ELECTRIC FENCING

Franklin Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 108, 14 September 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

ELECTRIC FENCING

ATTITUDE OF DEPARTMENT

Following inquiry by the Central Waikato Electric Power Board as to whether farmers anxious to make use of electric fencing could be provided with a mains-controlled service, using a transformer of 230/6 volts, in place of batteries, advice was received by tlie board from the Chief Electrical Engineer to the Public Works Department, Mr F. T. M. Kissel, to the effect that mains-control of such fences was not favoured by the department. “The policy of the department.” wrote Mr Kissel, li is now to discourage the use of this type of device I*l its present form. The design of tlie mains-operated controller is not a simple problem and has not yet been solved in a satisfactory manner, even by the manufacturers of the best controllers in America.

‘‘Some researches have recently been carried out at Cornell University, in U.S.A., and the matter, I understand. is still under investigation by several other authorities in that country. With regard to the above-men-tioned researches, the use of a speci-ally-designed constant current transformer was under consideration as a. means of overcoming the principal difficulty. However, the possibility of an electric fence being use of mainscontrollers and would not approve them for use in Ontario; in the U.S.A. also, several of the power companies were opposed to the use of these controllers. In view of these facts the minister had publicly stated that he was not satisfied that the use of mains-oper-ated electric-fence controllers should be permitted in the meantime, nor was he prepared to recommend amendments to the existing regulations at present.