Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1903 — BLAST KILLS A SCORE [ARTICLE]

BLAST KILLS A SCORE

CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE AT LOWELL, MASS., BLOWS UP. Explosion Kills and 1 Injures MotiyHouscs Are Shattered and Fire Adda to Panic Caused—Hostou Keels the Bhoclc. About twenty-five persons were killed and thirty received terrible injuries Wednesday when the large stone building used as n magazine by the United States Cartridge Company at Lowell, Mass., was blown to pieces by a dynamite explosion. At 0 o’clock thirteen '■edies had been taken from flic debris. The force of the explosion wrecked litany houses in the vicinity where Ahe terrible blast occurred, at Wigginsville, »r South Lowell, and the burning powder set other buildings on fire. Such havoc was created in Lowell that four comnies of the National Guard were called ei'.t to preserve order, atitl rei«»rts show Tat Boston, Exeter, N. 11., and other daces thirty and forty-five miles away ft It the concussion and believed an earth\vake liad visited Massachusetts. It was afternoon before an accurate estimate of the number killed could be obtained. Previous reports had said that the dead would number seventy-five, but at 2:30 a canvass of the hospitals and inquiry at the police station 'reunited in a conservative estimate of twenty-five killed and thirty injured. At many points a score of miles away window glass was shattered and other damage done. Lowell was thrown into a panic, and it took every effort of tihe authorities to maintain order. It became necessary to summon four companies of the militia. On many streets the earth appeared to tremble slightly and buildings shook. In all sections of I.oweil. especially the part nearest the Concord river, glass was Bmashed. A number of panes of large plate glass in the business streets of the city were demolished. The explosion is believed to have been caused by the jarring of dynamite stored in the magazine by workmen who ‘were laying a new floor. The dynamite set off the powder in one chamber, and that explosion was followed by another in a second chamber.