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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4332, 19 October 1921, Page 2

A farmer of an;investigating turn of mind, up Te Aroha way, has learned the old 1 truth that a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing. There had recently been installed in his dairy shed an electric motor for driving the milking machine. This particular farmer had been swatting up things electrical at one of thpse classes where they give you a fair working knowledge of the wizard product pf the Thames Valley Electric Power Board. Eager to try out his newly-won knowledge, he tried to prevent the annoying trouble of fusing by changing the delicate, hairlike wires on bis switch-board gear and inserting therein some heavy galvanised wire—something lik<e the fuses used for 11,000-yolt lines ! The result of his operations was that the current short-circuited and ran to earth, the watery and slushy surface of the yard, which could not be washed down because the stoppage of ’the motor prevented the working of the pump acting as a conductor of' the current. An agpnised appeal over the ’phone brought out two of the Power Board’s staff to the scene, at the invigorating hour of 4 a.mi, to locate the trouble. The fhn. came in when the current was switched oh for triai purposes, the cattle in the slushy yard getting electric shocks which made them “jazz” in a most comical manner. Everyone roarpd with laugh - ter at the sight of the ungainly beasts jigging about like the proverbial cat on hot bricks. It is understood that this particular butter-fat 1 aspirant to honours electrical intends to confine his activities to matters of theory only, in the future.