The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-07-10
CHOKE COILS IN HOUSES
Smooth swindlers Took Hundreds of
Dollars from Kenosha in Selling De-
vices to aid Property Owners in Rob-
bling Electric Company of Current.

If you have smiles to smile, pre-
pare to smile them now.
There is still one being born every
minute and it is evident that Kenosha
has an over production Of the class
known as suckers. The harvest
reaped from the unwary has just been
brought, to light By investigations
made by the Wisconsin Gas and Elec-
tric Company and this shows that
lot Of people in Kenosha, who sought
to get something for nothing, were
highly successful in getting nothing
for something and the something that
they gave up was considerable.
An inspection Of the lines of the
electric company has revealed the fact
that smooth swindlers have worked
Kenosha and have managed to sell,
nobody knows how many, "meter gov
ernors in the city. x meter governor
is supposed to be some device. It is
alleged that with meter governor the
householder may reduce his electric
bill from seven dollars to seven cents
and permit the company to hold the
bag until it becomes suspicious and
makes an examination. This was what
was claimed for the "meter governor.
The devices found in Kenosha were
ago and they represented that the
meter governor work. ca the same
principle as a choke coil and that
what they would do to throttle an cleo
tric current before it went through a
meter was enough to bring tears to
the eyes Of the sternest public utility
corporation. The meter governors were
declared to be the one real extermina-
tor of high bills for "juice, but of
course they were slipped in and main
tanned with great secrecy by the
property holder.
At least twelve people in the city
coughed up $3.50 in real money to
have these meter governors made
part of the electric systems in their
home. They were put in so as to be
kept from the eagle eyes of the meter
readers and in some Of the cases they
have been choking down the current
for year. The success of the device
as choker was not apparent and in
some of the places bills scared to even
a higher level than they had been be-
fore the clever device was installed.
One of the !" choke coils - was brought
to the News office on Tuesday after
noon 1t was found to consist of a
cheap conduit box probably valued at
fifteen cents, two ounces of plaster
paris and a foot Of insulated copper
wire. the whole valued at not over
silver quarter. This one had been in
stalled on a meter in one of the down
town stores and the profit to the swind
Ter had been in the neighborhood Of
$1,000. Already twelve Of these de-
vices have been found and taken out
and it is probable that there are
score more working(?) in the city.
One man was found who had cut
through the basement of his cellar in
order to install the choke COLI at
point where it would not be located.
The choke coils were securely sealed
to prevent an examination OF them un-
til after the man who sold them got
away with the money. Examination
by experts brought the report that the
alleged device would not in any way
affect the flow of electric current in
to meter. The company has made
no move to remove the devices, holding
that there is absolutely no reason for
them to take away cellar ornaments
which may have been put in at a high
cost by property owners