BOY KILLED BY ELECTRIC SHOCK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 189, 31 October 1927, Page 13

BOY KILLED BY ELECTRIC SHOCK

WATER AND CURRENT MEET Holding in his hand an electric light bulb and lying in a poo! of water, Albert Horace Tomblin, aged 18, of Princess Road, Buckhurst Hill, was found electrocuted in the basement of the Woodgrange Road branch of the Alaypole Dairy Co. at Forest Gate, London. The bulb was connected by a piece of flex to an ordinary lamp. It is surmised that Tomblin went to obtain a drink and attempted to remove tho globe hangng over the sink. Experts are unable to account for the accident. The voltage was only that of tho electric light mains—22o—and no flaw has been found in the flex. Air. Thomas Dolby, manager of tho shop, told a representative of “Tho Daily Chronicle” that when he went into the basement he saw Tomblin lying on the floor gasping. A doctor was fetched at once, but the youth was dead when he arrived. When the bulb was removed from Tomblin’s hand, several of the fingers were seen to be burned. A pool of water had formed under the sink, where a. leaking pipe was being mended, and Tomblin was apparently standing in this when he caught hold of the bulb. In a recent case of electrocution from household mains, the theory was advanced that, through being given a twist, the live wire of the bulb came into contact with the brass fitting of the holder.