P.J Harney Shoe Company, 12/6/1906

  Sun 6/30/2013

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December 6, 1906, at a few minutes before seven o'clock, the boiler in the factory of the P.J. Harney Shoe Company, Lynn, Mass.,
exploded, demolishing a portion of the building. The factory was a four-story wooden building, and the resulting fire completely
destroyed it. . . . As the explosion occurred before starting time, there were very few operatives in the buildings; still, at least
5 persons were injured or burned, but none fatally.

The boiler that exploded was 10 years old. It was a "horizontal tubular type 72 inches in diameter and 18 feet long, made of
'Clyde' fire-box steel, a scant 3/8 of an inch thick . . . the horizontal seams being of the lap double-riveted type.
There were ninety-two 31/2-inch tubes. . . . The pressure ordinarily carried was about 90 pounds."

The boiler had been fired lightly over the previous night and attended by a watchman who also held a fireman's license.
By morning, an engineer—also a licensed man—had arrived and taken charge. At the time of the explosion, he was
standing in the engine room at the rear of the boiler house and was preparing to start an engine, but had not yet opened its
throttle. The engineer survived the explosion with only some bruises and "a general nervous shake-up." Another engineer,
visiting from the neighboring Owen Paper Box Co. factory, was cut about the head by debris "from the greater portion of the
front course of the exploded boiler landing quite near him."

Contact/Location

Matt Keenan
CUSHING, WI
715.648.5000