Connecticut western news., 1888-01-04
Electricity that Kills.
From the N. Y. Sun.]

Electric light experts read despatch telling of the instant killing of James O'Connell, a stage manager in Clncln- nati, by shock from an electric current | that in some way became communicated | to the bell wire that he pulled to ring | down the curtain. They were asked if there was not some way by which such accidents could be prevented. One of the managers of one of the arc lamp sys- tems used in the lighting of the streets | of New York said that the only precau- | tion that could be taken against acci- dent was to properly insulate the wires Insulation made them absolutely harm
 less, even If charged with the highest | electric power. He said that the death of O'Connell was certainly due to care l lessness on the part of somebody in not having the wires from which the current was conveyed to the bell wire properly guarded with insulation.
 "It is 6 singular thing," he added, "that accidents of this sort usually hap pen to men who are more or less familiar with electricity. They get so used to manipulating the apparatus that they sometimes become careless, just as the brakeman who regularly jumps on @ 
 and suffers the inevitable consequences. Pooling with electricity is like fooling with red-hot iron. Nobody but an idiot would think of handling heated iron without proper implements, and nobody should handle exposed electric wires without rubber gloves, or allow any de- feet in insulation to go unrepaired 8 moment. The accidents that happen are all to be traced to carelessness, either in neglecting repairs or in handling the exposed charged wire.
 "We reduce danger to the minimu m by insulating all our wires that run in doors with rubber, and by hanging the wires that run through the streets, and which are insulated with material made chiefly to resist the effects of the wealth CT, away up in the air where people can't readily get at them. That is all the safeguard that is possible to throw about this wonderful secret force of na- trre. With such safeguards we can run as much as 2,000 volts of electricity along wire safely. When some of the electric supply is desired to light a building along the route of the street lights shunt or guard box is placed at the entrance of the building, and sep. arate supply wires are run from the in- side. Then only as much electricity as is wanted to light the building goes 1 into 1t, and the rest is diverted by the shunt and carried back to and along the street lines. As an average only 200 volts of electricity is carried on the street wires, and very few buildings re- quire so many lamps that the current sent to supply the lamps is really dan gerous, even if the insulation of the wi1es were imperfect"
 A representative of the incandescent system of electric lighting said that great danger to life and limb was neces- sarily incidental to the oper ,tion of the present systems of electric lighting. In sulation was at best but very uncer- tain safeguard where from 1,2O0 to 2,- 900 volts were sent into the wires. The incandescent light man said that he didn't say this in any carping spirit of | jealousy, but because 1t was 8 fact. It was also a fact that there wasn't any danger about the operation of the in candescent system, for the simple req
 son that no such deadly thigh poten- tial'' or power was ever transmitted ill the incandescent system. The highest used was 22O volts, and the shock from that, even when an exposed wire was touched, was less than could be admin | istered by a common medical battery.