Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-09-24


overhead-wire nuisance and the substitution OF
an underground electric system might have been
spared Washington by the oriefest study OF Chi
Cages example. There Is q city whose climate Is
Infinitely more diricult 70 deal with than ours,
and yet the underground system works so well
that none OF the electric companies would be will
ing TO restore its poles, with their never-ceasing
repairs and their constant menace to human life.
The first experiment was the result OF an effort OF
the city 70 run poles for its nre-alarm wires
through q fashionable district The Inhabitants
rose In protest. and. as they could not night the
case, subscribed q fund for putting the wires IN
derground This change was found so excellent
that the IRE department raised a clamor for the
burying Of all wires as the overhead system often
presented a fatal obstruction TO its operations.
Not however, until a hotel burned In mid-winter,
and several lives were lost because the water froze
on the wires and made barrier across which no ef-
fective work could be DONE did the common council
become alarmed. When IL did 1t ordered all wires
In the business district 70 be put beneath the sur
face within six months, and the mayor showed so
much determination about enforcing this COM
mand that the companies attacked their task with
spirit. The methods employed were various. The
electric ligh: people dug a ditch In the middle Of
the streets and put in asphatum blocks drilled for
the passage OF cables through them. The tele-
graph and telephone people dug q trench about a
foot deep, close 10 the curbstone, and laid In IL
three-inch iron pipes filled with gutta percha In
sulated wires. They could lay a mile or two
OF these pipes In night so that the regular city
trafic was little disturbed Now, some of them
use sewer pipe, and others wooden boxes but all
with the same effiect; and all that Is necessary
when the wires Of one set are exhausted, Is 10
open the trench and put In another line OF pipe
nlled like the first. There Is no tearing up Of
streets or biockading or business, but 5000 miles
OF wire thus laid. are in successful operation To-
day, and several more miles Will be added
shortly. The public mind hereabout has been so
confused with the technical talk about currents
and cut-ons, and conductors and insulators, which
10 plain people Is an unintellgible Jargon that IL
has generally been supposed that some insur-
mountaole obstacle stood in the way OF the pro-
posed change. II Is obvious from Chicago's case
that this is needlessly fearful view. John p.
Barrett, an electrician connected with that citys
government, solves the whole underground wire
problem by the same quiet but effective process
that Horace Greeley suggested for the resumption
of specie payments after the panic OF 1857,
''rhe way to put wires underground" he says ais
TO put them underground" Anything that will
insulate wire will do for a conduit; and IL stands
10 reason that the common insulators made of
Cloth and grease, which, exposed overhead TO the
action OF the weather soon wear out and become
not only useless. but positively dangerous, would
last for long time under protection. The folly
therefore. OF complaining at the dif1culty OF
underground insulation while regarding overhead
Insulation with complacency, Is one OF those In
eonsistencies which can be explained only on the
superstition that a dollar spent on permanent
plant looks bigger 70 the eyes OF a money making
corporation, when dividend-day comes around
tnan one hundred cents spent In patchwork.