In 1966 I did some design work for The Pennsalt Chemical Co. they made the odorant to put in Nat. Gas. Their logo was Pepé Le Pew
They were right about that.
Can you imagine the uproar if this took place today??
On this day in 1937, a massive explosion destroyed the New London Junior-Senior High School, tragically killing an estimated 296 students and teachers. The subsequent deaths of victims from injuries sustained that day brought the final death count to 311.
The explosion was blamed on a natural gas leak beneath the school building. Evidently, a spark from a sander in the shop class ignited the gas.
The explosion was heard up to four miles away. People came from all around to help: parents, town residents, Boy Scouts, oilfield workers, the American Legion, the Red Cross, the Texas Rangers, healthcare workers from multiple hospitals, and more.
Within weeks of the disaster, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring an odor to be added to natural gas, which previously was odorless and therefore undetectable. A memorial to victims of the explosion was erected in 1939.
." Walter Cronkite also found himself in New London on one of his first assignments for United Press International. Although Cronkite went on to cover World War II and the Nuremberg trials, he was quoted as saying decades later, "I did nothing in my studies nor in my life to prepare me for a story of the magnitude of that New London tragedy, nor has any story since that awful day equaled it."
Many victims were identified by clothing or personal items, such as a boy who was identified by the presence of the pull string from his favorite shirt in his jeans pocket. A student survivor recounted being in a makeshift morgue: "I saw fathers fight over dead children like dogs over a bone, yelling 'That's mine!' 'No, mine!' I saw children who looked like roadkill; you couldn't tell if it was a boy, girl, or what.
They were right about that.Can you imagine the uproar if this took place today??
On this day in 1937, a massive explosion destroyed the New London Junior-Senior High School, tragically killing an estimated 296 students and teachers. The subsequent deaths of victims from injuries sustained that day brought the final death count to 311.
The explosion was blamed on a natural gas leak beneath the school building. Evidently, a spark from a sander in the shop class ignited the gas.
The explosion was heard up to four miles away. People came from all around to help: parents, town residents, Boy Scouts, oilfield workers, the American Legion, the Red Cross, the Texas Rangers, healthcare workers from multiple hospitals, and more.
Within weeks of the disaster, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring an odor to be added to natural gas, which previously was odorless and therefore undetectable. A memorial to victims of the explosion was erected in 1939.
." Walter Cronkite also found himself in New London on one of his first assignments for United Press International. Although Cronkite went on to cover World War II and the Nuremberg trials, he was quoted as saying decades later, "I did nothing in my studies nor in my life to prepare me for a story of the magnitude of that New London tragedy, nor has any story since that awful day equaled it."
Many victims were identified by clothing or personal items, such as a boy who was identified by the presence of the pull string from his favorite shirt in his jeans pocket. A student survivor recounted being in a makeshift morgue: "I saw fathers fight over dead children like dogs over a bone, yelling 'That's mine!' 'No, mine!' I saw children who looked like roadkill; you couldn't tell if it was a boy, girl, or what.
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