St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-31
DEATH RIDES ONELECTRIC WIRES.

1t may strike you as odd, but the
fact exists that during the last two
years over 200 persons have been
killed by electric lighting wires.
There are two ways in which such
accidents are likely to happen with
fatal results. One is by taking hold
of two wires and completing the cir
cult. That is generally done by care
less or incompetent employees. Such
deaths are to a great extent unavOId
able and will always happen when
there is carelessness More deaths
come from the other method, which
is the result of persons touching a
high tension circuit upon which a
ground connection has already been
established. They simply get the
leakage, but that is in most cases
sufficient to cause death. The rem
edy for the danger in the case of the
arc light currents is very simple. AS
the wire must be grounded before it
is dangerous to life, an application
should be devised to shut off the cur
rent the instant the first grounding
occurred. Wires should be also in
sulated with waterproof material.
That is only question of expense.
In the high tension alternating cur
rent wires the strain upon the in
sulatiOn is so great that none will
hold 1t will leak in spite of all pre-
cautions. In Germany an alternat-
ing current wire was covered with
One-twelfth of an inch insulation and
placed in a lead pipe; yet some work
men were badly hurt by leakage
through the pipes.
The killing of the horse in this city
last week might have resulted in the
killing of anybody who touched him
if the animal had remained in con-
tact with the wire which caused his
death A man had been killed in that
way before. Two men were killed in
Jersey City short time ago by brok
en- wires from the same company's
poles. A high tension alterna ting
current wire, running near wood
work in a building, will be set on fire
by the slightest moisture. The board
of fire underwriters has not yet &C
cepted the wiring for alternating cur
rents in private houses.
When the new rules relating to the
wires are ready it will probably be
found that few houses are considered
safe. \ few days ago one of the large
poles on First avenue was set on fire,
and if it had not been put out would
have been extremely dangerous to
human life. The wires would have
fallen to the street and killed any one
they touched. On Sixth avenue, re-
Gently, 10 telephone and telegraph
wires fell to the sidewalk. ANY one
of them might have fallen across
an electric light wire and then there
would have been great danger to any
one passing. The day before a wire
fell in William street, near Fulton,
but fortunately it was taken away |
before any one was injured. Last |
week on Fifth avenue, near Thirtieth |
street, telephone wire fell on a
brush wire, but luckily no one touched
it This is the way things are going
on all the time, and the broken wires |
are not heard oftill somebody is killed.
Alternating currents are not al
lowed in Chicag go, and there the wires
are underground Deaths from cleo
trio light wires occur there, however,
and the greatest care is necessary to
keep the dangerous current under
control. The tendency to increase
the voltage of alternating currents is
and plant is being estab
ished in England where the voltage
will be tried at 10000 This is fear
fully dangerous, and radical legisla-
ton is needed to stop it Joe How
ards n y. letter in Boston Globe.