DETECTING POWER LEAKS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21088, 13 February 1934, Page 8

DETECTING POWER LEAKS

* PALMERSTON MAX'S POWERS The Mayor of Palmerston (Mr W. B. Galloway) has a remarkable faculty for the detection of power leaks "in electric wires or any electrical apparatus, and he is being of great assistance in this direction to the local power board officers and wtdio set owners, says the Paimer-j ton correspondent of the "Otago i .Daily Times." The onlv apparatus used consists of two pieces of whalebone, one white and the other black, which twist in his hands when pointing in the general direction of a leak in the vicinity. Mr Galloway then produces a metal ball on a piece of cord, and, holding this in his right hand, he points in the approximate direction of the leak with his left. When the left hand is pointing straight towards the leak the ball makes a circular movement on the end of the string, and one has only to follow the direction shown by the pointing finger to find even the very insulator which is at fault. Leaks as far distant as 121 miles have been detected in this manner, and Mr Galloway can, from a moving car, indicate the pole at which the fault lies as he goes past. The local power board engineer (Mr H. North) has put Mr Galloway through all sorts of tests in an endeavour to Irip him up. but npl on.ee has h 4 -bectf- able j.o do- iuh