The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-08-23
NOT A GOOD NElGHBoR.
Telegraph and Telephone Lines suheT
from the Trolley.

from the iIOht9'
1t now appears that the trolley system OF
transit in use in the cities of this country
is not only constant menace to life and
limb, but that it has the additional unhap-
Ply faculty of annoying its neighbors OF the
electrical kind to very serious extent.
Telegraph and telephone companies,
wherever their wires are near the wires OF a
trolley road, have been sufferers from the
proximity, in that the facilities for commu-
pication between different points have been
interfered with materially.
The trouble arises from the use by the
trolley companies of heavily charged cleo
trical circuits and from the use also OF the
earth for the return circuits The earth is
also used by telegraph companies and to
some extent by telephone companies,
though the telephone people in the larger
cities are establishing the more expensive,
but more efficient, metallic circuits-that
IS, making the complete circuit by means
of two wires instead of by one wire and the
earth-as rapidly us possible
1t has been found that where the lines OF
telephone and telegraph companies are III
the vicinity of trolley lines their satistac
tory operation has been prevented by in
duction through the earth from the latter.
The effect of this induction may be more
clearly illustrated by giving the results OF
experiments made by Mr. NJ Nj. Davis, one
of the electricians of the Postal Telegraph
and Cable company, in Harrisburg, where
there is trolley line. 1t was found that
the ground between Harrisburg and Car
Isle, which are eighteen miles apart, with
the Susquehanna river between them, was
so thoroughly charged with electricity from
the return circuits through the earth of the
trolley lines in Harrisburg that it was pos
sble to operate wire between the two
cities without any battery.
The Atlantic cable of the Commercial
Gable company is brought to the Broad
street Office of the company in this city by
means of an underground line across Long
Island The line runs near the South
Brooklyn trolley line. The cable opera
tors noticed soon after the trolley road be
gan operations that their wires worked
badly. The current would first be very
strong and then very light. An investiga
ton showed that the trouble was caused by
the trolley lines
The electrician of the cable company said
yesterday that he had found II satisfactory
remedy for the interference He preferred
not to say what it was, however
One of the Western Union cables, which
also crosses Long Island, has been affected
in the same way, and both the Western
Union and the postal companies have felt
bad effects in every city in the country
where there are trolley lines
1t is also declared that the influences of
these heavy earth circuits upon systems of
pipes are bad In IL western town it is re
ported that lead pipe running from awell
to n house was out of condition, and that
when it was dug up it's appearance indi-
Gated that it had been subjected to an cleo
trio current powerful enough to corrode it,
The current unquestionably came from the
return circuit through the earth of II trolley
road system in the vicinity, and it was sug
gested that if this effect was common it
might result not only in destroying lead
water pipes, but would also produce lead
poisoning.
Electricians do not regard the danger
from this source as very serious, however
But that gas and water pipes may become
charged with electricity by this means
there seems to he no doubt, York
Times.