New Britain herald., 1929-08-28
.MANH0LE BLOWS UP
 CUTS OFF LIGHTS
(Continued From First. Page)

ton post on the sidewalk. that the matter would bear investigation and
 he crossed to the recalcitrant cover.
 poking at it tentatively with one
 foot. It was lucky that his approach
 was wary. Another roar and the -,cover was up again, with Mir. Spring
 somewhere in the middle distance. He was uninjured, due to the fact a4that little of his weight was on the .~cover but he did get a good rtart way from there. Followed more ..volcano-like belchings of smoke and -sflamr. with the manhole cover do- "ing its eccentric aerial contortions all the while. An unknown man who s,fad evidently never heard of MT. e-Volstead, remarked something to '-the effect that the cork had blown Tout Of hades and took after MT. Spring.
 Large Crowd Assemblies
 .- Meanwhile Church street was the --focal point for q large crowd which ~'kept at a respectful distance from --the cover Corners of nearby build ..ings were fringed with curious heads craning from spots where ~'bodies were protected. The war ap- peared to be on again, A fellow with a Ford car which was standing over a manhole cover just across the Street and connected 10 the line by -conduits got himself hence as a ,..burst of black smoke came through -the "breather." He has not been heard from since but he was unhurt land the car was running fine as it passed the Stanley Rule & Level plant
 Heat Keeps Norkmen Away
 .2 By this time fire trucks were ar irving as well as emergency wagons from the New Britain Gas O., and ..the electrical company. Officers Louis F.. Harper and Zymjeski took -charge of the crowd, which was well behaved As the smoke died down -and the cover quit its gyrations the transformer vault was approached by firemen and trouble shooters for the utility outfits, The heat in the Underground chamber vault was TO great that it was several hours be- Tore men could work in the vault. An air compressor loaned by the ~gas company, forced q stream of ~rold air into the transformer vault and aided materially in cooling it.. Ut was found that the splices in the -13, 500 volt main cables had entire fly burned away. Not only one line but a second emergency line was burned out, just when the emergen- ICY occurred. As soon as it was possi- ble 10 work in the chamber repairs ..were started and the central block of the city of New Britain was re- turned it's light and power shortly after 12 o'clock midnight, though it twill probably be several days before permanent repairs are made,
 10000 Pounds of Bread Lost
 <. It is impossible to estimate the losses to business concerns occasion- -ed by the failure of the service. At the Parker & Buckey baking plants -on Winter street 10000 pounds of bread was in the making. all of
 NilIbll iitii to bU piNNCu put oI tilN mixers and destroyed. This plant ywas cut in earlier through another Hoop but the bread patches were lost At the Strand theater a long line had collected to see the highly advertised picture in which Maurice ~Chevalier was appearing. The the later was in darkness all night. As .far as can be ascertained these two places suffered the most. There may have been other cases where q night process was being carried on but ~they have not been reported.
 - B. H, McElhone. local manager for the company was on the scene ~at an early hour doing what he ~could to hasten the resumption of 'the service. He was aided by engin- .eers and trouble men from Water -bury as well as New Britain, part @of whom left Church street for the Handlers, Frary Ss Clark power house Shortly after it was reported that a short circuit on the switch board there had caused fire and the blowing out of sprinkler line. He divided his attention between the ~two places for the rest of the eve ming. He stated there was no con .nection between the two accidents, .nor was the brief electrical storm @the cause. Experts of the company ~are examinging the removed chunks rof burned cable to look for faults .in it's construction.