SHOCK FROM LINE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 9

SHOCK FROM LINE

Woman’s Death Follows

CURRENT ONLY WEAK By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, October 13. An electric shock from a clothesline connected to the household electricity supply is believed to have indirectly caused the death of Mrs. Caroline Lilian Mason, a widow, aged 56’ years, at her home in 10 Gladwin Road, Epsom. Her death was not due to electrocution, as the current in the line was too weak, but the effect of the experience upon a weak heart is believed to have been responsible for the fatality. , ■ Mrs. Mason, who was alone at the time, was found by the baker lying dead in the back yard. She was lying across a wet blanket she had apparently been carrying, and the clothesdine had collapsed. A neighbour, Miss E. Cant, who was summoned when Mrs. Mason was found, said that she, too, received a shock when she touched the clothes line. It was not severe, but she could feel its effects in her arm for some time.

As a precaution, the fuses in the main switchboard in the house were pulled out by a marine engineer who was engaged on relief work nearby. He said the clothes-line seemed to have been used as a wireless aerial.

Subsequent examination of the premises by Mr. S. Langridge, an electrical inspector of th? Public Works Department, and officers of the Auckland Electric Power Board, showed that the clothes-line was alive. The line apparently had been used as an aerial for a home-made crystal radio set which was in turn connected with the light plug inslfle the house.