The Detroit times., 1914-04-13
immigration Restrictions .
More Stringent Yearly

~ nerOn nytng over the penlnoulA
between Fraser river and False creek
In British Columbia felt fatigued and
sat down on the three high tensi0n
wires OF the British Columbia Elee-
trio Railways Co.. along the line OF
the Lulu Island railway. A short CDR
cult resulted. about q foot of each Of
the three wires having been burned
away at the point where Mr.. Heron
wished to rest his weary bones. The
supply of power to the Lulu Island
railway was cut OF Immediately. The
substation supplying electrical. energy
Ior vancouver was also put out OF
commission. and the city went with
out light and street cars that night.
similar accident occurred ont In
California few weeks ago wien =
large crane, with q love for ease.
espied tower Of transmissioH line
and made his way for II, thinking, psr-
haps. that he would look down ON
some less fortunate creatures that
could not reach such heights. Ii
proved to, be the Invest perch that
crane ever set upon. The large bird
was nearly electrocuted between the
wires and the l04 ,000-volt line Of the
Sierra 4 San Francisco Power 20.
was grounded. short circuited and dis
possessed Of It's power. The technical
men OF the company said that many
other things happened. but II II sui.
ficient to the public to know that the
cars and machinery stopped until re-
pairs had been made. The crane
which caused the trouble measured
six feet two inches from wing 70
wing.
A screech owl recently placed him.
self between q grounded pin and .
threestrand high.tension line carry.
ing $4,000 volts on the system of the
Indiana General Service Co., between
ElwoOd and Alexandria, Ind. He does
not screech any more. but the gen.
eral howl that went up from house
holdeys where the lights went out
was fine requiem for him.
Another unusual interference In
transmission Of electricity occurred q
few weeks ago, when q squirrel In
Minnesota. installing a pole for his
favorite tree. ran to the top, and dis.
covering his error, tried tight.wire
walking and quick gymnastics a. q
diversion. i.e little animal short cir.
Quilted and rendered useless q trans.
mission line of the Public Service Co.
at ST. Cloud, Mlnn This company has
16.500-volt line which is 26 miles
long and supplies FIVE substations. Il
TOOK the linemen and electricians to
days to discover what had happened.
ana In the meanwhile the angry pa
irons were calling the power corpora
tion everything except 4 public ser.
vice company. ~1s
government O6lcials .- % are inter.
ested In the development Of long-dis.
lance transmission lines, say that hu-
man beings have learned to have q
wholesome respect for wires carrying
strong electrical currents, but that
up TO the present time no one hss
oeen able to communicate q message
or warning to the birds Of the air or
10 the agile little animals whose
climbing ability sometimes leads %
their ENHANCEMENT and death ON the
wires.
Burt McCollum, one of the electrical
engineering experts. Of the United
states bureau OF standards, says that
the growing frequency Of bird or ami
NAL interference with electrical trans.
mission has led a number OF com.
panies to run the wires further apart.
This method lessons the chance OF
birds being caught between the wires
and causing a short circuit. Mr.. Nc
Collum has also had called to his Il
tention several instances when III,
transmission of electrical current has
been interfered with by heavy svarms
OF insects. which has caused q short
circuit. Occurrences OF this nature
however, are not frequent