1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster

The 1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster was an explosion and fire that claimed many lives and destroyed several square miles of New Jersey factories.

[2] The explosion touched off fires in surrounding buildings in the Nixon Nitration Works that contained other highly flammable materials.

[3] The disaster killed twenty people, destroyed forty buildings,[4] and demolished the "tiny industrial town of Nixon, New Jersey.

[3] It was created in 1915 by naval architect and industrialist Lewis Nixon to supply some European nations with gunpowder and other materials for World War I.

[5] That salvage was performed after the trinitrotoluene (TNT) was extracted from the shells at the nearby Raritan Arsenal by the Columbia Storage Company, owned by aeronautic pioneer Charles A.

[2] The blast shook Staten Island, where business buildings in the Stapleton and St. George neighborhoods rocked, windows rattled, and doors were slammed.

[3] As darkness fell, shifting winds suddenly began fanning the flames toward freight cars on a siding and toward the nearby Raritan Arsenal[10] where 500,000 high-explosive shells were stored.

[15] Major A.S. Casand, commander of the arsenal, also disagreed that residual TNT was to blame, and believed that the explosion was due to conditions in the plant.

[18] In 1928, a federal judge dismissed the claims and counterclaims between Ammonite and Nixon Nitration Works, leaving Columbia Salvage Company as the only defendant in the suit.

[23] Ammonite owner Shreve, already a renowned chemical and industrial engineer, later joined the faculty at Purdue University, where he became a well-respected scholar, author, and teacher.

[24] Levine dissolved the injunction, freed the plane, and became the first transcontinental air passenger, reaching Germany from New York in a flight two weeks following Lindbergh's.