Dynamite Used to Blast at Hutchinson School in 1926 Caused Problems

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In the mid-to-late 1920s, Pelham schools were bursting at the seams with too many students in facilities that were too small.  The Hutchinson School in the Village of North Pelham was among the most over-stretched.  

In 1926, the Board of Education was engaged in a major initiative to remodel and expand the Hutchinson School by building a new wing on the east side of the school.  Construction of the new wing, however, was badly delayed when work on the foundation revealed that a huge amount of rock would have to be blasted away.

The contractor responsible for the excavation work was Smith Brothers Contracting Company of North Pelham.  Smith Brothers selected a blasting expert named Mariano Di Luccia to perform the work.  

As one might expect, the work was difficult and required extreme care.  Dynamite charges had to be placed with care and covered with tree trunks (known as "covering logs" and steel mats that were chained to protect against stray debris that might do damage in the surrounding residential neighborhood.

The first indications of a problem occurred during a blast early in the week of July 12, 1926.  Di Luccia exploded a charge at the site.  A rock hurtled through the veranda roof of a house on Fourth Street (today's Lincoln Avenue).  Another struck a home on Third Avenue.  

Then, on Wednesday, July 14, 1926, Di Luccia exploded another charge.  The blast was so violent that it "broke in two" a trolley standard that stood at Fourth Street (today's Lincoln Avenue) and Third Avenue and "sent rocks flying two and three hundred feet in all directions."  Members of the Village Board met with Lawrence Smith of Smith Brothers Contracting that day and extracted promises that greater care and more effective covering mats would be used to complete the work.  

A further blast on Thursday, July 15 was the last straw.  The huge blast "sent rocks, covering logs, steel mats and chains hurling across Third Avenue to the lawn in front of the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Keller.  The sidewalk was broken and steps of the veranda damaged."  Village of North Pelham Trustees shut down the work pending selection of a different contractor to complete the work.

By the following week, a new dynamite handler had been selected and blasting resumed with no further damage to the surrounding neighborhood.  Yet, on Tuesday, July 20 another frightening event occurred.

Little Buddy Wood, five-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Stacy Wood of 69 Sixth Street in North Pelham was playing among rocks in the neighborhood.  He noticed a strange round package, picked it up, and carried it home to his Mother.  He walked into the family home and proudly presented the horrified woman with a ten-inch-long stick of dynamite.  Mrs. Wood took the dynamite and contacted her husband who, upon his return home, carried the dynamite to the Village of North Pelham police for "safe keeping."  

A tragedy, it seems, had been averted.  According to the local newspaper, it was believed "that the dynamite was some of the stock used by contractors working in the vicinity, and had either been mislaid or carried to the place among the rocks by other children playing in the neighborhood."

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"DYNAMITE CHARGE DAMAGES HOME; CONTRACTOR'S PERMIT REVOKED
-----
Blasting Work at Hutchinson School Sends Rock, Tree Trunks and Mats Hurtling Against Keller Home on Third Avenue

The permit to blast rock at Hutchinson School on Fourth street, North Pelham, granted to Smith Brothers Contracting Co., has been revoked until such time as some other individual than Mariano Di Luccia conducts the work of blasting.

Yesterday afternoon a huge blast sent rocks, covering logs, steel mats and chains hurling across Third avenue to the lawn in front of the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Keller.  The sidewalk was broken and steps of the veranda damaged.  Mrs. Keller, who was warned of the impending blast was nevertheless greatly frightened.

Wednesday afternoon a blast broke in two a trolley standard, at Fourth street and Third avenue, and sent rocks flying two and three hundred feet in all directions.  A few days ago a rock hurtled through the veranda roof of a house on Fourth street.  Another struck a home on Third avenue.  

Residents in the vicinity of the school are expressing grave fears for their own personal safety and are urging that something be done to eliminate the danger from the flying rocks which follow the blasts.

Village President Thomas J. James and Trustees Edward Dillon and Edward Harder after hearing complaints on Wednesday interviewed Lawrence Smith, member of the contracting company and demanded that greater care be observed.  Smith promised to provide heavier covering and mats.

When these proved ineffectual yesterday the village trustees refused further permission to carry on the work until another contractor is engaged for the blasting."

Source:  DYNAMITE CHARGE DAMAGES HOME; CONTRACTOR'S PERMIT REVOKED -- Blasting Work at Hutchinson School Sends Rock, Tree Trunks and Mats Hurtling Against Keller Home on Third Avenue, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 16, 1926, Vol. 17, No. 20, p. 1, cols. 6-7.

"Exercise More Care In Blasting Rock At Hutchinson School
-----
New Dynamite Handler Directing Blasts.  No Complaints of Damage During Week
-----

With a new dynamite handler on the job, the blasting operations at the Hutchinson School have been conducted with less danger to the surrounding territory during the week.  Following the hurling of missiles on the porches and roofs of dwelling houses in the vicinity of the school following the explosions the North Pelham Village Board demanded that the dynamite handler employed by Smith Bros., Contracting Co., who are doing the excavation work, be removed before blasting continued.  

Saturday morning Village President Thomas J. James, Trustee Edward J. Dillon, Attorney George Lambert and Engineer John F. Fairchild, in company with Lawrence Smith of the contracting company inspected the scene of the blasting and were informed another licensed blaster would do the work.

They watched the blasting work made ready and approved of the change.  There have been no complaints of danger during blasting operations this week.

'We don't want to delay the construction of the school building,' said President James, 'but it is most important that the citizens of the village be protected from injury from flying rock and timber."

Source:  Exercise More Care In Blasting Rock At Hutchinson School -- New Dynamite Handler Directing Blasts.  No Complaints of Damage During Week, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 23, 1926, Vol. 17, No. 21, p. 1, col. 1.  

"Dynamite Found By Youngster While At Play
-----
Five Year Old Buddy Wood Picks Up Ten Inch Stick of Dynamite on Sixth Street
-----
Believed to Have Been Explosive Mislaid by Contractors Blasting in Neighborhood
-----

A ten-inch stick of dynamite found among rocks blasted on Sixth Street fell into the hands of a five year old on Tuesday.  Disaster was averted, however, when the youngster brought the explosive into his home to show his mother, who quickly took it away from the child.

While playing opposite his home little Buddy Wood, five year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Stacy Wood of 69 Sixth Street, found a queer looking round package among the rocks.  Childlike, the youngster attracted by the strange article, picked it up and carried it away with him.  When he went into his house he showed his find to his mother, who recognized the paper wrapped package as dynamite, and she took it away from the child.

Mr. Wood, on returning home that night, took the explosive to North Pelham police headquarters where it was placed in safe keeping.  It is believed that the dynamite was some of the stock used by contractors working in the vicinity, and had either been mislaid or carried to the place among the rocks by other children playing in the neighborhood."

Source:  Dynamite Found By Youngster While At Play -- Five Year Old Buddy Wood Picks Up Ten Inch Stick of Dynamite on Sixth Street -- Believed to Have Been Explosive Mislaid by Contractors Blasting in Neighborhood, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 23, 1926, Vol. 17, No. 21, p. 1, col. 1.

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The Fire that Destroyed the Miners' Powder Company of Pelhamville in 1878

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As noted yesterday, during the final decades of the 19th century there were at least seven massive explosions at powder manufacturing plants near Pelham Bridge that rattled the Pelhams and left a trail of carnage, devastation, and death.  See Thu., Dec. 15, 2016:  Repeated Dynamite and Powder Manufacturing Explosions Rocked Pelham Bridge and Bartow.  For a time, the little settlement of Pelhamville feared that it might suffer the same fate.  As fate would have it, Pelhamville nearly suffered exactly the same fate.

During the 1870s, famed engineer and Pelham Manor resident George Huntington Reynolds founded a company name Miners' Powder Company and established a dynamite manufacturing plant in Pelhamville about one hundred feet from the New Haven Line railroad tracks.  It is not known with certainty where the plant was located, but it seems most likely that it was not far from the foot of First Street near the Hutchinson River.  

Reynolds became famous during the Civil War when he designed and oversaw the construction of the steam engine that powered the famed Union ironclad Monitor that battled the Merrimack (the CSS Virginia) on March 9, 1862.  He became an expert elevator engineer sought worldwide for his specialty.  Most interestingly, he received a host of patents for so-called "dynamite guns" (powerful artillery pieces that delivered large explosive charges).  He became consulting engineer of the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Company of New York and superintended the gun construction of the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius.  I have written of George H. Reynolds before, including an extensive biography of him.  See Wed., Feb. 24, 2016:  What is Pelham's Connection to the Civil War Ironclad USS Monitor that Fought in the First Battle of Ironclads? 

It appears that George H. Reynolds never really announced plans to open a dynamite manufacturing plant in the tiny community of Pelhamville.  Instead, he simply began constructing the facilities.  Curious local residents soon learned of the purpose and united to oppose the plant.  Reynolds assured them that his plant was different.  He claimed that he had developed an entirely new explosive composition that was "not explosive" until joined with a particular fulminate that had to be exploded by percussion.  He further assured that the fulminate (a product of fulminic acid often used as a detonator) "would be added elsewhere," thus ensuring that his new dynamite plant was a safe new business for the benefit of the little settlement of Pelhamville.

Reynolds seems to have been persuasive.  By 1878, and likely before, the Miners' Powder Company was up and running in Pelhamville, only one hundred feet away from the main New Haven Line railroad tracks. . . . 

Samuel J. Sparks was hired as the engineer of the facility.  He had important, long-standing ties to Pelhamville.  Samuel J. Sparks was a brother of William H. Sparks, a builder in Pelhamville in the 1860s and 1870s and owner of William H. Sparks & Co., a Pelhamville construction firm.  During the 1860s, Samuel Sparks served as a clerk and book-keeper for William H. Sparks & Co.  Though Samuel left Pelhamville for a time thereafter, by 1878 he was back and working at the Miners' Powder Company.  

Reynolds claimed to have a "secret ingredient" that, in effect, rendered his explosives inert until he added the secret ingredient elsewhere.  Did he?  Within a short time, the Miners'' Powder Company was sued in a patent infringement action that revealed the formula for its dynamite.  Assuming the formula disclosed at the time was accurate, it is hard today to identify a secret ingredient.  The purportedly "secret formula" was:

Nitroglycerine . . . . 33.00%
Nitrate of soda . . . . 49.88%
Charcoal, wood and partially charred wood . . . . . . . . 17.21%
Ash . . . . . . . . . 1.18%"

Source:  United States Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. X, p. 223 (Annapolis, MD:  U.S. Naval Institute, 1884).

Based on the many other dynamite formulae published at about the same time, the formula used at the Pelhamville facility must truly have had a "secret ingredient" because, except for very tiny differences in the percentages of identical components, the formulae of many local competitors seem to have been essentially the same.  

Residents of Pelhamville simply could not get over their fear of the dynamite works next to the railroad tracks.  One news story noted that the plant "occcasioned considerable anxiety to [New Haven Line] passengers as they ride up and down the road, lest an explosion should occur as they pass the works."  That fear nearly came to pass on February 4, 1878.

That day, the buildings of the Miners' Powder Company in Pelhamville were bulging with a "considerable quantity of materials" used in the manufacture of dynamite cartridges including nitroglycerin, several hundred pounds of the explosive ready to be packed into cartridges, and a considerable number of complete cartridges in packages ready for use.

Plant engineer Samuel J. Sparks and several employees were on the site at about 8 o'clock in the morning when a fire of "mysterious origin" broke out.  No one hesitated a moment.  Everyone fled for their lives the moment the fire was discovered.  Within moments it raged throughout the dynamite works.  I have, in fact, written about this terrible fire before.  See Thu., Apr. 23, 2009:  Pelhamville Fire on February 4, 1878.

No one even tried to extinguish the fire.  Members of the Mount Vernon Fire Department were summoned and started for the scene of the fire.  When the volunteer firemen learned that it was the dynamite works in Pelhamville that was burning, they reportedly "wheeled about and returned, having on a previous occasion witnessed the terrible effects of a nitro-glycerine explosion in the neighborhood."

The fire completely destroyed all the buildings of the dynamite works.  There was, however, no explosion.  Perhaps there was something to Reynolds's claim that his explosives included a secret ingredient that rendered them less dangerous.  In any event, the plant was a complete loss.  Though the losses totaled about $3,000, there was no insurance covering the plant.  Within a short time, Miners' Powder Company was dissolved (in 1881).  See Smythe, R. M., ed., Obsolete American Securities and Corporations, p. 466 (NY, NY:  R.M. Smythe, 1904) ("Miners' Powder Company.  Office in New York.  Dissolved 1881.").  The tiny settlement of Pelhamville became a little safer.  

George Huntington Reynolds in Photograph Published

in 1903. Source:  Commemorative Biographical Record

of Tolland and Windham Counties Connecticut

Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and

Representative Citizens And Of Many Of The Early

Settled Families -- Illustrated, plate between pp. 188-89 (Chicago,

IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1903). NOTE: Click on Image To Enlarge.

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Below is the text of a number of articles that provide information about the Miners' Powder Company and the fire that destroyed the dynamite works on February 4, 1878.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"NO INSURANCE.
-----

About eight o'clock yesterday morning some frame buildings at Pelhamville, Westchester county, owned and occupied by the Miners' Powder Company, were discovered on fire ,and in a very brief period were totally destroyed, none present manifesting a disposition to use any efforts to extinguish the flames at the risk of their lives, and the fire laddies of Mount Vernon, after starting for the scene of destruction, on learning from whence the alarm proceeded, wheeled about and returned, having on a previous occasion witnessed the terrible effects of a nitro-glycerine explosion in the neighborhood.  The buildings and contents destroyed were estimated to be worth about $3,000, upon which there was 'no insurance.'  It is understood that the buildings will be rebuilt as soon as possible.  At the time the erection of the buildings was commenced the residents of the vicinity, becoming aware of the purpose for which they were to be used, protested against them, but they were assured that the composition was not explosive except in connection with a certain fulminte arranged to act by percussion, which would be added elsewhere.  The mysterious origin of the fire, and the fact that all the employees at the works fled as soon as the fire was discovered, led the residents of the place to infer that the cartridges manufactured there for blasting purposes are not quite so harmless in their character as they had been led to suppose.  The location of these powder works is only about one hundred feet from the tracks of the New York and New Haven Railroad, a fact which has occasioned considerable anxiety to passengers as they ride up and down the road, lest an explosion should occur as they passed the works.  At the time of the fire the buildings contained a considerable quantity of materials used in making the compound, also several hundred weight of the mixture prepared for the manufacture of cartridges and a number of complete cartridges in packages, all of which were consumed without any explosion.  The engineer, Mr. Samuel J. Sparks, escaped from the building in his shirt sleeves, leaving his coat and watch to be consumed.  As there was no fire used in the building except that under the boiler in the engine room the origin is involved in mystery."

Source:  NO INSURANCE, N.Y. Herald, Feb. 5, 1878, p. 5, col. 5.  

"LOSSES BY FIRE.
-----

A frame building belonging to Miners' Powder Company, at Pelhamville, Westchester County, took fire shortly after 8 o'clock yesterday morning and in a short time was totally destroyed; no insurance.  The loss is roughly estimated at $3,000.  The cause of the fire is a mystery, and can only be accounted for on the hypothesis of spontaneous combustion.  The company manufactures an explosive for blasting purposes.  It is composed of nitro-glycerine with charcoal, sawdust, &c. as absorbents, is put up in the form of compact cartridges, and is asserted to be non-explosive, except in the use of a certain fulminate arranged to act by percussion, and which is added at the warehouses in New-York, so that the cartridges at the factory will burn freely, but only as fuse or roman-candles do.  It is claimed also, that a secret ingredient is used in the admixture which renders the cartridges non-explosive. . . ."

Source:  LOSSES BY FIRE, N.Y. Times, Feb. 5, 1878, p. 5, col. 5.  

"The Miners' Powder Company's Buildings Destroyed.

On Monday morning last some frame buildings at Pelhamville, owned and occupied by the Miners' Powder Company, were discovered to be on fire, and in a very brief period were totally destroyed, none present manifesting a disposition to use any efforts to extinguish the flames at the risk of their lives.  The buildings and contents destroyed were estimated to be worth $3,000, upon which there was no insurance.  The location of these powder works is only about 100 feet from the tracks of the New York and New Haven Railroad, a fact which has occcasioned considerable anxiety to passengers as they ride up and down the road, lest an explosion should occur as they pass the works.  At the time of the fire the buildings contained a considerable quantity of materials used in making the compound, also several hundred weight of the mixture prepared for the manufacture of cartridges and a number of complete cartridges in packages, all of which were consumed.  The engineer escaped from the building in his shirt sleeves, leaving his coat and watch to be consumed.  The origin of the fire is unknown.  It is understood that the buildings will be rebuilt as soon as possible."

Source:  The Miners' Powder Company's Buildings Destroyed, Eastern State Journal [White Plains, NY], Feb. 8, 1878, Vol. XXXIII, No. 43, p. 3, col. 4. 

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Train Station Safe at Pelham Manor Depot Was Blown Open with Dynamite Yet Again on April 24, 1902

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The Pelham Manor Depot and the little Pelham Manor Post Office once stood near the eastern end of today's Esplanade, across the branch line railroad tracks from today's Manor Circle.  Poor local residents repeatedly had to suffer through massive dynamite explosions as burglars repeatedly cracked the station safe and the post office safe.  I have written about one such incident in 1894.  See Fri., March 6, 2009:  Burglars Blow the Safe at the Pelham Manor Post Office in 1894. 

In April, 1902, burglars used dynamite to blow open the Pelham Manor Depot safe twice in quick succession.  The crafty thieves realized that if they left the red-hot stove in the station as they blew the safe, the resulting fire likely would prevent them from collecting their loot.  Thus, they carried the red hot stove outside into the roadway so it would not be upset inside the station.

An article about the burglaries appeared in the April 26, 1902 issue of the New Rochelle Pioneer.  The text of that article appears below.

"BURGLARS USE DYNAMITE
-----
Second Visit Within a Month of Robbers at Pelham Manor.
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DISCOVERED BY A WATCHMAN.
-----

For the second time in a month Pelham Manor was visited by safe blowers on Tuesday night.  On a former visit the gang blew open the safe in the Post Office, and in order to avoid setting fire to the building carried a redhot stove out into the middle of the road.  Tuesday night [April 22, 1902] they blew open the safe in the office of the Pelham Trading Company, but obtained only some insurance papers, as the company's money had been deposited in the afternoon in one of the banks of this city.

The cracksmen then went to the suburban station of the New Haven Railroad, where they attempted to blow open the safe with dynamite, but failed in the first attempt because the charge was not heavy enough.  A second charge was then prepared, but as the men were ready to light the fuse they were discovered by a watchman and fled.  There were four of the burglars, the watchman says, each wearing a mask and heavily armed.  They escaped by jumping on a passing freight train, and it is believed that they are now in Connecticut.

The charge of dynamite was still in the safe, and the employees were afraid to go near it.  The safe contained all the tickets and commutation books and several hundred dollars in cash.  The station agent sent word to the officers of the company at New Haven for an expert who removed the dynamite."

Source:  Burglars Use Dynamite, New Rochelle Pioneer, Vol. 44, No. 6, Apr. 26, 1902, p. 1, col. 1.

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1886 Dynamite Explosion in Baychester Kills Four and Shakes Residents of Bartow-on-the-Sound in Pelham

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I have previously written about a massive explosion that occurred on April 5, 1890 at a dynamite works in Baychester that killed two workers and shook the countryside.  See Thursday, October 22, 2009:  Dynamite Explosion in 1890 Breaks Windows and Shakes Residents of Bartow-on-the-Sound in Pelham. 

It seems that the massive explosion was not the first at the dynamite works.  Another such explosion occurred four years before that when two squirrel hunters were told to leave the area and, in a huff, fired a shot into the works causing a massive explosion that killed four men.  It turns out that only a short time before that sad even, another explosion had occurred at the establishment.  The article below describes the event.

"BLOWN TO FRAGMENTS.
-----
Four Victims of a Tremendous Explosion at Baychester.
-----
Pieces of Charred Bodies Gathered in a Heap -- The Terrible Effect of an Angry Sportsman's Shot -- Heavy Damage to the Ditmer Dynamite Works.
----

NEW YORK, Sept. 30.--It is reported that the dynamite works at Baychester blew up this morning and that several persons were killed.  Baychester is on the Harlem railroad, eight miles from New York.

FOUR MEN KILLED.

BARTOW, Sept. 30.--A terrific explosion occurred at the Ditmer powder works at Baychester, on the Harlem river branch of the New York and New Haven railroad, about 10 o'clock this morning, resulting in the instantaneous death of four men who were employed in the factory.  The explosion occurred in the packing house, a one-story frame building 20 by 30 feet in the centre of the grounds, and about 200, yards from the main factory, a large building near the water where the bulk of the giant powder and nitro-glycerine used in the new aqueduct works is manufactured.  The men were hard at work putting up and packing cartridges when suddenly the explosion occurred, shattering the building to splinters and blowing four men to fragments.  The exploding powder, of which there was a large quantity, shot up in the air as high as 50 feet and splinters of the building were blown a great distance.  The names of the men were Ernest Dralen, John Rusch, Max Shafbolt and Reinhart.  Nothing was left of them except fragments of their bodies.  Hands, legs, feet, arms, pieces of skulls, backbone and charred bits of flesh were scattered in every direction from 500 to 600 feet from the packing house.  Max Cruger, foreman of the works, says the explosion was caused by two fellows shooting into the building.  He was in the packing house and going out found two fellows who said they were shooting squirrels.  He says he threatened them with arrest and they became impudent.  As the explosion occurred the fellows were seen hurrying away.  H. R. Stansfield, superintendent of the Thorite powder company, near by, picked up a boxful of fragments of dead men and others assisted in the work and the remains were all put in a heap to await the action of the coroner.  One man had a family in Germany and the others were said to be single.

THE EXPLOSION'S MIGHTY FORCE.

The main factory of the Ditmer works was nearly wrecked, one end being blown to pieces, exposing the interior.  After the explosion the lower timbers of the building took fire and burned fiercely.  A large tree near by was torn up by the roots and branches of other trees were blown away.  The ground for half a mile was strewn with fragments of the dead, splinters, packing paper, etc.  The violence of the explosion shook the houses in Bartow, across the creek from Baychester.  Many windows in Elliott's hotel at Pelham Bridge, over a mile away, were shattered.  Ditmore's blacksmith shop at Westchester shook like straw in the wind and the windows in many houses in the same village were shattered.  This is the second explosion that has occurred in these works this year, the one last winter blowing a man to fragments.  The window sashes and doors in the railroad station at Baychester, not far from the powder works, were blown to gragments and the windows in other houses were damaged, but happily no one was hurt.

FELT IN NYACK.

NYACK, Sept. 30.--Just about 10 o'clock this morning a heavy shock resembling an earthquake startled the people here.  The shock is supposed to have been caused by a heavy explosion of dynamite somwhere."

Source:  Blown to Fragments, Albany Evening Journal, Vol. 57, No. 61,676, Sep. 30, 1886, p. 1, col. 4.

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Dynamite Explosion in 1890 Breaks Windows and Shakes Residents of Bartow-on-the-Sound in Pelham

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On April 5, 1890, a massive explosion at a dynamite works in Baychester killed two workers and shook the countryside.  In nearby Bartow-on-the-Sound, a hamlet located in Pelham, windows were broken and residents were shaken.  A brief article about the event appeared on April 7, 1890 in a Syracuse, New York newspaper.  It is transcribed below, followed by a citation to its source.


"A terrific explosion which shook the building and broke the window panes in many homes at Bartow, City Island and Pelham Bridge occurred Saturday.  The building known as the running house at Dittmar's dynamite works in Baychester had blown up, killing James H. Kelmeir and Max Schultz.  Schultz had come to the works to pay a friendly visit to Kelmeir.  In the engine house, about 100 feet away, the engineer was badly stunned by the shock.  His escape from death is miraculous.  Kelmeir and Schultz were blown to atoms.  The explosion left a hole six feet deep and twenty feet long where the building stood.  How the dynamite came to explode is a mystery that will probably never be solved.  The railrad station, a quarter of a mile from the scene of the explosion, was badly damaged by the shock."

Source:  A Terrific Explosion, The Syracuse Daily Journal, Apr. 7, 1890, p. 1, col. 3.

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