MENACE OF ELECTROLYSIS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17770, 23 May 1923, Page 9

MENACE OF ELECTROLYSIS.

DAMAGE TO MELBOURNE BUILDINGS. (by cable—pbess association—copybioht.) (AUSTBALIAN AND K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) MELBOURNE, May TZ. The City Engineer has issued a warning in regard to .the menace of electrolysis. He states that a great deal of damage has already been caused to water and gas mains by the escape of electricity. That, however, is a smaiit matter compared with the serious effects it is having upon buildings, the steel bars and girders or which are being eaten- through. If the leakages are not stopped it is only a matter of time when many buildings will crumble into ruins.

The remedy would be the installation of return wires to carry current back direct, but this is expensive, and in. the meantime properties valued at nundreds of thousands of pounds are being ruined.

'•There is always danger of electrolysis where the direct current is in use, said Dr. Coleridge i'arr, l'roiessor ol r'nysics, to a "Jfress" reporter last nikUt "VvTiere there are electric railways'and tramways, the current returns by way of tne rails, Sometimes, however, it does not do so, with the result tiiat there is a leakage througli the surrounding soil into tne gas ana water pipes, Ahe effect of electrolysis is corrosive, and it is apparent at the joints of a pipe. Leakages from the d.c. system have been found before, and, with a view to minimising the danger, stringent regulations have been issued by the Board of Trade. ■ In' the early days of electric traction there was a good deal of electrolysis, but it has been greatly minimised within recent years." "In Melbourne," the doctor continued, "there was an electric railway system, in connexion with which direct current would be used. He could not see how leakages could affect buildings to the extent suggested by the cable. The only part of a building that was likely to be affected seemed to him to be the bottom portion. The position in such an event, however, would be bad enough as the upper stories rested'on those beneath."