Eddystone explosion

Normally only about thirty girls worked in the pellet room, but two weeks earlier the company had hired about seventy more to fill a large rush order that was due to be shipped in a few days.

[3][note 1] According to the New York Times, it started when some 18 tons of black powder somehow ignited, setting off thousands of shrapnel shells, causing "a series of detonations that shook a half dozen boroughs within a radius of ten miles of the plant.

One of their first tasks was to stop the fire from setting off the more than 50 tons of black powder that were sitting in a storage facility near the loading and inspection area.

[7] Years later, a federal inquiry cast suspicion on Russian revolutionaries opposed to the czar and the war.

[6] The day of the explosion, company president Samuel M. Vauclain told the New York Times he was convinced it was the work of "some outside person" and not the result of "carelessness by employees"; the implication being that either saboteurs or the victims themselves were to blame.

[2] The next day, an unnamed explosives expert told reporters it would have been easy for one of "the women engaged in the packing of time fuses" to plant a bomb.

[5] A guard at the plant told reporters that electrical devices used to shake explosive powder down into the shrapnel shells had been malfunctioning for some time.

The remains of 55 unidentified victims were buried in a mass grave marked by a small monument near Edgmont Avenue.

[1] On April 16, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech in which he acknowledged the importance of industrial workers in the war effort: The industrial forces of the country, men and women alike, will be a great national, a great international, Service Army—a notable and honored host engaged in the service of the nation and the world.