The Brooklyn Sewer Explosion.

The Brooklyn Sewer Explosion.

灾难性的爆炸的真正原因,制作h took place on November 20 in the excavation for the 13-ft. Gold street sewer, Brooklyn, New York, has not yet been discovered—probably it never will be known. All that can be definitely stated is that such an explosion took place; that all the false work, shoring and sheeting were destroyed; that the shoring shared the same fate; that the debris filled up the trench and buried possibly twenty persons under it; that the 16-in. gas main and the big water main were ruptured; that fire and flood ensued, the former involving the sacrifice of more than one human life. As to the cause of the cave-in of the materials, plant and street: That was evidently the result of the explosion, since there is expert testimony to the effect that the shoring and sheeting were sufficiently strong to support the pressure against them, and that there was no previous slippage of the earth, street or adjacent buildings to increase the existing pressure and thereby cause shoring and sheeting to give way. It is, also, quite evident that the catastrophe was not caused by dynamite maliciouslv disposed in such a manner as to bring about the exolosien, which was upwards altogether, not downwards, as is one resulting from dynamite or nitro-giycerine. There remains, therefore, only the one cause —namely, gas. Jt was not caused by sewer gas, because the sewer had not yet been, but was only being built. The exploding agent, therefore, was illuminating gas, such as was conveyed in the 16-in. main, the rupture in which, like that in the water mains, was the result of the explosion. Every gas main, however, leaks more or less, and this leakage had evidently accumulated above and below the false work, and had ignited. This ignition was not caused by the snapping or crossing of any electric wires, as was thought before an investigation was rendered possible by the removal of some of the debris. This showed, intact, a concrete conduit in which the wires were carried, which had set so hard that to remove it, in order to penetrate farther through the accumulated mass of earth, sand, stones, evood piling, etc., it was necessary to drill holes in and blast it out. The probabilities, therefore, are that an explosion of the gas that had leaked from the main and had accumulated under and round the false work took place, through fire reaching it in some shape or another, either from a torch, a smith’s forge, sparks from a steel tool striking some hard substance, or a cigarette stub or lighted match thrown away by some careless smoker or the burning tobacco of his pipe. The explosion would cause almost simultaneously the rupture of the gas and the water mains and the accompanying rush of flame above and below, while the debris falling back and down into the excavation caused the pipes to sag and tore away still further whatever sheeting and shoring the explosion had spared. The sewer was to be 54 ft. deep and the deepest part of the excavation, as it was before the disaster, was 47 ft.; the width of the cut was 25 ft. Immediately after, not before, the explosion a large portion of the street slid into the trough, the earth being, as it were scarped or sheared down in the foundationfronts of the houses on each side, leaving many of them in such a toppling condition as to render it necessary to clear out their tenants. Practically, the whole street from stoopline to stoop-line between Gold and Front streets had slid into the excavation, rendering it a work of several days before the bodies could be reached (except those of the footpassengers, who had been caught and burned to death or suffocated, as they were ciossing the temporary wooden bridge from one side of the street to the other). The building of the trunk sewer in Gold street had been strongly opposed because of the narrowness of the street and the underlying important gas and water mains—the latter being two in number, one a 10-in. high-pressure main, the other a 24-in. distribution main—all suspended by chains, and the concrete conduit in which had been placed the electrical wires. Borough President Coler, however, would have it so— and it was so.

灾难性的爆炸的真正原因,制作h took place on November 20 in the excavation for the 13-ft. Gold street sewer, Brooklyn, New York, has not yet been discovered—probably it never will be known. All that can be definitely stated is that such an explosion took place; that all the false work, shoring and sheeting were destroyed; that the shoring shared the same fate; that the debris filled up the trench and buried possibly twenty persons under it; that the 16-in. gas main and the big water main were ruptured; that fire and flood ensued, the former involving the sacrifice of more than one human life. As to the cause of the cave-in of the materials, plant and street: That was evidently the result of the explosion, since there is expert testimony to the effect that the shoring and sheeting were sufficiently strong to support the pressure against them, and that there was no previous slippage of the earth, street or adjacent buildings to increase the existing pressure and thereby cause shoring and sheeting to give way. It is, also, quite evident that the catastrophe was not caused by dynamite maliciouslv disposed in such a manner as to bring about the exolosien, which was upwards altogether, not downwards, as is one resulting from dynamite or nitro-giycerine. There remains, therefore, only the one cause —namely, gas. Jt was not caused by sewer gas, because the sewer had not yet been, but was only being built. The exploding agent, therefore, was illuminating gas, such as was conveyed in the 16-in. main, the rupture in which, like that in the water mains, was the result of the explosion. Every gas main, however, leaks more or less, and this leakage had evidently accumulated above and below the false work, and had ignited. This ignition was not caused by the snapping or crossing of any electric wires, as was thought before an investigation was rendered possible by the removal of some of the debris. This showed, intact, a concrete conduit in which the wires were carried, which had set so hard that to remove it, in order to penetrate farther through the accumulated mass of earth, sand, stones, evood piling, etc., it was necessary to drill holes in and blast it out. The probabilities, therefore, are that an explosion of the gas that had leaked from the main and had accumulated under and round the false work took place, through fire reaching it in some shape or another, either from a torch, a smith’s forge, sparks from a steel tool striking some hard substance, or a cigarette stub or lighted match thrown away by some careless smoker or the burning tobacco of his pipe. The explosion would cause almost simultaneously the rupture of the gas and the water mains and the accompanying rush of flame above and below, while the debris falling back and down into the excavation caused the pipes to sag and tore away still further whatever sheeting and shoring the explosion had spared. The sewer was to be 54 ft. deep and the deepest part of the excavation, as it was before the disaster, was 47 ft.; the width of the cut was 25 ft. Immediately after, not before, the explosion a large portion of the street slid into the trough, the earth being, as it were scarped or sheared down in the foundationfronts of the houses on each side, leaving many of them in such a toppling condition as to render it necessary to clear out their tenants. Practically, the whole street from stoopline to stoop-line between Gold and Front streets had slid into the excavation, rendering it a work of several days before the bodies could be reached (except those of the footpassengers, who had been caught and burned to death or suffocated, as they were ciossing the temporary wooden bridge from one side of the street to the other). The building of the trunk sewer in Gold street had been strongly opposed because of the narrowness of the street and the underlying important gas and water mains—the latter being two in number, one a 10-in. high-pressure main, the other a 24-in. distribution main—all suspended by chains, and the concrete conduit in which had been placed the electrical wires. Borough President Coler, however, would have it so— and it was so.