ELECTRIC WIRES IN CONTACT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 465, 23 April 1890, Page 5

ELECTRIC WIRES IN CONTACT.

An amount of alarm has been raised, says a Melbourne telegram, in connection with an incident which happened on Wednesday afternoon at the office of the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company in Little Collins-streeb. During the afternoon an employee noticed smoke coming from a telephone in the office, and upon examination it was found that the insulating silk in contact with a coil had become charred and was smouldering. A few minutes later he received a telephone message from the Richmond tramway engine-house, announcing that a similar circumstance had taken place there. The telephone authorities were informed of the matter, and they quickly solved the mystery. They fouDd that an electric light wire running from the New Australian Electric Light Company’s office in Little Collins-street to the Opera House, where it had been disconnected from the building, had fallen on to the telephone wires connected with the office to the Tramway and Omnibus Company and Richmond enginehouse. Mr C. Smibert, electrical engineer of the telephone department, ridicules the sensational statement that the electric light wires are a constant source of great danger to those usiug telephone wires. Mr Smibert admits, however, thab there is always an element of danger from fire, and volunteers the astounding information thab the insulation of the electric lighb wires in the streets of Melbourne is a delusion and a snare. Some time ago he urged the PostmasterGeneral to prohibit the further extension of the system of overhead wires, and this he has done. The Postmaster-General states that there is -no proper supervision of the wires, and says that it is the intention of the Government in the aproaching session to introduce a Bill for taking measures to secure that desirable end,