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MELANCHOLY AND FATAL ACCIDENT. — A very distressing accident, resulting in the death of Mr. William Dakin, the extensive tea dealer, of No. 1, St. Paul's Church-yard, occurred on Friday afternoon. Mr. Dakin, it appears, recently patented a new machine for roasting and cleansing coffee, and during the last three months workmen have been actively engaged under his personal superintendence in erecting it at his warehouse in Shoemaker's-row, Blackfriars. The machine was completed on Thursday, and the first trial of its power was made in the presence of Mr. Dakin and three or four other persons when the catastrophe occurred. The principle on which the machine had been constructed is the substitution of boiling water for the ordinary mode of producing heat, as applied to coffee roasting. The boiler and engine have been erected on the ground floor, from which the hot water is conveyed through pipes to the upper story of the building, where the process of roasting and cleansing was intended to be carried on. The chief feature in the machine is a cylinder charged with boiling water, round which the coffee berries are made to travel ; the bursting of this cylinder, from Berne unexplained cause, occasioned the accident. The machine was got into work shortly after two o'clock and about three o'clock Mr. Dakin arrived at the warehouse and went upstairs to inspect the operation; but he had only been in the apartment a very few moments when the explosion took place. The effect, as may be gathered, was terrific. The cylinder was blown into several pieces, and one of the belts by which it was attached to the machine striking Mr. Dakin on the left temple entered, his brain and killed him instantaneously. A workman in attendance was also very seriously injured. Some circumstances in connection with Mr. Dakin render this untimely and peculiarly unfortunate. Prior to establishing the business he so succeesfully carried on in St. Paul's Churchyard, Mr. Dakin had retired himself from business on a competent fortune, about three years since ; however, he married a second time, and upon doing so, re-embarked his capital

in trade. within an hour of the accident he was actually engaged in completing his patent for Scotland, at the Patent Journal office in Chancery-lane. Information of the melancholy occurrence was conveyed to Mrs. Dakin in the course of the afternoon, at Lewisham, by a friend of the deceased.-Morning Chronicle.

Belaroma

Court of Common Pleas 1849 Elizabeth Dakin V Brown & Munt

Coffee Roaster

Dakin's cafetiere

Coffee Maker