Telephones in Thunderstorms.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 203, 29 November 1880, Page 2

Telephones in Thunderstorms.

There appeal’s to be some danger (says the Home News) attending the use of the new. agent which science is daily utilising: more and more. Recent experience iiidho United States goes to prove that the telephone may do much mischief. During a heavy thunderstorm the telephone wires at Louisville became so charged with electricity that numbers of telephones were destroyed. People.using-the instruments during the storm also ran great risks. It is reported that one man who had his ear to the tube was struck by the lightning, and has been deaf ever since. Two other persons engaged in conversation at the end of a telephone were similarly struck. The lightning flash burst the instument, it only frightened one person, hut it threw the other, violently to the groundi He: "received a violent shock, and -was taken up insensible. Accidents of this kind arc not unlikely to occur during periods of great electrical disturbances. They may, however, in some measure he avoided by adopting the proper precautions. , The telephonic apparatus is provided with a safety plug which’, if made use. of at the first symptoms of the storm,-will effectually isolate the instrument from the lightning. • But although this may protect, life,, it will hardly protect the apparatus, and if the: telephone is to be largely . employed, in latitudes - much visited by storms, ; some further invention seems desirable to isolate the wires.:: No doubt this will receiybMr. Edison’s immediate-attention. , ; •