Big Campus Engine Wrecked

BIG CAMPUS ENGINE WRECKED

Crosshead Gives Way and Cylinder head Smashed

LIGHT SERVICE CRIPPLED

On Campus - Students Were Testing Engine - No One Injured

The engine room on the campus was the scene of an accident Saturday evening which had all the elements of the spectacular and came very near proving somewhat tragic.

Just how the accident occurred has not been determined yet, but the cross-head in the big engine installed last summer gave way and this caused a general wreckage, forcing out the cylinder head and otherwise smashing things. Several students were in the room at the time and it is remarkable that no one was injured. The engine was running light for the purpose of allowing the students to make tests in connection with their class work and every few minutes one of the class would step to the cylinder to take a reading of the steam pressure, but just at the moment of the accident no one was near it. The engine had been running all right and the engineer in charge had left it but a few moments before, so that the authorities in charge are entirely in the dark as to the cause of the accident. At the time of the accident the engine was working with 125 pounds of steam pressure. The engine is being taken down today and until it is dismantled the full extent of the injury and the loss can not be ascertained. The manufacturers of the engine state that they are sure the engine was perfect, but if the accident is found to have been due to any flaw in the machine they will stand the loss.

The breakage of the engine will cripple seriously the University lighting service. It had a capacity of supplying nearly 1,200 amperes of energy and was worked regularly up to 800 amperes. two smaller engines are in use at the power house, but they have a capacity of furnishing only 300 amperes each so that there will be a deficiency of nearly 500 amperes in that lighting service.