100 years ago: 235-foot mooring mast tethers air ships at Scott Field
100 years ago, June 24, 1926
Work is to start at once on the 235-foot mooring mast to be erected at Scott Field.
A contract for the construction of reinforced concrete supports for the airship mooring mast and appurtenances was awarded Monday to W. C. Johnson, a Belleville contractor by the Aircraft Development Corporation of Detroit, Mich., which has the general contract with the United States government for the complete installation of the structure and related riggings and machinery for mooring airships of the larger type.
The mast will be a steel tower, hollow in the inside, with an elevator and stairway. Steel cables inside the mast and operated by machinery which is to be housed in buildings at the foot of the tower, the construction of which is also included in the contract, will moor the large dirigibles at the field to the mast. The mast will be erected upon a concrete base ten feet thick and forty feet wide, nine feet of the depth of which will be in the ground.
Adjoining the tower is to be a building, housing machinery to operate the tower elevator and to control mooring of ships, this building being 28 feet by 30 feet in plan. At radial distance of 525 from the center of the mooring mast, spaced uniformly around, are to be set concrete blocks to which will be led lines securing an airship, as desired, according to wind direction.
75 years ago, June 21, 1951
Jacob Charles Rapp, employed at the St. Ellen mine for 27 years, was killed Friday morning when he was crushed beneath a large fall of rock in the mines. He was 72 years old and lived at 506 East Washington street.
He was working as head-end man or helper on a loading machine when the accident occurred.
The regular operator, Joseph Meaddows had just left the scene a few minutes earlier for a mid-morning lunch when the rock fell. Mr. Rapp was operating the machine during Meaddow’s absence. It was the first fatal accident at the mine in seven years.
Only recently the Perry Coal Co., operator of the mine, was cited for an outstanding safety record by the Joseph A. Holmes Association for its many years without a fatality. The citation pointed out that the mine employed an average of 229 men between Aug. 16, 1944 and the end of 1951 without a death.
A total of 2,815,816 man hours were worked to produce 3,184,724 tons of coal, according to John Harvey, mine manager.
On Friday morning when the fatal accident occurred, Meaddows said he was walking back toward the machine when a section of the rock roof measuring about 20 by 20 feet fell, crushing Mr. Rapp. Mr. Rapp was injured in a similar accident in November 1948. At that time he was hospitalized.
As is the custom in coal mines, the miners left their jobs after the accident Friday and did not work Monday when the funeral was held. Members of Local 75 of Progressive Mine Workers of America conducted graveside rites at funeral services here at 2 p.m. in O’Fallon cemetery. His body was at the Wolfersberger-Meyer Funeral home. Rev. Percy Ray of the Collinsville Baptist church conducted services.
50 years ago, June 24, 1976
As of Wednesday morning, pickets were still up at the Magna-Fab Ltd. manufacturing plant in O’Fallon with 14 machinists still on strike. The work stoppage by the machinists started last week when the contract between machinists and management expired.
Neither Donald Yergil, manager at Magna-Fab nor Roy Hawkins, business agent for International Association of Machinists District 9 would comment on the strike situation.
A federal mediator was called in to meet with both sides but no information was available on the status of meetings. The dispute involves a number of economic issues including wages, hospitalization insurance, pension and sick leave benefits.