DEATHS FROM ELECTRICITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 32, 8 February 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

DEATHS FROM ELECTRICITY.

American « Official ' Records.

The New York correspondent of tb© •Daily News ' says :— I have obtained from the official records a list of person 8 killed by electric-lighting wires since 1880. Previous to thab date the arc light circuits ! with continuous current were much used, bub during five years no deaths were caused. Between 1880 and 1887 pulsating and hightension currents came into use for the arc lights, and during thab 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 ib forby-four persons have been killed, making bhe bobal 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 alt 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 thab there have been fully 200 deaths in various parts of the country since 1830. On the other hand, the ' Electrician ' de? Clares bhab 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 polibical clique in New York with so much violence and lack of discrimination that ib has already provoked a reaction. Tho New York ' Evening Post' sa3 r s there is no reason whatever bo believe that the ciby will abandon electric lighting in order to go back to gas.