Press enter after choosing selection

The Incendiary's Apparatus.

The Incendiary's Apparatus. image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
September
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

In Unadilla and Lyndon, some months ago, several barns were burned, and much valuable property in buildings, hay, grain, implements and stock perished. One Cyler C. Barton, of Unadilla, was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Peterson, in Chicago, and he is now in jail for trial at the October term. Among other causes of his arrest, is stated to be his own assertion that a fire could be so planned as to allow the incendiary to get many miles away before the catastrophe, and thus elude suspicion. Whatever ot truth or error there may be in this charge, it is certain that the prosecution has come into possession of some evidence that shows the burning of the barns of Rev. North and Mr. Bangs, of Unadilla, to have been the work of a fire-bug, beyond any doubt. Deputy Peterson on Saturday showed the Argus a number of iron candlesticks and the melted glass of bottles taken from the ruins of the barns of Messrs. North and Bangs. The theory of the case is this. Four candles in as many iron candlesticks are placed in a row in a building, and near to each other. Close to them is a bottle containing powder. A fuse runs from near the bottom of the first candle to the wiek of the next, all being connected in a similar manner, and the last candle by a fuse with the powder. The incendiary lights the first candle, makes a sneak and is home and raĆ­les away before candle number one reaches the fuse that connects with number two and lights the wiek. In due time the blaze reaches the second fuse connecting with the tape of number four running to the powder is reached, the powder goes off with a bang, the straw around it is lighted, and the barn is burned. If the incendiary is suspecled, and his wherebouts questioned, he proves that at the time of the fire he was thirty or forty miles away, or a hundred if he took the cars. Deputy Peterson also showed the Argus a device found under the barn of Mr. Messenger, of Unadilla. It had failed to work. It has a trough like box of thin wood and long and narrow. In one end was a partition with a hole through it. The small apartment contained kindling wood, matches stuck through the hole, and a coiled fuse run to the other end of the box. The fuse had been lighted but expired before reaching the matches. Candles and powder did better work.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News