Capt. John Fidlar (-1930)

FIDLAR, KING

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 9/7/2008 at 23:02:29

AMES DAILY TRIBUNE-TIMES, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1930.

Former Local Man Is Killed

Capt. John Fidlar Victim of Blast in Army Laboratory

DOVER, N. J. (U.P.) - An army captain and two civilian chemists were dead today, victims of an explosion in a building on the Picatinny army reservation near here, where they were conducting experiments with smokeless powder.

The dead: Captain John B. Fidlar, 38; Stephen D. Deevy and Frank Stevenson, Jr.

Three others were slightly injured.

The three victims were in charge of the experiment, which consisted of forcing a large brick of smokeless powder thru a pressing machine so that it emerged in thin cylinders about the size of spaghetti. Hardly had the operation begun when the powder in the machine exploded. Fragments of metal were hurled in all directions. This "shrapnel" is is said, killed three men.

Captain Fidlar, who served in the field artillery corps during the World war, was born in Iowa and was a graduate of Iowa State college, at Ames. Ia.

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Captain Fidlar was the husband of the former Miss Helen King, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. King of Ames. Mr. and Mrs. King left for Washington, D. C. Friday night. They will arrive in Washington Sunday morning. Funeral services will be held at Washington with burial at Arlington cemetery.

Mr. Fidlar was an expert on explosives and invented the present flashless and smokeless powder used by the army. He was a member of the Theta Xi fraternity while at Iowa State College.