100 years ago near Kettle Falls: One man killed, another injured in mining accident

From our archives, 100 years ago

Joseph Merk and George Pittman were working in the Silver Queen Mine, a few miles south of Kettle Falls, Washington, when they attempted to set off a dynamite charge about 530 feet into the shaft.

Pittman tried to light the fuse three times. Yet it still didn’t seem to be lit. Or was it?

About this time, Merk became alarmed and said, “Let’s get out of this.”

They jumped on the tram and had raced away about 40 feet when the explosion came and blew them off the car. Pittman died and Merk was severely injured.

From the thresher beat: Local farmers learned some news that would prevent a great deal of injury and heartache over the coming harvest season.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered the cause of the threshing-machine fires that destroyed dozens of machines in the Inland Northwest over the last few seasons.

The culprit: static electricity. Dust builds up rapidly in the threshers and any spark of electricity caused the dust to explode and catch fire.

Because of this finding, threshers would now be equipped with devices that would prevent the static from building up.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.