New Hampshire Statesman And Concord Register

From the Boston Courier.

STEAM EXPLOSION. The following particulars of a terrible disaster, which occurred on Thursday, last week, in New York, are from the New York Gazette.

Between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, a disastrous explosion took place at the Iron manufactory of Mr Robert M'Queen, in Doane street, which we regret to say was attended with the loss of human life. The steam engine used for the fusion of metal, burst with tremendous force, and completely shattered the building, the roof having been torn off and the fragments scattered in every direction. The rupture in the boiler took place about four feet from the head, and the upper part of it, weighing about five hundred pounds, was carried across the street into the second story of the house No. 19 Cross street, the front of which was entirely destroyed; and a female named Margaret Jacobs, who was standing in the room at the time, narrowly escaped with her life.

The individuals who lost their lives by the explosion were John Coyle, engineer, and a man named John Devine, a cabinet maker, who was passing along Cross street at the time of the accident, and was killed by the falling timber.

It was reported last evening that several children were missing, who were supposed to have been in the neighborhood of the explosion, but we could not learn that any further accidents had occurred.

The case was investigated by a coroner's jury, which found simply that the deceased came to their death in consequence of the explosion of the steam engine of R. M'Queen, at the corner of Cross and Doane streets; without expressing an opinion as to the care which had been taken of the boiler. The Commercial Advertiser says:

We have visited the ruins of this part of Mr. M'Queen's works this morning, and the extent and completeness of the work of destruction is astonishing. The whole building, from roof to basement, is shattered to fragments. Bricks, the tiles, timbers and iron, broken and shivered to splinters, lie in a heap of useless ruins-affording the most striking commentary upon the expansive power of steam that we ever beheld. Although the engine was of such comparatively small dimensions, yet the destructiveness of the exploding vapor was equal to the force of half a dozen kegs of gunpowder. Really, the frequency of these accidents of late is appalling. Human skill and forethought, and prudence, seem to be alike baffled by this powerful, and now necessary agent in the march of improvement. The means of obtaining a perfect control of this power, is now the greatest desideratum in mechanics.