Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1878 — Pierced by Red-Hot Wires. [ARTICLE]

Pierced by Red-Hot Wires.

A terrible accident occurred Tuesday afternoon at the wire-rod mill of the Cambria Works at Johnstown. Zelvin E. Fisher, 19 years of age, was employed at the reel, and his duty consisted in taking off, with the aid of a pair of tongs, the coils of wire which are reeled up as the material passes from the finishing rolls. He had been at work in that establishment since it first started, and was not only competent, but very careful. He was standing near the reeling apparatus, waiting for a coil to be wound up, when the wire caught at the finish-ing-rod, and the boy at the reel failed to slack up the wheel in time. The result was that the strand was snapped asunder, and the end was jerked around with lightning-like rapidity, striking Mr. Fisher on the right arm, between the elbow and shoulder, penetrating entirely through, entering his breast near the nipple, when it again passed out near the top of the breast-bone. The brachial artery was severed, the muscles badly torn, and the flesh seared by the hot wire. Everything possible was done for the injured man, but he died the same evening. —Pittsburgh Telegraph.