I definitely seem to be on track for finding the weirdest of the weird these days...Well...At least it keeps me amused and occupied... https://t.co/ZHAgDnI7PB
— Gemma Wiseman (@AuraGem) October 24, 2020
This headstone is in Girard Cemetery, Pennsylvania???? (See note below)
The fire occurred at Shannon’s workplace, the Girard Hotel, which still stands on the northeast corner of Rice Avenue and East Main Street.https://t.co/4G0Wo6vNmb Roderick Foster Danforth was the inventor and manufacturer of Danforth's Non Exploding Fluid, which killed and maimed numerous people over two decades, as it was, in fact, very highly explosive.
— David Lowe (@Dizcorp) December 15, 2017
and advised that fire insurance policies be made void if the product were found on premises. One account from St. Joseph, Missouri in 1875 reads:
— David Lowe (@Dizcorp) December 15, 2017
In Nova Scotia, Danforth's Fluid is immortalized on the headstone of Ellen Shannon, "who was fatally burned March 21, 1879, by the explosion of a lamp filled with R. E. Danforth's [sic] Non-Explosive Burning Fluid".
— David Lowe (@Dizcorp) December 15, 2017
and by 1882 had settled in Washington, DC. In that year he patented a "Vapor Stove", an improvement, so claimed the application, upon his earlier stoves.
— David Lowe (@Dizcorp) December 15, 2017
Apparently unmoved by the tragic legacy of his products, he last appeared in the Washington city directory as an inventor in 1891, the year of his death. The cause of his death is not known.
— David Lowe (@Dizcorp) December 15, 2017
*NOTE 1 - Source HERE
In the 1960s an older, broken stone with the same wording was replaced by the current one by Girard historian Hazel Kibler, who died in 1973 at age 89, said Stephanie Wincik, past president of the West County Historical Society. Wincik, 61, said Kibler wanted to preserve Girard’s past, even the strange stuff. “She was very interested in all these weird things in history,” Wincik said. “She would think (the epitaph) was cool.” The Shannon headstone is interesting, but R.E. Danforth’s non-explosive burning fuel might have been flat-out dangerous. According to the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, there is evidence that R.E. Danforth’s stuff might have been the cause of a fire — also in 1870 — that destroyed the War Eagle steamship. At least six died when the vessel burned and sunk where it was docked just north of La Crosse on the Black River.
*NOTE 2: I have found 2 different places for this headstone -
2. Nova Scotia ( Twitter above)
No comments:
Post a Comment