The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-07-20
ELECTRIC TROUBLES.
The Telephone Company Against
the Street Railway.
WHAT THE FORMER DESIRES.
The Alleged Injuries the Telephone Company
Viii Sustain if the Road is Bailt-
The Case Still On.


Telephone company VS.. the Salt Lake City
Street Railway company commenced before
Judge Zane yesterday, in the Third Dis
trict court.
The Gction was brought to caCse the de-
PENDANT to show why order should not be
issued restraining it from erecting along or
upon South Temple street, First South or
Second West streets any wire conductor or
cables parallel with, approaching or cross
ing the telegraph wires of the plaintiff, and
also from operating any such conductor or
cable by electro motor power or in any
such manner as will interfere with, by in
duction or leakage, or in any manner, the
ordinary operations of the telephone wires
or business.
The railway company replies that it is
authorized by its articles of association and
grant to use electricity; that their wires
are properly insulated so that no injury is
possible to users of the telephone; that
there will be no interference whatever by
induction from the street car wire, even
though it were placed ut much less dis
lance than it is at present; and in fact that
there is no ground whatever for the COM
plant of the telephone company.
The first witness called by MIR. Williams,
attorney for the telephone company, was
ROBERT n. JONES,
who is constructing the electrical works for
the street railway. He testified that the
line on First South street was constructed.
The wires are suspended on insulatOrs, on
poles twenty-five feet high. The trolley
wire was on the ends of the cross beams,
two and a half feet below the feed wire
Connections were made with the trolley
wire at intervals of about seven hundred
and eighty feet. The electric current
passes through the motor on the car to the
rails, which are bonded by No. copper
wire and conveys the current back to the
station, to the negative dynamo Both rails
are bonded together and constitute the
conductor for The return current of cleo
uricity. The feed wire or overhead cable
is connected with the ncstive dynamo,
while the rail, bringing the return current,
is connected with the negative dy-
namo There is no insulation from the
rail into the ground. The feed wire is in
sulated with rubber insulatOrS, and is less
than three-eights of an inch, without the
insulation. The trolley wire is one fourth
% an inch. The feed wire is entirely Gov
cred, to guard against contact with other
wires or materials. The feed wire is not
left bare in any place; its covering is part
of its manufacture. and increases its di-
ameter to three Fights of an inch. There
is a grounding of the electric current by
metallic plates at the ends of the rails,
reaching down to point of moisture in the
earth. The current is also grounded at the
electric house, near the dynamos.
To Mr.. RaWlins-The feed wire carries
from 400 to $50 volts; the volt is the stand
ard Of electric power; the electic current,
or system, here ranges from l,500 to 1000
volts; the incandescent system is still
higher
To Judge Zane-The electricity is com
municateu from the dynamo to the feed
wire, then to the trolley wire. then to the
motor in the car, and through the rails back
20 the other side of the dynamo. If a child
steps on the rail there is no effect, as there
Is out one current Of electricity. There
must be connection of the two currents
TO have any effect whatever.
d. $. MURRAY
testified that he was manager Of the Rocky
Mountain Bell Telephone company in Salt
Lake; most OF the wires are on First South
street; we have +67 subscribers; the wires
on the street railroad poles are directly IN
der the telephone wires; the feed wire is
six feet three inches under our lower wires,
outside of the fire limits inside of those
limits the distance is greater. In two wires
running parallel, the current of one is car
ried to the other by sympathy of induction;
the current on telephone wire is very
small, from one-half to two volts from the
proximity of the railroad cable or feed line,
the telephone would be interfered with, by
a humming noise, and when the car was
close to where the instrument was being
used there would be rafting noise. The
return current would also be likely to go
over the telephone wire in sufficient force
to ring the bell or burn out an annunciator
drop.
To Mr. ADMINISTRATION would be no
greater under our wires than alongside. In
the outer part of town we do not conform
TO the city ordinance requiring telephone
wires to be not less than thirty feet from
the ground. If we had cOnformed to the
ordinance our wires would be ten feet from
the railroad feed wire. Insulation does not
change the effect of induction.
] think the proximity of the feed wire |
would render our instruments valueless. |
Near your Office are three electric light |
wires carrying from fifteen hundred to |
two, thousand volts each, within two feet |
of the telephone wire; they are at right !
angles, therefore there is no appreciate |
induction, but if they were parallel the |
electric light current would be worse than !
that from the railroad feed wire. l cannot
SAY how much. Some of the electric light
wires run parallel and within six feet of
oar wires for a short distance, and do not |
interfere with us Induction is felt less as
the distance increases. The witness was
further examined as to his technical
knowledge of the science of electricity, |
taking up the time till the middle of the
afternoon. Many of the questions asked |
he was unable to answer.
A. A. MoULToN
was called TO the stand and testified that |
he was connected with the United Electric |
company of this city and was well versed |
in the science of electricity, having been
engaged in the business for the past eight
years, three years Of which We're spent in
the experimental station of Thomson,
Houston & Company, of Boston, where a
system of street motors is manufactured.
and from his knowledge of telephones he
said the Sprague motor system would very
materially interfere with the workings of
the telephone There is a system of cleo
trio cars which uses storage batteries placed
in every car, each car carrying its own
electricity and from which there will be no
leakage. The wires of the electric railroad
and telephone will parallel each other for
distance of three miles or more, and the
chief difficulty will arise from leakage
There will also be considerable diff
ficulty experienced from induction.
He stated an instance where telephone
lines had been placed parallel for three
miles, one wire being on poles and the other
under ground, when conversation carried
on over one wire could be distinctly heard
over the other 1t is very often the case
that telegraph lines parallel telephone lines,
in which case an operator can distinctly
read a message going over the telegraph
wires while listening at the telephone. As
the rails and earth are used to form re
turn circuit in the Sprague system, the
electricity would readily be carried away
by the earth if the resistance of the earth
was low. To make the current more per