A DANGEROUS PRACTICE

Evening Star, Issue 22559, 29 January 1937, Page 10

A DANGEROUS PRACTICE

AMATEUR ELECTRICIANS' WORK THREE MEH FINED The dangerous practice of inexperienced persons tampering with ami 111- ' stalling defective fittings was fully stressed in the Police Court to-day during the hearing of charges against three men of committing breaches ot the Electrical Act. To illustrate the serious consequences of using faulty equipment, Mr W. D. Taylor, ;.who prosecuted on behalf of the Klectncal Power Board, showed the magistrate (Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) a box that contained old wire that was partly stripped of its insulation. The defendants were James Macpherson Mackie, John Butler (Mr P. S. Anderson), and Jack Arthur Bryan, who was charged with two separate offences. They all pleaded guilty. Mr Taylor said that Mackie had done certain wiring work at his parents’ home. His installation could have had the effect of setting the house on fire, as one of the wires was bare. “ The inspector states that this was a very bad job’ and was definitely hazardous,” commented Mr Taylor. “ This is a bad case.” The defendant stated in reply to a question by the magistrate that his only experience of electrical work covered the making of wireless sets. Mr Bundle: It is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Mr Taylor said that Mackie had installed six different points. His Worship pointed out to Mackie that if any person had been injured through his workmanship he would have been m a serious position. Mr Bundle commented that he was quite unable to regard this case as trivial. It was a serious matter for a man to attempt work of such magnitude. The defendant was fined £2 and costs. Butler, whose breach was described by Mr Taylor as being the result of ignorance, was fined 20s and costs^ The defendant Bryan, said Mr Taylor, connected a radio flex direct to a switchboard in a milking shed. The earth wire was faulty’, and the floor of the shed was wet. Bryan was convicted without penalty on the first count, and fined 20s and costs on the second.