The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-07-21
WHAT THE EFFECT?
The Electric Case Continued in
the Third District Court.
THE DEFENSE GETS IN IT'S WORK.
Some Very Good Reading for Those Interested
in the Freaks of Electricity Adjourned
Until Monday.

III the Freaks of Electricity-AdjOur
Until Monday.
The case of the telephone company VS..
the street car company was again resumed
on the opening of the court yesterday
morning.
c. D. VALE
was the first witness of the telephone com
pany, and testified that in his opinion the
telephone service would be interfered with e;
if the wires were to touch the instruments
would be burned out.
To Mr.. Rawlins-I think a 500-volt, cur
rent would not kill, but would produce an
unpleasant shock; l think there would be
danger to our linemen from the street car
feed wire; to get any shock he would have
to touch two wires to complete the circuit;
l know of no accident of the kind; the
Denver road complained of had an electric
current of 5000 volts; in that case it was
an underground wire; that is different to
the system here; we remedied the interfer
ence with the telephone wire by putting up
return wires; we had no false calls | am
not AN electrician, but am acquainted with
the practical working of the telephone
system; in stringing wire, and passing it
over thel bracket holding the street car
feed wire, there would be danger to the
employees: our men use rubber gloves, but
would not trust any inSLl ltion.
The af1idaVits from Denver, offered Fri
day evening, were admitted in evidence.
These affidaYits recited instances where
electric light and electric cable wires had
caused annoyance to the telephone sys-
tens. The reading of these affidavits took
up most of the morning sessions.
c. P ANNETT,
manager of the telephone company, testi-
fed that he had been associated with cleo
trio systems over twenty-five years; had
been telegraph operator till six years
ago; our service here is more satisfactory
than in most eastern cities: we have inter
ference from telegraph lines where they
parallel ours any distance.
To Mr.. Rawlins-When on the Union
Pacific, when we had $50 to 400 volts, one
wire interfered with the other about 1-l6
of the time where they were parallel for
several hundred miles.
Two articles in the Electrical RcrTelU were
introduced in evidence and the plaintiff
rested.
THE DEFENSE
opened by introducing its grant of fran
chise by the city, the amendments thereto,
and the articles of association.
F.P LEWIS
Was called and testified that he was the
electrical engineer of the Sprague com
pany, and had received class instructions
in electricity, and had been engaged in the
experimental department OF the Sprague
company for eighteen months, since which
time he had been out on the road establish
ing car lines for that company: The first
line put in at Richmond was in 1887, and
consisted of sixteen miles of track and fifty
cars, since which time forty more cars have
been ordered, and the track extended
eighteen miles. Originally they put in a
return wire, which was afterward aban-
dOned as useless, and ground used in
stead At the time the system was first
put in, l presume there was at least five
times as much loss as at present, it now
not being over two per cent. The system
has gradually been perfected and think
that now no improvements of Importance
will be made for at least ten years.
In Boston there are twelve miles of
double track of the Sprague system
and sixteen of the Thomson Houston
When / left New York there We're fifty
four roads including those in operation and
those for which material had been ordered.
Since the Sprague system has been intro
duced, they have not made single failure
lHC BY SltIl 10 Ue COnS III UDlS CIV
will consist, at first, of seven and one-half
miles of track which will be operated by
No. 80 Edison dynamo, and the current is
to be carried by a feeder, consisting of
thoroughly insulated No. soft copper
wire. The covering is made of hemp
string, shelac and asphaltum, which con
stitute the best insulation known. This
feeder runs parallel with the trolley wire
and taps il every 600 feet. this is done so
that if the line should break it would not
be dead along the entire length. The cur
rent passes from the trolley wire through
the car and to the rails and ground. The
maximum voltage of the line will be 500,
while at distance of from one
to one and half miles it will be 400
or $50 volts. The trolley wire is con
stantly charged, being connected with the
feeder. The install the car reaches point
where the connection is broken on the rail,
it produces flash and the Car jerks as
though it had struck snag. There is no
DANCE from the rails or wire as l have re
Ceived shocks from it more than one hun
dred times and think ID man could not be
killed by it, of course it would shake him
up considerably. The current is in the
rail only when the car is directly over it.
In order to test tine injurious effects it
would have to persons and stock crossing
the track, l applied a saloonometer which
showed no indication of electricity and
afterwards put my tongue to the rail and
felt no sensation. In New York there is
one car running by the storage battery
system, but as this requires a central office
in every car and an experienced cleo
trician to run it, besides adding $4,000 to
the cost of each Car, it will not
become popular, at least not. until
some important inventions have been
made in storage batteries. The double
trolley or metallic circuit was the first
system we tried. but it has never been sue
cessfully operated. One of their kind is in
operation in Pittsburg, but We now have
contract to replace it with the Sprague
system. From my knowledge, and from
the fact that the Sprague system has
nearly the double number of lines IN opera
ton of any other company, and starting
after them, think we have the most per-
feet system in eXistance. The Thompson
Houston system is similar to ours, and
there are now several cases in court con-
testing the rights of the two companies,