DEATHS FROM ELECTRICITY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 445, 12 February 1890, Page 3

DEATHS FROM ELECTRICITY.

The New York correspondent of th e ‘Daily News’ says : —I have obtained from the official records a list of persons killed by electric-lighting wires since 1880. Previous to that date the arc light circuits with continuous current were much used, but during five years no deaths were caused. Between 1880 and 1887 pulsating and hightension currents came into use for the arc lights, and during that period seventy-two deaths took place, of which sixty-two were traced to the pulsating current. During the past two years the alternating high-tension current has been much in use, and by it forty-four persons have been killed, making the total number of deaths in various parts of the_ country during the nine years 116. In New York city twenty-five persons have been killed within two years, nearly all by the alternating currents. The list does not give all the deaths, but only those officially reported with names and particulars. It is estimated by experts that there have been fully 200 deaths in various parts of the country since 1880. On the other hand, the * Electrician ’ declares that there is good reason to believe that the fatalities from electric lighting have been much exaggerated, and that alarmist reports have been purposely spread by interested parties. The crusade against over-head wires, says our contemporary, has been carried out by a political clique in jN'ew York with so much violence and lack of discrimination that it has already provoked a reaction. The New York ‘ Evening Post ’ says there is no reason whatever to believe that the city will abandon electric lighting in order to go back to gas.