The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-01-16
SECTION OF NEW
 YORK WAS DARK
Generating Unit w ent Wrong Late in After.
 nOOn-AlI Went Dark
By FRED MYERS

United Press Stan C0rreSpOndent) New York, Jan. 16--(UP)--At 4:l5 D. m. New York city was winding up the days business and starting home for the night. Late shoppers hur- ried through stores; street cars and subways were accelerating to rush hour schedules: motor cars damned rain-wet streets; pedestrians scur- ried in premature darkness for shelter.
 At 4:l6 @ bit of insulation burned from e cable on the sixth floor of the Hell Gate plant of the New York Edison company, second largest gen. erating unit in the world. A spark jumped an unprotected gap, @ four foot knife switch snapped, Q sheet of flame blinded workmen and life left the huge generators in an tn- stant. All In Darkness On the wet streets outside, and in the air above them and in the ground below, from 69th street in Manhattan far north over Harlem and the Bronx and into Westchester county, the incandescent brilliance of New York at night abruptly ex- pired.
 Street lights and traftic signals went black; stores, theaterS, hotels and houses fell into darkness: street cars stalled and subway motormen damned air and sand to their rails as block signals winked off.
 In Parkway hospital nurses were fitting an oxygen tent over the face of Allan Principi, six, sinking toward death of pneumonia. An iron faced head nurse and two trembling novitiates completed the job by the light of penny-book matches taken from an apron pocket.
 Elevators Stopped
 Elevators in tall buildings along stygian avenues halted terrifyingly between floors or glided to shaft bot- toms and could not rise again. Diners in restaurants groped for food. Shoppers stumbled from stores and shops lighted by blinking flashlights. to streets little lighter.
 While startled bust ness men, housewives and city authorities swamped telephone switchboards, themselves partially disrupted, the city's home-bound thousands were stranded. Excited rumors of subway wrecks, bombings and indescribable catastrophes flew.
 Here and there In the darkness 6 small area remained lighted because direct current and alternating cur- rent systems are widely mixed. In many buildings elevators worked but lights went of, or vice versa. In one large theater the marquee sign burned brightly, while the projec- ton equipment was dead.
 Trains Could Run
 For the same reason, trains on most of the city owned Independent subways were able to run, but their safety signals did not operate and trains moved by inches through dark tunnels. Authorities estimated that 60,000 persons were in downtown stations when the disaster occurred. Thousands more crowded into the subterranean depots as the evening rush increased.
 The demand for candles, oil lamps and gas mantles emptied store shelves in twinklirg. Some dis- gruntled housewives reported to poe lice that opportunlstic merchants were asking 50 cents for two-for-a- nickel candles.
 Looting did not develop, but de- partment stores and Jewclry shops called hastily on private detective agencies for emergency guards. Clerks in Bloomingdale's. largest store in the district, said they were unable to sec the ends of their coun- ters while store detectives and ofii- cials hurriedly but slowly herded hundreds of customers out the doors.
 Plants COOperated
 Downtown plants Of the Edison company and other utility com panies around the affected district cooperated to throw partial power into the dead cables at o'clock. They gained ground steadily from then until II D. m, when all put ' few isolated areas were lighted again.
 Tine trafiic jam relaxed as street cars resumed movement around Il o'clock and trafiic lights, winking crazliy after being dark. won back to normalcy. But traffic squads said trafiic was not normal until after midnight.
 Edison company ofiicials said the mishap was an accident which might happen to any power plant.
 The Hell Gate plant covers two city blocks, is seven stories high and employs 800 men. The atmospheric concusslons from the flash of blue flame when the short circuit oc- cured shattered window 10 feet away from the switch board. Trans