Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-01-28
SURVIVOR SAYS
NE DID NOT FEEL
$1,000 VOLTS
Iinen1an Who MiracuIousIy Es.
caped Death Against Power
full Transformer Talks.

wax and unnerved after his adven-
., With A veritable magnet of death
Brown, a young lineman, lies at
s., Atlanta hospital today struggling
...,,v 10 recall the sensations he ex-
..-4.nced while 1000 volts of electric
~ shot through his body for nearly
.wo minutes yesterday.
The right side of Browns face is
..,rrsd and swollen and the flesh of his
,,,ht foot IS cooked, but besides these
- Few other lesser burns there is no
marx Of the terrible ordeal through
.,,,cb he passed in the transfer room of
mo Georgia Railway and Power Com
.o,v.-an ordeal through which prob
,n,c not one man in a million has
,s.sed and lived.
ur+ he viii return to electrical work
when he IS we'll,
q don't remember anything said
p,,wn this morning. And then he
tvowned. v4sibly trying to recall some
hing an intangible something that
csma 70 him as he was near death.
prt he could not grasp it, he said
Remembers Only Violent Jerk.
oT remember that my head was
tsrsed backward, but that was all" he
xsid. MY head came within two feet
q, the heavy cable Of the transformer.
An arc must have been formed that
drew me as q magnet draws a needle.
But I remember only the first jerk.
They say I stayed fixed against the
cable for nearly two minutes. The two
minutes are lost to me forever. After
The Jerk of my head l remember only
the feeling of nausea and dizziness that
came TO me with the first ray of con-
sciousness at the hospital.
Death from electric shock must be
nerciful There was nothing of pain.
nor OF any sensation whatever. Not
sven the burns were painful when I
began TO realize them after I had re-
covered consciousness. And yet the
burns we're bad. I was slowly cooking
to death, and could not have lived many
seconds longer"
Brown told the story of the incidents
following the shock as they had been
told to him by his partners,
They say dropped to the floor when
they cut off the switch. The room al
ready was heavy with the odor of
scorohins flesh, and they say the
stencil has not gone away yet.
Every Muscle Rigid.
Every muscle of my body. thew tell
me- was rigid and every joint fixed
They had to pry open my mouth with
scTewdriver and put blocks of wood
WITHIN to hold 1t open while they work
ed with artificial respiration In the at
Tempt to bring me back to life.
II they had not worked so hard and
/" quickly L never would have come
PACK at that. was paralyzed, and had
S0pped breathing, they tell me. If the
current had passed down the left side
MY heart would have been stopped and
,0ngeaied at once. Even as il was I
oon see how lived. The rubber boots
saved me. l know. There was nothing
10 make a circuit, no metal at all
ontlI Browns right foot, which is
burned deeply heals, he will be forced
" Keep his bed at the hospital. After
mat he will return to his electrical
ooFH' But he says he will be more
,a1elu after this, and not risk two
'ooI margin between his head and 81
Osavi!y charged wire.
ne wire to which he was drawn was
WY S'epof from the transformer and
DU'e 1000 volts. The charge was
, LIKED down from the $4,000 volts
'"'Vo entered the transformer