Iron County register., 1889-08-08
ELECTRICAL DANGERS.
A Warning from One Who Is an AuthOrit
on tho Subject.

Warning from One Who Is an Authority
on the Subje ect.
One of the most interesting and
1aluable papers read during the re-
cent International Congress of Med
tcal Jurisprudence was one by the we'll
known expert Harold p. Brown, on the
dangers of electrical distribution. Mr..
Brown says that the list of deaths from
electric lighting numbers. though in
complete, over 200 in the past few
years, yet it must be borne in mind
that not one street in hundred Or
one building in a thousand is as yet
lighted by electricity. and more than
half the house-lighting now done is
the work of the continuous current
used at a pressure that can not possi-
bly, prove fatal. Dangerous electrical
systems are being rapidly installed in
all parts of the country, and in the
interest of human life and health
prompt action is imperatively de-
manded.
This warning. from one who is an
authority on the subject of which he
treats, is one that can not lightly be
passed over. It should be heard and
needed.
The remedy for electrical dangers is
not to be found in an indiscriminate
burial of the wires. Mr.. Brown says
that "burying the wires is no protec-
ton unless you bury with them lights
and motors. Chicago has never had
overhead electric-light wires, and yet
at least six men have been killed in
that city by electricity. The wires OF
the telephone. telegraph, messenger
service, fire or burglar alarm, ETC.,
while harmless in themselves either
above or below the surface. may be
made death-dealing by the presence OF
"a dangerous system of electric light or
power. If corporations are permitted.
as at present, to enmesh our cities
with wires carrying death-dealing cur.
rents-currents which can escape and
produce death through any known in
sulation-it will cause the adoption oi
laws hampering, if not destroying, all
electrical industries.''
The remedy, according to MIR.
Brown, and according to most other
experts, lies in restricting the use oi
dangerous currents. 1t is now well
established that continuous current,
which flows steadily in one direction.
is. in itself, perfectly safe, at least uI
to a pressure of 1,4OO to 1.500 volts:
that devices already suggested would
make its use reasonably safe in light anC
power systems up to 5000 volts; that
an interrupted or pulsating current is
dangerous, and that an alternating cur.
rent, know by physicians as "voltait
alternatives, whose impulses are rap.
idly reversed in direction, is deadly
a very low pressure.
This being the case. electrical ex
perts favor legislation prohibiting the
use of alternating or pulsating currents
except under certain well-defned re-
strictiOns. The safe continuous cur.
rent should be used whenever posi-
BILE. and when the use of the other anG
unsafe kinds is necessary, the dangers
they bring should be guarded against
by system of rigid inspection.
These suggestions, coming from such
a source, are especially valuable, and
should be studied by all our law-mak-
ers. 1t will undoubtedly soon become
necessary to legislate in reference to
the use of electricity; and the legisla-
ton that is enacted should be based on
as thorough an understanding as possi.
BILE of the scientific facts in the case.-
n. 7. Herald.