Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-10
STUDENTS AS WIRES.
Electricity Conducted by Two of
 Them Without Harm.
Five Hundred Thousand Volt Current - Rendered as Agreeable = &-. Summer Rreeze-Impres-
 sive Spectacle.

Two University of Michigan students stood in a darkened laboratory one day lately holding an electric light bulb between them, like a water pail A college professor pulled lever. The electric Light bulb sudde enly light ed the room, showing an audience who gazed in amazement at human elec- tric 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.
 ee Then the professor, Benjamin F. Bailey, stepped forward, and by the light of his human wire demonstrated how a 500, ,o0o-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 a,cur- rent of electricity was made harmless. It was a 'step up" transformer. Roughly described, this transformer was box two feet long, one foot high, and one foot wide, filled with oil. Inn 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- l rectly from the university dynam O, with IS amperes and 110voltS strength. | It passed through two ''step up'' trans formers, the first one raising 1t to l 5000 volts, current destructive to h1l- man life. Then it wasrun directly into the odd transformer described. Just i what influence the oil exerted over the l electric fluid was not explained. The effect, however, was tremendous. The fatal current had 240 alternations asec- ond; this new current, Soo,ooo alterna- tions- The current had been trans l formed from 5000 to 500,o00 volts, and was now harmless.
 The power of this. current was-ap- parent in the dark room, even through 1 the dead copper wires. About the wires there was a flmy 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 6 space of 12 to 14 inches, between two metal knobs. It was small streak o, chain lightning, perhaps as thick as { lead pencil, and 1t cracked like pisto shot.
 The students, who were called from the audience, grasped in their hand. a short, naked wire, at the center O which the incande escent lamp was sus pended. Then with their free hand the boys grasped the broken ends o the 50O,00O volt wire and the curren which lighted the lamp completed it circuit through their arms. There are two theories in explana tion of the harmlessness of this cur rent. According to one, it alternate with such extreme rapidity that tn electricity has no time to act on tn muscles, nor to communicat te its i'm 2 pulses to the nerves. The other theor.
 holds f1rst the current does not ente the body at all, but passes over the out
 side.
 The medical value of the strong cur
 rent has been tested at the Univesit
 of Michigan hospital by Dr. W. J. Herd
 man, Tt has been found to induc
 sleep, under proper conditions, and t | rrA '