, I have endeavoured to collect 
all the circumstances of the event, which T shall now 
describe. 
The flour-warehouse, which is situated above the back 
shop, is six feet high, six feet wide, and about eight feet 
long. It is divided into two parts, by a wall ; an arched 
cieling extends over both, but the pavement of one part 
is raised about two feet higher than that of the other. In 
the middle of the wall is an opening of communication, 
two feet and a half wide, and three feet high ; through it 
the flour is conveyed from the upper chamber into the 
lower one. 
The boy, who was employed, in the lower chamber, in 
collecting flour to supply the bolter below, dug about the 
sides of the opening, in order to make the flour fall from 
the upper chamber into that in which he was ; and, as he 
was digging, rather deeply, a sudden fall of a great quan- 
tity took place, followed by a thick cloud, which imme- 
diately caught fire, from the lamp hanging to the wall, 
and caused the violent explosion here treated of. 
The flame shewed itself in two directions ; it penetra- 
ted, by a little opening, from the upper chamber of the 
warehouse, into a very small room above it, where, the 
door and window-frames being well closed and very 
