1866 — April 16, Nitroglycerin explosion Wells Fargo building, San Francisco, CA –15-20
— 20 Blanchard tally of those listed below as dead (13), fatally injured (2), and missing (5).
–15-20 Blanchard estimated range.[1]
–15-20 Semi-Weekly Wisconsin. “Nitro-Glycerine — A Terrible, Explosive Agent.” 4-28-1866.[2]
–10-17 Placer Herald, Auburn, CA. “Terrible Explosion…in San Francisco.” 4-21-1866.[3]
–10 Killed outright.
— 2 Apparently fatally injured.[4]
— 5 Missing, apparently “blown to pieces.”
— 16 Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1. (8 named, 8 unidentified.)
— 15 Linda Hall Library. “The Use of Black Powder…Nitroglycerine…Transcontinental Railroad.”
— 14 Aldrich. Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety... P. 217
— 12 Williams. A Great and Shining Road… Transcontinental Railroad. 1988, 132.[5]
Narrative Information
Aldrich: “In 1866 several explosions, including one involving nitroglycerine at the Wells Fargo building in San Francisco that killed fourteen people, led to a federal law that year that forbade shipment of explosives on passenger vessels and otherwise governed their transportation. But the law failed to specify an effective enforcement mechanism and was therefore widely ignored.” (Aldrich. Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents…Safety, 1828-1965. 2006, p.217.)
Linda Hall Library: “The crate had been shipped by steamer from New York City to Panama, across the isthmus via railroad, and then to San Francisco by steamship. It measured two-and-a-half feet square, weighed a little over 300 pounds, and was indistinguishable from thousands of others, except that it leaked an oily substance. The question was not about what was leaking from the crate, but who was at fault for the leak. To settle the dispute, representatives from the steamship company and the consignor, Wells Fargo, met at the latter’s office on Montgomery Street. A Wells Fargo employee grabbed a hammer and chisel and began to open the leaking crate. The resulting explosion a little after noon on Monday, April 16, 1866, instantly killed the workers, leveled the Wells Fargo building, and rattled buildings more than a quarter mile away….
“In its pure, liquid form, the chemical was extremely volatile. On April 3, 1866, 70 crates of nitroglycerin exploded onboard the California-bound steamship European in Aspinwall, Panama, killing 50 people. Two weeks later the nitroglycerin explosion at the Wells Fargo office in San Francisco killed fifteen people.” (Linda Hall Library. The Transcontinental Railroad (website). “The Use of Black Powder and Nitroglycerine on the Transcontinental Railroad.” Accessed 8-22-2017.)
Williams (Transcontinental Railroad): “….in 1866, frustrated by the Sierra’s unique, almost indestructible rock formations, Strobridge[6] decided to innovate, and began to innovate, and began to use nitroglycerin on the Summit Tunnel[7] and tunnel number 8. Invented in Italy in 1847 by Signor Ascanio Sobrero, nitroglycerin had been refined by demolitions engineer Alfred Nobel in the 1860s. His ‘blasting oil’ (C⁶H⁵Oˡ⁸N) was five times more powerful by bulk than powder explosives, and, according to the Railroad Record, thirteen times more destructive. That same publication erred somewhat when it praised nitroglycerin’s supposed stability, reporting that ‘its storing and transport involve no danger.’
“Master tunneler John Gillis was especially captivated by the idea of a powerful liquid explosive, for it might well prove to be the breakthrough that he sought. He hired an itinerant Scottish chemist, James Howden, to mix it for him. Shipped into the mountains in inert, binary form, the explosive was 96 percent pure when Howden finished brewing it in a special reinforced and partially buried log ‘factory’ built by the company near Donner Lake. Gillis had perhaps not read deeply enough into the literature, for despite the Railroad Record’s encomiums, at precisely 1:13.5 on the afternoon of April 16, 1866, a shipment of nitro (not in inert form) ordered by Huntington from the East erupted at a Wells, Fargo office in San Francisco. Twelve people were killed outright, and scores were injured. Nitroglycerin is a fickle explosive: only one of the shipment’s two boxes exploded, while the other, a mere yard or so away, was found intact amidst the rubble. A few days later, the freighter European blew sky high at Aspinwall, Panama, its California-bound nitroglycerin disintegrating at least fifty people and four hundred feet of new, expensive pier. A subsequent investigation revealed that the explosive had been falsely labeled ‘Glorian Oil,’ a nonexistent substance. (p. 132.)
Williams, Supreme Court of the United States Dec Term: “John Parrott, Plff. … Henry Wells et al., as Wells, Fargo & Co.
Expressmen not liable for explosion of nitro-glycerine — common carriers not chargeable with notice of contents of packages — want of negligence — measures of care.
“1. In 1866, the defendants, who were expressmen, engaged in carrying packages between New York and California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, received at New York a box containing nitro-glycerine, to be carried to California. There was nothing in the appearance of the box tending to excite any suspicion of the character of its contents. It was received and carried in the usual course of business, no information being asked or given as to its contents. On arriving at San Francisco, California, its contents were leaking and resembled sweet oil. The box was then taken for examination, as was the custom with the defendants when any box carried by them appeared to be damaged, to the premises occupied by them, which were leased from the plaintiff. Whilst an employee of the defendants, by their direction, was attempting to open the box, the nitro-glycerine exploded injuring the premises occupied by them and other premises leased by the plaintiffs to and occupied by other parties. The defendants had no knowledge of, and no reason to suspect, the dangerous character of the contents. They repaired the injuries to the premises occupied by them; held that they were not liable for the damage caused by the accident to the premises occupied by other parties.
“2. Common carriers are not chargeable, in cases free from suspicion, with notice of the contents of packages carried by them; nor are they authorized in such cases to require information as to the contents of the packages offered, as a condition of carrying them.
“3. Where there is nothing to excite the suspicion of a common carrier as to the contents of a package carried by him, it is not negligence on his part to introduce the package, when appearing to be damaged, into his place of business for examination, and to handle it in the same manner as other packages of similar outward appearance are usually introduced for examination and handling.
{No. 168.}
“Argued Mar. 15, 1873. Decided Mar. 31, 1873….” (Williams, Stephen K. (Revised Edition by Charles L. Thompson). Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States (Book 21). 1919, p. 206.)
Graves: “Three weeks later, Wells, Fargo and Co. printed a notice that it would no longer carry nitroglycerine in its coaches.” (Graves. Nitroglycerine! 7-4-2005 update.)
Newspapers
April 18, New York Herald (in Semi-Weekly-Wisconsin, Milwaukee, April 28): “From the New York Herald, April 18.]
“The frightful disaster, which occurred on the 16th of April, in or near the office of Wells, Fargo & Co’s express, in the city of San Francisco, killing instantly 15 to 20 persons, and dreadfully injuring many others, destroying nearly a whole block of buildings…is beyond any doubt, the result of the explosion of nitro-glycerine, or blasting oil.
“According to the information taken here, in New York, the superintendent of a New York mining company had sent, some weeks ago, to San Francisco, by the Pacific Mail Company, several boxes of nitro-glycerine, weighing about 500 pounds, imported from the factory of Mr. Alfred Noble, of Hamburg, Germany.
“It was intended to sell this oil to mining companies, the immense exploding power of the new chemical compound offering great advantages, not only in the saving of labor of drill boles, but also in freight, because ofe pound of this blasting oil does the same destructive work as twelve to fifteen pounds of common blasting gun powder.
“The blood stirs if we think that the two hundred pounds sent by the Pacific mail steamer had exploded during the sea voyage, tearing to pieces and burying in the waves the seven or eight hundred passengers on board…could not the accident which took place at the freight office of Wells Y Fargo’s company in San Francisco, without any apparent cause, have happened quite as well on board of the steamer which carried the mysterious and dangerous freight?….” (Semi-Weekly-Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Nitro-Glycerine–A Terrible, Explosive Agent.” 4-28-1866, p. 4.)
April 21, Placer Herald, in Graves: “On Monday, 16th inst., in San Francisco, at fifteen minutes past one o’clock, P.M., and explosion took place in the storeroom back of Wells, Fargo & Co.’s building, in G. W. Bell’s assay office, adjoining on California street, which demolished everything within a circuit of 40 or 50 feet, including the whole interior of Bell’s assay building, the storeroom and west portion of Wells, Fargo & Co.’s building, the back portion of the Union Club Rooms, and other apartments in the vicinity.
“The explosion was so powerful as to shake the earth like an earthquake for a circuit of a quarter of a mile. Every window in California street, between Montgomery and Kearny, were demolished, and panes of glass were shattered even as far as Third street, a distance of half a mile. For some time after the explosion it was impossible to tell the cause of the calamity. Some asserting that it was a barrel of acid in the Assay office; others that it was a steam boiler in the rear of the office, and others, that it was some kind of explosive material stored in the yard of Wells, Fargo & Co. It has since been ascertained to have been caused by Nobel’s blasting oil, or nitro glycerine, a new explosive five times more powerful in its effects than powder.
“A box containing this liquid had arrived by steamer from the East, and when landed upon the wharf was found to be in a leaking condition. It had been shipped as general merchandise, and none were aware of the dangerous contents of the box. It was sent to the Office of Wells, Fargo & Co. and placed in the rear of the building; among the unreclaimed freight, where Mr. Webster, the freight clerk in the New York department of the Express office, and Mr. Havens, freight clerk of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, went to examine that in connection with another package claimed to be in damaged condition. The last seen of these gentlemen alive, they were standing near the box, with several other employees, having tools as if about to open the box. It is supposed they made the attempt, when the explosion took place by concussion, which resulted in a terrible loss of life and destruction of property.
“There was not a whole window for a long distance from the building in which the explosion took place, and in Brannan’s block, opposite Wells, Fargo & Co’s. on Montgomery street, the Stevenson House, opposite, and in many buildings between California and Sacramento streets window frames and doors ere generally shattered to fragments, while huge splinters of costly plate glass covered the streets. Fragments of human remains were found scattered in many places….
“Other fragments of human bodies were found several days afterward, on the roof of Selleck’s daguerrean gallery, on Montgomery street, where they had been thrown by the explosion….
“A large number of people were slightly injured by the falling of glass in the streets, and in buildings as far away from the scene as on Sacramento street between Montgomery and Kearny.
“The following persons are known to have been killed and wounded.
Samuel Knight, Bank Superintendent, instantaneously.[8]
- E. Webster, head of the New York Department,
Mr. Haven of the Pacific Mail Co.,[9] and
John Gallagher, hostler, killed.
[“Mr. Wallub, Wells, Fargo & Co.’s Assayer…also killed.”][12]
[“Joseph Elliott…also killed.”][13]
[“Frank Meosher…also killed.”][14]
“Belonging to the Union Club, the following casualties are reported:
Felix Duriveau, cook, killed.
August Michel, second cook, killed.
- Rust, or F. Le Rey, third cook, severely, and it is feared fatally injured.
- H. Cox, steward, badly injured; supposed to be beyond recovery.
Chinese assistant, (name unknown,) missing, probably killed.
Another Chinese assistant (name unknown,) killed.
John Maguire, waiter missing.
- H. Wright, waiter, missing.
Wm. Smith, waiter, leg broke, will recover.
Edward Kent, waiter, missing.
Dennis O’Donnell, waiter, dead.
James Burke, waiter, missing.
“The number of the wounded it is impossible to ascertain. Many are seriously hurt, and hundreds were wounded by the flying fragments of glass in the streets.” (Placer Herald, Auburn, CA. “Terrible Explosion and Loss of Life in San Francisco.” 4-21-1866; in Graves.)
April 21, Davenport Daily Gazette: “At San Francisco on the 16th inst., a horrible explosion of what was supposed to be nitra glycerine occurred…near Wells, Fargo & Co.’s building…. Samuel Knight, superintendent of Wells Fargo & Co’s Express, died in half an hour of injuries received. G. W. Bell, Supervisor and Assayer, was instantly killed. Mr. Wallub, Wells, Fargo & Co.’s Assayer, Joseph Elliott, John Gallagher, Frank Meosher and William Justin were also killed. Eight dead bodies were so mutilated that they could not be identified…..William Havens, a book-keeper of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, is ascertained to be among the killed.
“The cause of the explosion is a mystery. — The Freight Agent of the Pacific Mail Company says that two boxes, each measuring about four cubic feet, were taken from the steamer’s dock to the place where the explosion occurred. One box was consigned to Idaho City, and the other to Los Angeles. Both were stained with oil. — The contents were not known. Forty men are now engaged in removing the ruins.” (Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.)
Placer Herald (we assume), in Graves: “The S. F. Examiner[15] says: It is a remarkable fact connected with the late explosion, that every person sitting at the table at the Club Hours, at lunch, escaped unhurt, while every waiter in attendance (standing) was either killed outright or seriously injured. It is said that the man Cox was waiting up, on a Mr. Ambrose; at the moment of the explosion he was in the act of placing dishes upon the table. Cox was mortally wounded, while Ambrose was raised out of his chair to the ceiling, his watch and money drawn as if it ere by suction, from his pockets, and yet he escaped uninjured.
“Had the explosion occurred under cover, instead of in the yard; it is probable that every building in the block would have been leveled to the ground. Nothing but the glass sky lights in Wells, Fargo & Co’s. Club House building, saved that structure from entire destruction. The main force of the concussion went upward several hundred feet into the air, without any obstruction. The damage done to property was by the outward or expansive force.
“We have been told this morning by a reliable party, that it is admitted by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s employees that this nitro-glycerine has been brought up frequently, in fact on board almost every steamer, and that no complaint has ever been made about it but in a single instance, when Capt. Baby protested against bringing it. We know that last Winter, when the large imports of petroleum were being brought up from Panama, that Commodore Watkins protested against it, and remonstrated by telegraph to the P.M.S. Co. at New York, at such risk and trifling with human life. That suspended the shipments of that article. But now a worse and more dangerous article is admitted to have been brought up by the several steamers recently. This thing must be stopped at once….There must be a total discontinuance of the practice of carrying suspected packages under the term merchandise. Public safety demands it.” (The Examiner, San Francisco. “The Late Explosion–Singular Facts–Suggestions of Safety.” Date not noted, reproduced in “Nitroglycerine!” by G. J. Graves, on Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum website.)
Sources
Aldrich, Mark. Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828-1965. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2006, 446 pages.
Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1. Accessed 8-23-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/davenport-daily-gazette-apr-21-1866-p-1/?tag
Graves, G. J. Nitroglycerine! Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, 7-4-2005 update. Accessed 8-22-2017 at: http://cprr.org/Museum/Newspapers/Nitroglycerine.html
Linda Hall Library. The Transcontinental Railroad (website). “The Use of Black Powder and Nitroglycerine on the Transcontinental Railroad.” Accessed 8-22-2017 at: http://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/black-powder.html
Placer Herald, Auburn, CA. “Terrible Explosion and Loss of Life in San Francisco.” 4-21-1866; in Graves. Accessed 8-22-2017 at: http://cprr.org/Museum/Newspapers/Nitroglycerine.html
Semi-Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Nitro-Glycerine–A Terrible, Explosive Agent.” 4-28-1866, p. 4. Accessed 8-23-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/semi-weekly-wisconsin-apr-28-1866-p-4/?tag
Williams, John Hoyt. A Great and Shining Road: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroad. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1988, and 1996. Google preview accessed 8-22-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=W_O_PJmz29IC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Williams, Stephen K. (Revised Edition by Charles L. Thompson). Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States (Book 21). Rochester, NY: The Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co., 1919.
[1] While twenty appears to us to be the best single number, we think it conservative to use the 15-20 press reporting at the time. Some of the difficulty in producing a tally, no doubt, derives from the fact that some bodies were destroyed in the explosion, with body parts located in many location. Additionally, reporting on the fate of the Chinese workers was very sparse and incomplete.
[2] This Milwaukee paper notes their story is from the New York Herald of April 18.
[3] We have transcribed from G. J. Graves (Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum) much of the article below, including a listing of dead, seriously injured, and missing.
[4] A Union Club cook, by the name or Rust or Le Rey, was listed as “severely, and it is feared fatally injured.” A Union Club steward, W. H. Cox, was listed as “badly injured; supposed to be beyond recovery.” In another article posted by G. J. Graves (CPRPHM), a San Francisco Examiner article stated that “Cox was mortally wounded.”
[5] Notes 12 were “killed outright” and many injured. Not noted is whether any injured later died from their injuries.
[6] James Harvey Strobridge, construction manager of the Central Pacific railroad.
[7] Near Donner Pass, CA.
[8] Another source has it that he was “Superintendent of Wells Fargo & Co’s Express” and that he “died in half an hour of injuries received.” (Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.)
[9] Another source notes “William Havens, a book-keeper of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, is ascertained to be among the killed.” Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.
[10] The Davenport Daily Gazette, noted herein, may be referring to this man with note of the death of William Justin.
[11] Another source notes he was Supervisor and Assayer” and “was instantly killed.” (Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.)
[12] Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.
[13] Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.
[14] Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “The News,” 4-21-1866, p. 1.
[15] We assume this is a reference to The Daily Examiner, which published, according to the Library of Congress Historic American Newspapers site, in San Francisco from 1865 to 1889.