BEDFORD WEEKLY MAIL BEDFORD, INDIANA FRIDAY, OCT. 12, 1900 Engine Ran Away. James GEORGE has been operating the old Handle Factory for some time, employing four or five men. Monday forenoon at 9:30 the governor belt of the engine broke, and the engine ran away. Then the big driving belt, a foot wide and over 50 feet long, became unlaced and wrapped around the fly wheel, the loose ends slapping the roof and sides of the building and the damp earthen floor, with reports like a shotgun, knocking planks and mud flying. Escaping steam filled the shed and poured from the cracks. The young men at work in the factory became panic stricken and fled, crawling behind neighboring piles of logs and stone and engaging in prayer. Mrs. GEORGE ran from the family residence across the street to the factory and seeing the nature of the trouble, started to call her husband, who had been at work in a distant part of the yard; but he was already hurrying to the engine. Jim has not much fear of anything in the engine line, but when he ran in through the steam to close the throttle and found the hand wheel of the valve had been jarred off and rolled under the boiler, which is framed with the engine in semi-portable style, and was jumping up and down like a bucking bronco, he was nonplussed, Fortunately at that moment the rod operating the port valves snapped in two and shut off the supply of steam from the cylinder, and the engine slowed down and finally stopped. An inventory of damages showed that the key that held the flywheel on the shaft had become loose during the runaway and burst a large piece out of the hub of the iron wheel, that the valve rod was broken, the big belt covered with mud and some boards knocked off the building. That was all. There was 60 pounds of steam in the boiler when the trouble started, much less than is usually carried. It was fortunate that nobody was hurt, and that no more damage was done.