Location, location, location

A frightful accident occurred at Ballyclare, a thriving little town in Antrim. Mr. Thornley, a resident Excise-officer, had proposed a lecture on the new and marvellous science of electro-biology, the proceeds to be devoted to the repair of the National School-house. The place selected for the exhibition was an upper room in an old unused paper-mill. It is a rambling structure, consisting of two wings joining in a right angle, and surrounded by a number of ruinous outbuildings, through which to the loft above both access and egress is exceedingly difficult. A couple of steep ladders, very hard to climb, formed the means of communication to the loft from the lower chamber, which had been used as a store, and in which old cog-wheels and other pieces of disjointed machinery were lying. The flooring rested on a single beam running longitudinally along the room, the ends of the rafters being let into the opposite wall.

A lecture upon so unknown and so mysterious sounding a subject as electro-biology naturally attracted a great audience, and near 500 persons are said to have been collected. The lecture commenced at 8 o'clock in the evening, and occupied an hour and a half, after which the lecturer proceeded to mesmerize, or entrance, some seven or eight young persons, who, at his request, came forward for the purpose.

He succeeded with a few of these, and was about to exhibit his influence over them, having removed them towards the back part of the loft, when the curiosity of the spectators in the more distant parts of the room became so much excited that they rushed from all sides in a body to the central space to obtain a better view. The greatly increased weight on the middle of the flooring proved too much for its supports, and it gave way beneath their feet, opening downwards in a fearful chasm, into which upwards of 300 persons, men, women, and children, were precipitated.

The scene which ensued may be more easily imagined than described. Those who had occupied seats on the back portion of the loft, of which the flooring had not given way, were uninjured; but nearly all who stood, at the moment of the accident, on that portion which occupied the angle between the two wings, a square of 30 feet, were thrown, with the planks of the flooring, and the dislodged stonework of the dilapidated walls, into the area beneath, among the pieces of machinery which were stored there.

The shrieks of the suffering multitude, the noise of the falling timbers, the clouds of choking dust, which instantly arose, the rush and frantic struggle for escape, formed a dreadful scene.

The accident was occasioned by the breaking of the beam exactly in the centre, so that when it gave way, the flooring shelved downwards from both sides, sliding, as it were, those who stood upon it into the store below. In some places the planks prized up the brickwork into which they were inserted, and in one spot a considerable mass of stone and brick work was detached, which, falling upon the living heap below, caused the most fatal of the injuries which were received.

When the unfortunates who had suffered from the accident were extricated from the ruins, it was found that three were dead; 20 persons had their limbs fractured more or less seriously, of whom three died in a few days, and about 40 others were severely injured.