Note 1 — HENRY S. SIMMONDS.

On October 31, 1865, at the London Gas-light Company's Works, at Nine Elms, Battersea Park Road, a gas-holder exploded killing ten persons and injuring twenty-two. This was then one of the largest holders in London, its capacity being 1,039,000 cubic feet. It was 150 feet diameter, 60 feet high, with a tank depth of 30 feet, and at the instant of the explosion was nearly full, being about 50 feet to 55 feet high. The meter-house was blown to atoms, and the force of the explosion struck the side of the gas-holder, bulging it in, and at the same time driving out a portion of the top. Mr. Timbs, who records this disaster, (which happened when the late Mr. Watson was engineer) says, "As the side plates were eight to twelve gauge, the force must have been very great. With the bursting of the top there was an immediate rush of gas, which instantly caught fire, and shot up in a vast column of flame, discernible at a great distance. The concussion ripped open another gas-holder, the escaping gas caught fire, and meeting the flames from the first gas-holder, rolled away in one vast expanse of flame: an awful crash followed, and many of the neighbouring houses were shattered to pieces."—History of Wonderful Inventions, by John Timbs, p. 179.