The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-11-05

w holder when a telephone dis
| charges electricity from cross
ed wire?
in such way as to threaten ones
home with fire?
| Live wires sputtering about the side
walks, menacing the lives of all foot
passengers, twisting upon the roadways,
endangering the people passing in vehi-
cles, promise to be even more in evil
dence during these winter months than
during the. season passing, if the ideas
of the managers of the electric com
panies are correct, as the winds and
rains will bring tree boughs down upon
the electric light wires and form arcs
which will burn the wires and permit
the living ends to fall to the ground.
| Owing to the crossing of so many
telephone wires and lighting wires, the
| high current of the latter is often COM
Imunicated to the former and the result
/ is not only burned out instruments, but
| as well often serious frights to the peo-
pie and in some cases danger of fire
where the telephones are placed close
to dry wooden partitions. In addition
to the scare the danger makes it neces-
sary that every one should know at
least what may be done quickly for the
protection of the house, in so far as
one who has not appliances to handle
live wires may act.
"Our telephones have ample protec-
tion from a crossing with a light cur
rent" said j. H. Corcoran, superin-
tendent of the telephone company, last
evening. wye have fuses in each IN
strument and at the cable heads, as
well as upon our switch boards. The
fuse which is in the Instrument WIZ
blow up at seven tenths of an ampere'
which Is a very low current indeed
In case however there is an arclng
caused by the contact of the wires
above the instrument, an easy and safe
way is to simply take hatchet' WIN
dry handle, and cut the wires ABOVE
| the point where the contact is formed
Ordinarily there win be no need OF
this. but in isolated cases there may
como a time when the wires lose their
Insulation and touch so as to form an
arc There would be no danger TO one
so cutting a wire unless there was
contact with the metal which toucheS
tho wire. OF course one must not use
iron or steel pliers, or pair of scissors,
fS
electricity, or he WIN get nasty shock
Once the wires are cut there is little
danger of any more trouble, for the
insulation is very good and the copper
will not be in contact.
when light wire falls the same
thing should be done. The wire should
be cut and the free end put in a dry
high place where it cannot touch any
thing which will form a ground. Any
| one who will take an axe with a dry
handle may cut the wires without any
danger of a shock. The wires should
| be cut as high as possible from the
ground, and If one can take a stick and
put the end in a dry place where it does
| not touch the ground, there will be no
further danger.
| "Of course the moment the contact or
the live wire with the ground is ended
there is no more danger from hre'
| though the danger TO one who touches
lit is as great of course The completion
of the current by grounding Is what
causes the trouble. The danger TOO ls
much greater during the wet season Tor
then the electricity may be carried by
lotherwise conductors"
| The fact that the current fs not smut
off by the electric company when there
is a falling of a live wire, has been
livery much discussed, and il Is probaple
that under the new wiring plans there
will be less danger than formerly Tne
IcIrcuits are so arranged that they may
be shut off with greater ease and less
discomfort TO others using current from
the same wires. The small circuits VIII
permit the shutting OF Of the power
without cutting out 50 many users as OF
old.