The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-10
DEFECTIVE WIRING
 CHARGED AGAINST 3. R., l. & ?. CO.
Municipality Meas ure Is Tabled In Face Of
 Realtors Opposition

Before the city commission and 8 gathering of citizens at the meeting of board Tuesday morning J. A. Hale of the Hale-Davis Electric company said the Birming- ham Railway, Light and Power com pany was responsible for and caused more fires from defective electrical work than any other electric source of fire origin in Birmingham.
 MT. Hale said the men of the utility would make a fuse out of anything unable in their pockets. any sort of piece of wire they might have about them, that they would not go back. to get the right sort of fuse needed.
 'AThey don't know as much about electrical repairs as the man in the house where they are working. The company hires $1.50 men"
 Mir. Hale's statement was one of a number of expressions of opinions given before the city commission meeting Tuesday morning when an ordinance, fostered by the municipal electrical department, advocating the of boxed switches and plugs, was tabled by the commission with the provision that if it be brought up again two weeks notice of further consideration will be given.
 G. M Baker, chief of the city cleo trical department, had the ordinance offered a week ago, stating it pro vided for greater protection of prop erty in that it's being sealed with penalty for breaking the seal, fire danger from unsuitable plugs was lessened. He explained that many persons did not realize that the plug was graduated to the use of serv- Ice on it's particular line and the installation of plug of greater capacity tended to allow the wires to take an overload, cause of fire, when the plug of correct size would blow out when the load became too heavy, obviating the danger. He said many switches examined showed where persons had introduced wire, pennies and other metals to complete a circuit instead of using the correct plug, paving the way for overload and possible fire, and that the box ing of the switch and plugs tended to lessen this danger.
 Repeatedly it was charged during the discussion that the innovation was merely a contrivance to keep those served by the utility from steal ing current, that the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power company was back of the proposition to install the boxes to safeguard it's electric service from pilfering.
 Realtors Fight Measure.
 Present in the interest of having the ordinance killed was a delegation from the Birmingham Real Esta5e board among whom were w b. Leedy, J. L. Yancey, Roscoe McCon- nell, F. NJ Jackson, B. E. starke' secretary, and others.
 MT. Jackson was first to present the views of the realtors. He said at first glance, the ordinance looked simple enough, but it laid burden of an extra $5 on home builders thai he believed was unnecessary mat t entailed the calling of a special man to re-establish lights when a fuse blew out. That the box was the property of the utility company, That if his mattress factory wiring blew a fuse his whole plant might have to wait hours for the company repair man, whereas now, he had a dozen men who could make the repairs in a few minutes That there was dan ger from grounded wires. That per sons. unfamiliar with such. fixture s were exposed to danger in attempting to throw the switch as it's handle was metal and as the boxes might be on the outside of a house and the person standing on a. damp place there was danger of getting serious shock or worse.
 The discussion consumed the. better part of an hour, many present eX- pressing their views, most Of them a1- verse to the ordinance.
 Commissioner w. F. Dickson said that when he asked for continuance of the hearing a week ago 1t was because he was not familiar enough with the proposition and wanted to learn more about it.
 Commissioner W. L. Harrison, un- der whose charge comes the. city electrical department. said he was en- tirely open to conviction and that he believed he expressed the sentiment of the commission in saying that re- gardless of what merits the lnnova- fion might have, a preponderance of well founded objections would cause him to vote against its adoption.
 The commission then, on motion or Commissioner Dickson, tabled the or dinance with the proviso of two weeks notice if it be taken up agaln