Narrow Escape at the Ballard Mill
A machinist miraculously survives a terrifying entanglement with a revolving shaft at the Seattle Lumber Company mill.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
N. A. James, the machinist who was injured on Tuesday in the Seattle Lumber Company's mill at Ballard, is improving and yesterday was able to tell how the accident occurred. He says his left shirt sleeve caught in a pulley and wound round a revolving shaft, taking him once around with it, when the weight of his body was sufficient to tear off his clothes. Mr. James is a heavy man, weighing about 170 pounds, and this is all that saved his life.
“The weight of his body was sufficient to tear off his clothes. Mr. James is a heavy man, weighing about 170 pounds, and this is all that saved his life.”
Industrial accidents were a grim, common fact of life in the 1890s mill economy of Seattle and Ballard. This story highlights the extreme physical danger workers faced long before modern OSHA regulations mandated machine guards and safety protocols.
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