The 75-Foot Coal Chute Plunge

A few days ago, one of the men engaged in unloading coal cars on the incline for the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad Company knocked off, and a stranger named John Johnson was employed in his place. The cars, after being weighed, are run up the incline and placed over the pockets in the bunkers, when the bottom of the car is opened and the coal allowed to run out. When a ship is under the pockets, the bunker door is opened and the coal goes directly from the car through the bunkers into a long chute which conveys it to the vessel's hatch, and it falls into the hold. The cars do not always clear themselves, and the men on top are supposed to take long-handled scrapers and give the coal a start. On Thursday evening, Johnson opened the bottom of a car, but a great chunk of coal prevented the car from unloading itself as rapidly as Johnson thought it should. He accordingly jumped into the car, and his weight forced the obstruction, and man, coal, and all went through the bottom of the car and down the chute at the rate of 100 miles a minute. The sailors on deck of the ship Edward O'Brien saw the man coming flying down, and going below they found him imbedded in the coal, only his head being visible. After his perilous descent of 75 or 80 feet, he had struck the kelson of the ship, breaking his legs and otherwise injuring him. He was sent to the hospital, and it is now uncertain whether he will recover or not. One of his ribs was broken, and it is feared he sustained serious internal injuries. The only wonder is that he was not killed outright.