London, June 9.
"Exploding letters" of sulphuric acid and gunpowder claimed a toll of six postmen injured today, when one of the men was hurt so badly as to need urgent hospital treatment.
All the injuries occurred in the Manchester post office. Similar "exploding letters" burst in Birmingham, Lincoln and here in London, too, but no more persons were hurt.
One of the letters exploded in the postal car of a train speeding from Birmingham to London. Postmen hurled the mail bag containing this letter out of the window to avoid a general fire, The explosions were caused, it was said, by sulphuric acid contained in flattened wax tubes and packed in gunpowder.
The wax tubes were covered with thin rubber and silk-paper. When the acid ate through this covering it touched the gunpowder and caused an explosion.—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.