Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1912 — Monos Engineer Dies When Boiler Lets Go. [ARTICLE]

Monos Engineer Dies When Boiler Lets Go.

By the explosion of the boiler of Monon engine No. 217, one of the big “battleship” type, Weaver F. Hillerman, the engineer, was instantly killed and Fireman Orville Clay was seriously, though it Is believed not fatally, injured at Bloomington, Sunday. The accident occurred shortly after noon at the Monon yards in South Bloomington, where the engine was -being used to move a cut of cars. Without the least premonition of the impending danger, the boiler let loose while the locomotive was In motion, the explosion being heard in all parts ofthe city. Many windows were shaken. » Weaver was burled through both sides of a box car, which was standing on an opposite switch track, a part of the cab going with him. He was picked up lifeless fifty feet east of the place where the tender of his engine stood. The boiler was lifted high in the air, clearing the telegraph wires, and was thrown into the Wm. Fowler field, 250 yards to the west. / Clay, who probably owes his life to the fact that he had just filled the fire box and had sat down on the tender, was hurled across two tracks, defiling a Calaboose, and was dropped in the center of a track. He was placed on a calaboose to which an engine was attachedhnd hurried to the Bloomington hospital. Although he was badly burned with hot water and steam about the face and arms, the Monon surgeons say he will likely recover, bones were broken. If he had remained in the cab he would bave gone with the boiler. Hillerman’s left leg was cut off, his skull wag broken, his jaw bones fractured and his flesh scalded. Whether the accident was due to high pressure, low water or fautly construction of the boiler no one was able to say. The state boiler inspector has been notified. - Hillerman was'3s years old and had just been promoted from a fireman to the right side of the cab. He is survived by the widow and two children. ■