The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-25
STUDENTS SERVE
 AS HUMAN WIRES
Many Times Enough Electricity tS Kill is Conducted by Them
 Without Harm. A

Chicago Tribune.
 Two University of Michigan students stood in a darkened laboratory last week holding an. electric light bulb between them. like a water pail. A college profes- sor pulled a lever The electric bulb sud denly lighted the room showing an audi ence who gazed in amazeu1ent at a hu- man electric wire-the arms of the two students through whom the current ran. The students grinned sheepishly at the .Btartled looks of the audience.
 Then the professor. Benjamin F. Bailey, stepped forward, and by the light of his human wire demonstrated how a 500 GOO volt current of electricity may be made las harmless and agreeable as June breeZe. Indeed. the two students nodded Nwhen he stated, as his first remark. that lthe only sensation which the boys expe- Nienced was a warm tingling of the palms of the hands.
 he scientist explained the apparatus lthrough which so strong a current of electricity was made harmless It was c 'step up" transformer. Roughly de- ,scribed, this transformer was a box two Geet long, one foot high, and one foot trHide filled with oil. Immersed in the oil twere two coils of heavy wire, one of four furns and one of 200. The voltage of the current in the small coil was increased thousands of times in passing through the iaarger coil.
 Tremendous Current Harmless.
 The electric current used came directly Rrom the university dynamo. with. j5 am peres and 110 volts strength. It passed through the step up transformers, the first one raising 1t to 5000 volts, cur rent destructive to human life. Then it was run directly into the odd transform CT described. Just what influence the oil ,exerted over the electric fluid was not explained. The effect, however. was tre- mendous. The fatal current had 240 all formations a second; this new current. sOOOO0 alternations The current had been transformed from 1000 to 50O.000 volts, and was now harmless.
 The power of this current was apparent In the dark room, even through the dead cooper wires. About the wires there was a filmy haze of light green tinted some times, then blue. but mostly violet.
 few prelminaries preceded the cleo .tric light experiment Professor Bailey showed the current leaping across a space of twelve to fourteen inches, between two metal knobs. IL was a small streak of chain lightning, perhaps as thick as a lead pencil, and 1t cracked like a pistol shot.
 Form the Human Circuit.
 The students. who were called from the audience. grasped in thei" hands short naked wire. at he center of which the in candescent lamp was suspended. Then with theiI free hands the boys gripPed the broken ends of the 500,OO0 volt wire and the current which lighted the lamp completed its circuit through their arms
 There are two theories in explanation of the harml"SSneSs of this current. Ac- cording to one. it alternates with such eX- treme rapldity that the electricity has no time to act on the muscles, nol {" com municate it's impulses to the nerves The other theory holds that Ihe current does not enter the body at all, but passes over the outside.
 The medical value of the strong current has been tested at the University of Michigan Hospital by Dr. W. J. Herd man. It has been found to induce sleep. under proper conditions, and to benefit Eheumatism.