Arizona republican., 1911-09-30

 TEARS LINE Puts Glendale Street Rail- way Out of Action
NO POWER FROM ROOSEVELT
Lightning Strikes Roose- welt Power and Phoenix Electric Lines Many Times, Reducing City to Steam for Induction.

| SSS04AA 4O1
 The rainstorm which began yester- day forenoon has not been a Very, heavy one. The rainfall to 3 n m
 was but IT of an inch. and probably
 had not been more than one-half an men at 10 D. m. last evening, though
 there had been one or two brief De- riods of heavy rainfall The storm had been remarkable more for the electrical damage to electrical power appliances by lightning and incidental damage to the boiler works of the Pacific Gas x Electric company than for anything else, though damage to merchants by flooding of their base
 ments, owing to the tOrn-up condition Of the main streets and their conse- | quently impossible condition for water In large volume. is liable to be the next point of serious damage.
 The electrical power and light trou- ! ble. beginning early Thursday even | ing, was due to lightning striking the | power wires between Phoenix and Roosevelt. and throwing the protoc- tion switches with which the power houses at Roosevelt and Phoenix and the switching station at Mesa are fit ted to prevent the burning out of fuses and other damage by too heavy currents. By this means a great deal of damage and delay are avoided, dis agreeable as the short delays are
 The transmission of power between Roosevelt and Phoenix is over two three phase systems of lines, con- sisting of three wires on each side of the poles known to the workers on them as the north and the south lines. Before S:1O o'clock yesterday morning these had been struck four times by lightning, and the protection switches thrown. At S:1O thunderbolt broke one of the lines between Phoenix and Mesa From that hour until l:15 p. m. lightning struck the Roosevelt power transmission lines seven times. At I:15 it put one of the lines out of commission between Mesa and RVose- welt and at 3:20 it destroyed tine use fulness of the other. The line be- tween Phoenix and Mesa, injured in the morning. was grounded; those be- tween Mesa and Roosevelt, in the aft ernoon, were thrown "open." in cleo trical parlance. or broken in some way without being grounded.
 After the lines were all silenced. about 6 D. m. it was discovered by the reclamation service that the pow CT canal. above the dam. had also suffered a breakage It is expected it will be repaired by tonight
 As soon, in the afternoon, as the system from Roosevelt was destroyed, preparations were made by the Pa cific Gas x Electric office in Phoenix to use their steam plant. held in re serve for the generation of current. This was in process of repair, the brick work having been largely torn away from the old boilers for the purpose of putting in new ones. Csu- ally, banked fires are kept under the boilers, keeping them and their con tents warm, so that the development of electric power from a steam basis is a matter of but a few minutes, but in this case the comparatively un- protected condition of the boilers. preparatory to their removal, with surroundings not exactly conducive to rapid firing, made it i:50 pr so be- fore sufficient steam could be gotten to supply the electric current for the car and machinery service.
 To add to the difficulties of the situation. between and ' o'clock one of the three boilers 'blew out" The two remaining were scarcely suf- ficient to supply groundwork for power enough to move the street cars at the time when the demand for current for that and for other pur- poses is greatest-'the peak" as it is called in electrical phrase. of the | days demand for power. Later that | was adjusted, and the broken boiler | will be repaired during today.
 The lines of the town system of | electrical transmission, which are in | dependent in operation, were also | struck by lightning in various places | yesterday, making troubles which kept | the linemen busy until night. This morning they will be put to work to | repair the Glendale car powe- lina. which was broken by lightning about | 3:21 yesterday. As it carries 1000 | volts of electric power, the company | did not want to put men to work on 1t in the night and in the midst of the rain, by which the danger of electrical line work is greatly in creased. It was broken and grounded | by lightning, just where is not known, but it is thought near Phoenix.
 -O---