Unseen Dangers.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 173, 9 October 1886, Page 1

Unseen Dangers.

< v But few people realise tbe dangers attending the work of an electxic light lineman and lamp attendant," remarked one of the corpe to an "Item" reporter, a? he shot down one of the circuit poles Sunday night, iv the pouring rain, and exhibited a badly blistered hand, the result of a shock received from a " leak" in the wire. " It is particularly dangerous," he added, "just before and during a thunderstorm, and exhemely vexatious in wet weather. During the storm of Friday morning almost every flash of lightning was attracted to the wires, and the way it went snapping up the circuit was enough to make one shudder. During the height of the storm a ball of fire was seen to shoot along the wires on Westminster-street, and, when in the midst of 2,000 wires that run into the Butler Exchange, it burst with a report of a cannon. i The next flash saw forty-three of the lights out, and it was evident that something had gone up. We traced the " break " right to the works, where to the surprise of all, it was found that the lightning had struck the first light on the circuit outside of the works, and followed the line into the room, where the * arresters ' are, and burned thorn in such a way as to make them assume the appearance of a piece of burned brown paper. When the lightuing struck the * arrester ' a terrible report followed. "But then, while it is dangerous to mount a pole during a thunderstorm, the most aggravating work is to tackle a pole during a storm, as there are many which will give you a shock the moment you touch them. These poles are all marked by the men, and the worst among them are those at Turk's H6ad, the car depot and two on the Westminster-street circuit, where, if you get up, you will have to dance to get , down again, that ie, if you are not knocked down, as several cirbuit men have already been. The shocks received in this way are due to « leaks ' in the wires, which are only detected by a lineman getting in contact v* ith the nearest nole to the ■ leak. "Did you ask about inside work ? There is nothing fascinating about it, and one must have a great faculty of keeping hia hands at home. The men who work about dynamos, as a rule, have worse looking hands than base ball catchers, but they think nothing of a small shock. One of the worst cases at our works occurred quite recently, when our superintendent went to attach the wires, « positive and negative,' to the post attached to the dynamo .running full force. He attached the wires all right, but the j instant the connection was completed he was knocked across the room. It was a wonder the shock did not kill him instantly He was a terribly scared man, and it was fully two weaka before he fully recovered " Just at the present time we havo at the Khode Island Electric Company's works quite a rare case that is attracting no small amount of attention. It is that of a ten-year-old girl who, until recently, was a terrible sufferer from St. Vitus'a dance. She could not stand still, and so was in a sad state. Some one suggested that B he be treated with electric shocks, and accordingly a medium wire—such as is used for the inside incandescent lights— was run from the works to the street circuit wire. The girl daily comes to the works, and will seize the wire with both hands and hold it as though ib were a piece of wood. The shock that line will give is enough to knock a man out, yetthe girl laughs at the idea, and is rapidly improving under the treatment."