Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-07-29
HUMAN ELECTRIC WIRES.
Two Students Serve to Conduct SOC.
600 Volt Current Without the
Least Harm.

Least Harm.
Two University of Mich gan students
stood in a darkened laboratory one
day lately holding an electric light
bulb between them, like a water pail
A college professor pulled a lever.
The electric light bulb suddenly light
ed the room, showing an audience who
gazed in amaZement at human cleo.
trio wire-the arms of the two stu
dents through whom the current ran.
The students grinned sheepishly at
the startled looks of the audience, re.
ports the Chicago Tribune.
Then the professor, Benjamin f.
Bailey. stepped forward, and by the
light of his human wire demonstrated
how a 500,000-volt current of electric
ity may be made as harmless and
agreeable as June breeze. Indeed, the
two students nodded when he stated,
as his first remark, that the only sen.
sation which the boys experienced was
warm tingling of the palms of the
hands.
The scientist explained the appa-
ratus through which so strong cur.
rent of electricity was made harmless
1t was a step up" transformer.
Roughly described, this transformer
was box two feet long, one foot high.
and one foot wide, filed with oil. I'm
mersed in the oil were two coils OF
heavy wire, one of four turns and one
of 200. The voltage of the current in
the small coil was increased thousands
of times in passing through the larger
coil.
The electric current used came di-
rectly from the university dynamo,
with Is amperes and no volts strength.
It passed through two "step up trans
formers, the first one raising it to
5000 volts, current destructive to ht-
man life. Then it was run directly into
the odd transformer described. Just
what influence the oil exerted over the
electric fluid was not explained. The
effect, however, was tremendous. The
fatal current had 24O alterations Sec
ond; this new current, 100000 alterna-
tlons. The current had been trans
formed from 5000 to 500, 900 volts, and
was now harmless.
The power of this current was ap-
parent in the dark room, even through
the dead copper wires. About the
wires there was filmy haze of light,
green tinted sometimes, then blue,
but mostly violet.
A few preliminaries preceded the
electric light experiment Prof. Bailey
showed the current leaping across q
space of IL to IA inches, between two
metal knobs. 1t was a small streak of
chain lightning, perhaps as thick as
lead pencil, and it cracked like pistol
shot
The students, who were called from
the audience, grasped in their hands
short, naked wire, at the center Of
which the incandescent lamp was sus.
pended. Then with their free hands
the boys grasped the broken ends of
the 100000 volt wire and the current
which lighted the lamp completed it's
circuit through their arms
There are two theories in explana-
ton of the harmlessness of this cur
rent. According to one, it alternates
with such extreme rapidity that the
electricity has no time to act on the
muscles, nor to communicate its inn
pulses to the nerves. The other theory {,
holds that the current does not enter
the body at all, but passes over the out
side.
The medical value of the strong cur
rent has been tested at the University
of Michigan hospital by DIR. w. J. Herd
man. 1t has been found to induce
sleep. under proper conditions. and to
benefit rheuma tism