Twenty-three-year-old Noah Webster Smith was painting the ceiling of a Greenville power house when an ordinary afternoon’s work ended in tragedy in 1924.
Smith was standing on scaffolding eighteen feet above the concrete floor, working dangerously close to a 2,300-volt power line. Without warning, he plunged from the platform and suffered fatal injuries. He died while being carried to a local hospital.
Investigators could not determine whether the young painter simply lost his balance or received an electrical shock that sent him falling to the floor below.
Young Painter Dies
GREENVILLE, South Carolina. — Noah Webster Smith, 23, painter, died while being carried to a local hospital after he had fallen to the concrete floor of a utilities company power house about 3:30 this afternoon from an 18-foot scaffolding.
The man was painting the ceiling of the power house at the time of the accident.
It is not known whether he lost his balance or fell when shocked by a 2,300 volt power line next to which he was working.
Source: The Watchman and Southron. Sumter, S.C. August 2, 1924.
