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Powder Mill Explodes
Two Men Killed at a Tennessee
Plant
Windows All Over Town of Ooltewah Are
Shattered and The Bodies Torn to Fragments
Ooltewah, Tennessee, April 9, Two men were killed in an
explosion of powder here when press number one of the Chattanooga Powder
Company was blown up about 9:30 this morning.
The dead:
John Martin, press firemen
Arch Crum, helper
The press house was completely demolished.
Fragments of the bodies of the two men were found 400 yards
away.
The windows all over the town were shattered, but further
than this no property damage was reported.
The demolished building was about 150 yards from the nearest structure.
The two men were preparing between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of
powder for pressing when, without warning the explosion occurred.
The machinery in the wrecked building was operated by electricity. It was a one story frame and metal structure
18 by 20.
Each of the dead men leaves a wife and three children. There was about one and one-fourth tons of
powder in the press at the time of the accident and it was being subjected to
immense hydraulic pressure. There was a
like amount in the press room awaiting the process of pressing and the entire amount was exploded.
Wild rumors were circulated at first to the effect that the
powder had been set off by an electric current on the supposition that the
machinery of the entire plat is operated by electrical power.
U. F. Figgins, manager of the plant, said this was
impossible.
There was no electricity within 200 or 300 feet of these
presses, said Mr. Figgins, and there is no possibility of an electric shock
having caused the explosion.
The plant at Ooltewah is a subsidiary of the Dupont Powder
Works, of Deleware. It is know as the
Chattanooga Powder Company but was absorbed several years ago by the larger corporation.
Montgomery
Advertiser April 09, 1910
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