The age-herald., 1899-09-27
ELECTROCUrED 4 BRIDGE
From the Philadelphia Record.


 Mention was made a short time ago in the Record of a wideawake contractor who utilized an electric arc to cut through some heavy I-beams located in an awk- ward position, in a building on which he was making some alterations This feat has, however been entirely eclipsed by the work of an Indiana man who employed the heating power of an electric current to wreck a 7S5-foot bridge, without injury to the substructure.
 This exceedingly interesting feat, de- so7ibed in the Western Electrician, was ac- complished last month at Clinton, Ind. It appears that the bridge over the Wabash at this point was up to that time the only toll bridge in the state, and was owned by one man. It had become antiqualed, and the county authorities purchased it with the idea of erecting a steel bridge in it's place. using the same piers and approaches. Under the terms of the contract the owner of the bridge was 10 remove the superstrue- ture inside of thirty days, without injuring in any way the sustaining piers and ma sorry. This was apparently a very easy task, but after consultation with bridge builders house wreckers, riggers, engi- neers, and, in fact, evCry one who had a plan to suggest, the only practica plan evolved was to build a false work and take the bridge down plecemeal. To blow the bridge up with dynamite would probably injure the piers, and to burn it would like wise crack and injure the masonry. The thirty days elapsed, and no plan had been decided upon. An extension of the time for one week was granted. At this point young electrician living in Clinton came to the fore with a scheme to literally cut the bridge down with hot electric wires and this unique plan was finally successfully carried out with the greatest satisfaction, the operation requiring but ten hours.
 The bridge, which was built in 1853, con- sisted of three spans, with a 70-foot draw, and, as already mentioned, was 7S5 feet long. Each of these spans was composed of nine chords, consisting of three nine inch by nine-inch yellow poplar tmbers. It is perfectly evident therefore, that if each of these timbers was cut through simultaneously the span would drop into the river without injuring the piers. Cur rent was secured from a nearby generating plant and leading wires were run to the ldNlneSl SpdH IAdCIl Ol lilt lllIlDclS tO bC cut was next encirced with a heavy re- sistance wire and connections run to the main circuit The resistance of these wires was so proportioned that the passage of an electric current of definite strength would bring them to cherry red just on the same principle as an incandescent lamp filament is brought to nearly white --Aeat. To make the cutting, or more correctly, burn ing more positive, a five-pound sash weight was hung at the bottom of each loop. In exactly one hour and forty minutes after the application of the current each timber was cut through by the hot wires to point where the weight of the structure was sufficient to break the rest, and the span they supported tumbled into the river This operation was repeated with each span without a hitch or delay of any kind.
 An examination after the fall of the bridge showed how thoroughly the current had done it's work. Each timber was burned through to the same extent, name Ky, five inches deep on the top and three inches on the sides, the cut being com paratively clean, the wood not being charred for more than an inch on each side of the point of contact with the hot wire