The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-11
GOSSIP OF THE TOWN.
>OOO9090NWH~H~W0oG0OO

The dignity of the supreme court re-
ceived an unintentional a1front the other
evening Chief Justice Zane was sitting
| in the Knutsford when Corbett came in
and was introduced to all the notables
present, including his honor With the
utmost sang froid, Corbett invited the
/ chief justice to take a drink, but the in
vitation was good naturedly Geclned. As
/ judges go, the slugger may not have vio-
! lated the proprieties, but the spectacle
of the staid dignified and irreproachable
/ chief justice of Utah touching glasses
over a bar with the champion prize
fighter would have shocked the whole
community.
Yesterday morning about 1890 o'clock a
large water main on Second South street
between Fifth and Sixth West burst.
mis- IS by no means an uncommon &C.
curreuce. but in this particular instance
there was something out of the ordinary
causing the break. In short, the burst
ing of the main was due to electrolysis.
To those not versed in electrical terms
it may be explained that the water pipe
had been burnt out through contact
with an electrical current.
s. g g
Some two years ago a length of water
main was damaged in a similar manner
and not 100 feet from the place where the
break occurred yesterday. Electric cars
pass on the ground above and although
no wires have been found. it is believed
the current is communicated to the pipes
through defective wiring of the street
car tracks.
The matter is of no mean importance.
Should the current gain passage to one of
the large mains, causing II to burst, the
damage might be considerable. In many
of the eastern cities. experiences of this
a grave subject for consideration by cleo
trical experts. All agree that this
passage of current to the pipes is not the
occasion of damage where it occurs. but
nj he icif ~ xxrbi iC NV
the pipes in such localities must pass
along the pipes to otner places, where it
will leave them and where il will pro-
duce an amount of damage proportional
to the volume and the concentration with
which ii flows. The places where the ac-
cumulated current in such cases leaves
the pipes are generally in the vicinity of
power stations. since there the short and
heavy negative feed wires from the rails
to the generator tend to lower the po-
tential of the rails below that of the
neighboring pipes. 1t is. then. briefly
stated. the general rule that electricity
is flowing to the water pipes from the
rails in portions of the city remote from
power stations. and in passing along the
pipes toward the respective power sta
lions, the electricity which has been
gathered flows from the pipes through
the earth to the rails and other return
paths TO the generators.
One peculiar feature about this is that
the pipe, though made of cast iron. be-
comes brittle after a continual passage of
current through it, and is in general APP
pearance not unlike coke. Superintendent
Wallace had bits of the broken main at
his office yesterday. 1t was so soft
knife could slice it as though it were a
piece of cheese.
o 8 @
The break of this pipe did not occasion
any great damage except to flood the
street.
Miss Lansing Rowan of the Frawley
company is the young woman who gained
ing Champion Corbett to sparring
match. Her advent in the city the day
following his departure is loaded with
some coincidence. In the Frawley COM
pany it was asserted that Oorbett was
trying to dodge the athletic actress.