Whelan v. United Zinc & Chemical Co.

Plaintiff was employed in defendant’s plant for the manufacture of nitric acid and other highly corrosive liquids. While drawing off the contents of a retort used in such manufacture, he received a severe and intensely painful injury to his sight caused by the heated and caustic liquid splashing into his eye. Alleging that it was the result of defendant’s negligence, he brought this suit to recover damages.

There were eight retorts, located at uniform distances, in a room sixty feet long, and all built into and behind a brick wall sixteen feet high, parallel to, and about eleven feet north of,…