Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-27
KILLED BY A WIRE
Lineman McKnse Meets With Instant
Death.
An Unprotected Supply Wire -
Tragedy ON the Roof Of q
Power House.

Last evening shortly after @ o'clock John
7. Mcknee. a lneman in the employ of the
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Com
pany, was instantly killed by coming into
contact with live wire Of very heavy
voltage.
McKnee and other workmen had been at
work all day on the roof Of the power
house Of the Potomac Light and Power
Company. formerly Dents foundry, at
the corner of SD and K streets. repairing
electric light wires and substituting new
wires for others that were more or less
worn. They stopped about O'Clock, a few
minutes before the current was to be turned
on which supplies the series of arc lights in
Georgetown. McKnees fellow workmen
had left by way of ladder extending to
the roof, but Mcknee, with the remark that
he had left enc of his TOOLS turned back
toward the summit of the roof, which slopes
down in both directions.
Just how the accident occurred is not GER
tain, for there were only a few witnesses
and they were some distance away. Ac-
cord.ng to their stories McKnee was stand
ing at the highest point of the roof when he
seemed to lose his balance. In falling he
either grasped or accidentally came in con-
tact with the wire Instantly there was q
blaze and flash Of Light. Mckee fell over
PROSTATE and death was Instantaneous. The
wire ordinarily carries a current of 200
volts 1t was formerly insulated, but con-
tact with the roof had worn away the gutta
percha and the wire was quite bare at the
point where the unfortunate man grasped
it.
At first the bystanders who were attracted
by the scene were unwilling to take the
chance of meeting the same fate by going
on to the roof, but finally two men, William
R. Ulrich and William Payne climbed the
ladder and cautiously approached the body
Finding that they could safely do so, they
n ~ ha hn@N- to q hn ala
and carefully lowered it to the ground below
Efforts to resuscitate him proved frutless,
and from the peaceful look on the dead
mans face 1t is probable that he suffered
not the slightest. The body was taken to
the seventh precinct station house. Later
word was received from the telephone COM
pany to turn 1T over to Lees undertaking
establishment. The fingers of the right
hand were burned completely through, and
On one foot there were signs of the deadly
work of the current. The coroner was noti-
fled and decided to make an investigation
today which would show whether an in
quest was necessary.
Mcknee lived at 1881 Huntoon place south
west. He was thirty-five years old. mar
ried and leaves wife and three children
the youngest a baby girl one year old His
widowed sister. Mrs. Crown, and her four
children, also lived with him.
Mcknee was considered one Of the best
men employed by the telephone company
the officers of which are today making an
investigation Of the tragedy. Treasurer
Beebe said to Star reporter today that
the investigation, while not completed vet,
showed that the unfortunate man was evil
IDENTIFY engaged upon some outside job when
he met his death. His work for the tele-
phone company was over for the day, and
so far as the telephone people knew he had
gone home. There was no work for that
company that would have taken him up to
| the top of the Potomac companys building.
and the presumption is that he was en-
gagged in stringing wire for some outside
a oYnn in
deadly wire. The latter belonged to the
electric light company and was evidently a
supply wire. judging by the great voltage it
carried.