DAMAGE BY LIGHTNING

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 296, 13 September 1927, Page 6

DAMAGE BY LIGHTNING

POWER WIRES SUCCESSFULLY PROTECTED.

Palmerston North, September 13,

Reference to damage done to electric lines under the control of the Manawatu-Oroua Electric Power Board, as a result of the recent tropical storm which visited Palmerston North, was made at a meeting of the board to-day by the engineer (Mr. W A. Waters) The Power Board’s lines, said Mr. Waters, received direct strokes of lightning at Whakaronga, Aokautere, Linton, and Bunnythorpe. Hundreds of other induced charges were handled safely by the lightning arrestors, which did their work so efficiently that the board did not lose a single transformer. However, no lightning arrestor yet devised, said Mr. Waters, could cope with a direct hit, as this class of lightning would not travel more than a few hundred yards along the wires. The area receiving the worst punishment was at Whakaronga, and across the river in Aokautere, where crossarms were shattered, and wires and fuses melted into thin air. As well as this, an air brake switch was melted, and an oil switch at Te Matai substation, completely wrecked, while the pole on which the air break switch was mounted was set on fire. At Linton the lightning snipped out about one inch of wire on one line at a junction pole, while at Bunnythorpe several of tlie lines were cut through by lightning. A number of meters and other apparatus were burnt out, but, considering the unusual severity of the storm, the board’s choke coils and lightning arrestors undoubtedly saved a tremendous amount of money, and serious interruptions to supply.