, 1890-08-02
Fire iHD New York.
"a. Y. Herald

destroyer OF property WAS DEMONSTRATED
yesterday III the partial destruction by ire
OF the Western Union building, at Broad.
way and Dey street.
Lives OF human beings were imperilled.
and had it not been for the excellent dis.
cipiine Of the Fire Department would have
been lost. A vast deal of Inconvenience to-
business men was accustomed this CITY
to- nearly eight hours was cut off from tele-
graphic communications with the country,
and the lines to the south were not per.
fected until late last night. There were
many valuable records destroyed and 10
considerable amour of property was ruin.
ed. Yet there is scarcely any way in which
the exact responsibility for the disaster
can be placed.
It is simply known that somewhere im
this city an electric arc light wire, imprO.
perly insulated, crossed a Western Union
wire and caused the latter to ignite the
paraf1ne Insulation of the wires in the bat
terry room Of the main telegraph Office Of
the country. That is all. The corporation
will have to- pay it's bills and restore its
property and the country recover the de.
lays it has experienced and individuals get
better of their shattered nerves, but the
overhead arc light wire may go meFrily
on in it's deadly career.
James LarriSsey, Familiarity known as
Professor" and his assistant, james
Ryan, we're sitting in the great battery.
room OH the sixth floor Of the Western
Union Building about seven o'clock, MAX
ing up their plans as to what sections of
the "crOwfoOt" batteries Ieeded attention
for the work of the hay. They had already
seen that the wires which covered the cell.
ling like thousands of cobw4bs were ia
good order, they had tested those DISTRIBUTE
ing cables which drew their plwer from
the dynaInoS in TIE cellar, and they were
confident that, so far ~ they were concern.
Ell, the work of providing the Whole conn.
try with newsstand With private intelligence
OF the most Important and delicate charac-
ter was nearly completed.
1t WAS their Custom, particularly that Of
the Professor, to make this very careful
tour once In the morning aud once at night.
Before tire introduction of dynamOS for the
purpose of generating the electric current
their task was a much more complicated
one, but now there are not more than two
hundred of the big ~crowfoot batteries neces-
sary to furnish the additional electric sup.
ply which is needle d for :hiS district. The
professor" had just finished II story OF
some Improvements thlt Ire proposed max
lug in tue Stringipg OF the ptrticuIar lines,
when there was a queer swapping and sput-
tering sound behind him. He turned
quickly and saw u thin, excee dinghy bril-
liant, blue fame dart alOWg one Of the
main distribat ng cabl es which ran into the
pipe, carrying it to the operating room di.
reetly above.
It needed no one to- tell him what it meant.
Rapidly as the spark itself moved he turn.
ed around and acknowledgement, the ex-
tinguishers r. Ryan who had also seen the
darling fame, had already gone to a rack
on the West side Of the room, where there
were a dozen OF more hand grenades, and
had rushed to the wooden pipe through
which the distributing cable r'n. Sharing
his armful with she "Professor" TREY both
began showerlng the ~grenades at the wood
Ell Enclosure wtrerrce the wires ram. But
the spark had dOne it's work as far as
igniGing the yellow pine was concerned. 1t
seemed to- them to he AN exceedingly sim
pie matter to ~extinguish the little fame
which ran almost coquettislly Hp the sur
face of the plauking. Neither OF the men
believed for an instant that the spark which
had startled both of them was, more than -
mere local disorder of the line. But whilethe
little fame was playing to aud trO upon the
surface, there was danger which might
mean death and did mean dlsas or Within
the box.
That spark meant that somewhere lsfth@
vast stretch of Geographic wires which
reaclred TO the limits OF the city an eiectrfO
..u IT. H. l.Al ono.Nl oaN1 Al fkA0r asanfA.