Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-02-16
ELECTRIC LIGHTING.
Dangers of the System---Regulating
the Use of the Wires.

the Use of the Wires.
New York Herald.
The New York board of fire under
writers has been devoting much time
and attention to the investigation of
the electric light, with view of ascer-
tanning the precise extent of the danger
from fire resulting from its use and
the best precautions to be adopted
Electricity for the purposes of illumina-
ton, which has come into vogue SO
rapidly, is not thoroughly understood
by fire underwriters. The burning of
the Randolph mills, in Philadelphia,
where so many lives were lost, and sew
eral other less disastrous fires, which
are known to have originated in the
electric-light wires, have induced the
fire underwriters, for their own protec-
tion, to investigate the dangers attend
ing the use of the electric light. A
special committee was appointed for
this purpose some months ago by the
New York board of fire underwriters.
An interesting paper prepared by Mr..
Anderson, president of the Mercantile
Fire Insurance company, and amember
of this committee, was recently publish
ed by the Herald. Since then the COM
mittee's discoveries have induced them
to make a number of additional recon-
mendations, which have just been
adopted and promulgated by the New
York board of underwriters.
The capacity of conducting wires has
been considered, and for arc lights it
has been stipulated that the conductor
must have weight per running foot
at least equal to that of the wires, con-
stituting the main circuit of the mag
netic regulator of the electric lamps, or
of the armature of the machine en-
ployed, whichever of these is the larg-
est.
For incandescent lights the conduct
ing wires must be large enough never to
grow unpleasantly warm to the touch
In no case must electric wires be con-
nected with the earth or with gas or
water-pipes running to the earth. Ex-
posed wires must be covered with two
coatings, and where there is exposure
to water one of these coatings must be
waterproof. At the point where elec-
trio wires enter building switch or
''cut" out must be provided, so that in
case of fire there will be NO danger to
firemen. The outgoing and returning
wires for arc lights should enter and
leave building at points at least one
foot f1om each other. In running
along walls or ceilings, the wires
of an arc lamp should not be nearer
than eight inches from each other; for
incandescept lights two and a half
inches DISTANCE is sufficient. Wher-
ever wires are carried through walls,
floors, or partitions in buildings they
must be surrounded by a special in
sulating tube of substantial material.
ARC lights must be protected by glass
globes, inclosed at the bottom to pre-
vent the fall of ignited particles, and
where inflammable materials are pres
ent below the lamps a wire netting
must be added to keep the parts of the
globe in place in case of its fracture
during use. Whenever a current of
such high electro-motive force is EN-.
plOyed that, if concentrated on one
lamp of the series, it would produce an
arc capable of destroying or fusing
parts of such lamp, an automatic
switch must be introduced in each
lamp, by which it will be thrown out
of circuit before the current approaches
any dangerous intensity.