Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-04-11
THAW|NG OUT water
PIPES BY ELECTRICITY
--latest Application of the Mys-
ferrous Fluid Lessons the
Inconvenience.
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
Thawing frozen water pipes 10y cleo
tricity is one of the more recent appli-
cations of science to- municipal house.
Keeping which the prevalence of odd
weather this winter has brought into
prominence. causing havoc among the
gas and water mains throughout the
city. In some instances dangerous. as
we'll as distinctly announcement for the
ordinary householder. AS many as 100
water pipe cases a day have. been re-
ported by plumbers since Lincoln's
birthday.
The thawing of frozen water pipes is
simple enough to the electrician. A
truck bearing Il storage battery is
dra wn up to the curb. One line is run
to the nearest hNdrant and the other
connected With the service pipe just in
side the building. the Juice" is turned
on. and i'm Il few minutes water Is
flowing. There is no digging of streets.
no building fires. no application of boil
ing water.
In fact. the apparent simplicity OF ne
operation produced an unexpected re-
suit II few days ago. An east side
shop keeper. on finding his pipes frozen.
called on the electric supply company.
whose agent agreed to thaw them out
for $15. AS the usual street digging
procedure would have cost at least
three times thai sum. the storekeeper
agreed enthusiastically. The emergency
crew then tapped current from IL near
by lamp post and in five minutes the
job was done. The stipulated price.
however. was not forthcoming. What,
me pay YOU Si5 for five minutes work?
o tink I'm II fool. maybe was the
shop owners emphatic protest.
Quick Witted lrishnan.
The quick witted Irish foreman yelled
to his helper. Hi. there. Jim the gen.
tleman doesn't want to pay Reverse
the current and freeze him UP again
1'h $15 instantly produced.
"This is the way ii is" explained IL
man In charge of. one of the thawing
outfits. ITS easy enough If you've got
the right equipment and do 1t in the
right way. Two days ago a plumber
who'd seen me do the trick several
times thought ned make a little that
way himself. So he borrowed a storage
battery from a friend who owned an
electric truck He severed the pipes
just inside the house and connected his
lines properly enough, but he hadn't
the right kind of i; storage battery.
Three minutes after he'd turned on the
juice We had an emergency call; things
were happening. Also he destroyed the
battery i'm the process. Altogether that
little experiment cost the plumber $500
damages"
There are TWO ways of thawing water
pipes by electricity, it was explained.
In either case the preliminaIies are the
same. The pipe Is severed just inside
the house and lines connected there and
at the hydrant. Sometimes. however.
current is tapped from the nearest
lamp post. but i'm case that is unhandy.
the storage battery equipment is called
into action.
IA huge. heavy station CELL said an
electrician, "much stronger than the
kind you find in electric trucks, gives
just about the right amount Of current
for the water pipes. since that metal
has Il greater resistance than the cop
per wire leads. When we tap a street
lamp for electricity it's too heavy, and
we regulate 1t by using "A water rheo-
stat. That sounds much worse than
it is. A water rheOstat looks just like
an iron barrel. 1t is filled with dilute
s%ulphuric acid, through which the cur-
rent is passed. and regulated by "a metal
bar"
Work Of a Few Minutes.
The ordinary one-inch water Pipe
can be thawed in a very few minutes,
but the length of time increases with
larger pipes. For some time. the IL
and six inch mains supplying North
Brother Island have been frozen and
the city department OF water supply.
gas and electricity has applied to the
Edison company to see IL those engin-
GERS Will engage to thaw them out.
The date has not been set. but that
will be The biggest thawing job ever
pulled Off" one of the thawing crew
told the reporter. Since the very cold
snap on I-incoln's birthday, Ave sep
arate outfits with trucks and batteries
have been kept busy answering emer-
gency calls.
ID you haw gas pipes, too?" was
asked.
The man grinned sheepishly. "Not
II We know II. Once five years ago
one of the boys, feeling smart, thought
he could thaw Il gas pipe. About the
time the fire engines appeared, he
sneaked off by the back door. Scientists
will tell you We could haw gas pipes
just as we'll, but-well-Tm a practical
man."
Wanted Sun Vat Sens Head.
Some OF my friends were always anx