News: Heat Wave (1918), Public Ledger; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Kathleen Berner Groll <kagrag@att.net> ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** Public Ledger, Philadelphia, PA Wednesday, August 7, 1918 HEAT KILLS FIVE, HALTS INDUSTRY, ATTAINS 103.2 Hundreds Prostrated on Hottest Day in History of City Workers Drop and War Plants Close High Humidity Intensifies Misery, and No Relief is in Sight Yesterday was the hottest day in the history of the local Weather Bureau, which was established in 1874. The maximum registration was 103.2 at 5:10 p.m., four-tenths of a degree higher than any previous record. Hundreds of heat prostrations were reported from hospitals in the city and at least five deaths were attributable to the unparalleled weather conditions. Industries essential to the prosecution of the war were forced to shut down after employes, both men and women, had fainted while remaining valiantly at their posts. There is no relief in sight yet. The Weather Bureau's forecast for today is the same as that given out for yesterday, fair and continued warm. Expectations are the temperature again will go beyond 100 degrees, and there is a possibility yesterday's record not only will be equaled but may be broken. The Weather Bureau forecasts thirty-six hours ahead. Within the next thirty-six hours weather conditions may change so that on Thursday there will be signs of a coming break in prevailing conditions, but there is nothing discernible to warrant the hope that even on Thursday suffering humanity in Philadelphia will find a relief either in showers or a balmy breeze. It's the humidity again that really is causing most of the suffering. If the humidity were normal the suffering, while still great, would be less intense. At 3 o'clock last night, when the mercury had fallen to 100 degrees, the percentage of humidity was 35, while the normal for that sort of weather is 20. The highest previous heat registration was on July 2, 1901, when the thermometer attained a maximum of 102.8, a four-tenths of a degree less than the maximum of yesterday. But on July 2, 1901, the humidity was normal. More than 200 heat prostrations were reported from Hog Island alone. There the victims were treated by the island's emergency hospital. On the day following the great event of the Quistconck's launching., after Hog Island had conquered virtually everything else, that mammoth industry was almost conquered by the extreme heat. Men dropped as they worked. Thousands fought against sunstroke and prostration in as valiant a fashion as they would had they been in the trenches in France. Hundreds, however, quit outright, preferring to walk out than to be carried out. Two thousand employes of the Pusey & Jones Shipbuilding Company quit work at 1 o'clock. One thousand employes of the Welsbach Company at Gloucester City, N.J., most of them girls, did likewise. Two heat prostrations were reported in Gloucester. Mrs. Paul Anderson, of Barnesboro, while on a visit to the home of John Gorman, 219 Middlesex street, was overcome and removed to Cooper Hospital. Frank D. Sorg, fifty years old, a resident of Gloucester Heights, while on his way home from work at the New Jersey shipyard, reeled over at Essex and Willow streets and also was taken to the hospital. Many Gloucester City mothers kept their children at the riverfront all night. Fifty Girl Workers Overcome At the Government's powder-loading plant at Washington Park on the Delaware River fifty young women were overcome. The emergency hospital of the plant was jammed to overflowing, and the situation became so serious that the plant was closed for the day. Four of the young women collapsed on the Camden station platform, after having been brought to that city on a special train, and were taken to the Cooper Hospital. Only one was revived sufficiently so she could tell her home. She said she was Julia Descinal, twenty-two years old, 840 Pearl street, Camden. At Cramps' shipyard, a large percentage of the smiths and other men working around fires quit at noon because of the excessive heat. Otherwise work at that plant continued. About thirty men working in very hot places at the New York Shipbuilding Company, Camden, left work at noon. At the Chester Shipbuilding Company about 400 riveters, one-third of the entire force, who work in ship holds, were unable to stand the heat, and quit work. It was said there that the glare of the heat on the steel makes the work virtually impossible. THE DEAD The five deaths reported are: ANDREW COSTELLO, sixty-five years old, 2028 Annin street, who died at the Philadelphia Rubber Works, Thirty-seventh and Reed streets. PETER SOMMERS, forty years old, no home, found unconscious in stable at 5615 Vine street, and died on way to hospital. JOHN THOMPSON, sixty years old, 524 South Second street, overcome at his home; died at Pennsylvania Hospital. WILLIAM CHERRY, sixty-three years old, 261 Cherry street, Camden, died in the Cooper Hospital. JACOB WINNEMORE fifty years old, address unknown, overcome while at work at the plant of the American Ice Company, American and Cambria streets, died at the Episcopal Hospital. Prostrations: Among the cases of heat prostrations reported are: Louis Mitchell, twenty-two years old, 227 Tree street, overcome at his place of employment, 17 North Seventh street; Jefferson Hospital. William Sherlock, twenty-eight years old, 1327 Church street, overcome on the street, Frankford Hospital. Alfred Bowers, thirty-four years old, 1244 East Oxford street, overcome at his place of employment; St. Mary's Hospital. William Irwin, sixty years old, 203 Richmond street, overcome at Frankford and Oxford streets; St. Mary's Hospital. Oliver Weber, forty-seven years old, 2141 North Third street, overcome at Third and Berks streets; Stetson Hospital. Benjamin Oldroyd, forty-six years old, overcome at Seventh street and Columbia avenue; Stetson Hospital. Charles Nordwalt, forty-four years old, Sixth and Callowhill streets, overcome in Camden; Cooper Hospital. Policeman Joseph Callanan, thirty-eight years old, 3228 Ludlow street, overcome while patroling his beat at Thirty-ninth street and Woodland avenue; University Hospital. Daniel Curtis, forty years old, 765 North Lex street, overcome at Fifty-fourth and Master streets; West Philadelphia Homeopathic Hospital. John Williams, forty-one years old, 1257 South Water street, overcome in a Woodland avenue trolley car; University Hospital. Adam McDermot, twenty-nine years old, 1518 East Hewson street, overcome while at work in the machinery department of the leather belting factory of Alexander Brothers, 414 North Third street; Roosevelt Hospital. Raymond Langford, 5627 Haverford avenue, overcome in the Brill Car Works, West Philadelphia; University Hospital. James McElroy, 1947 North Eleventh street, overcome at Sixtieth street and Woodland avenue; University Hospital. Miss Virginia C. Cozzins, nineteen years old. Miss Beatrice Wagner, seventeen years old; Miss Margaret Buggy, sixteen years old, overcome in the motor department of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 220 South Eleventh street; Jefferson Hospital. Miss Sarah Markowitz, twenty-one years old, 2535 Galloway street; Hahnemann Hospital. Patrick Lynn, forty-four years old, 1526 Vine street; Hahnemann Hospital. Benjamin Schwartz, twenty-three years old, 934 North Sixth street, overcome at Forty-first and Market streets; Presbyterian Hospital. Edwin Peters, seventy years old, Mantua, N.J., overcome at Second and Race streets; Roosevelt Hospital. Herman Halper, thirty-one years old, 2015 Oxford street, overcome at Fortieth and Market streets; Presbyterian Hospital. Albert Beck, seventy years old, 915 North Thirteenth street, overcome in Franklin Square; Roosevelt Hospital. Alfred Larger, sixty-eight years old, 324 North Sixth street, overcome at Sixth and Vine streets; Roosevelt Hospital. Patrick Lynn, forty-four years old, 1528 Vine street, overcome in Logan Square; Hahnemann Hospital. Frank Nizia, 3145 Gaul street, overcome as he entered the Frankford Hospital. 104 at Willow Grove There was not much escape from the heat in parks or the usual recreation centers on such days. At Willow Grove it was said the official thermometer there had attained a maximum registration of 104 degrees. Even in the shade in city parks men and women dropped over from the heat At Hog Island, where so many workmen experiences such great suffering, it was even hotter than the downtown section of Philadelphia, according to unofficial reports. The maximum registration there, it was said, at 5 o'clock was 105 degrees.