COPPER WIRE ON KITE

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1939, Page 4

COPPER WIRE ON KITE

I ♦ .1 POWER SUPPLY INTERRUPTED e 3 [PER I’RESS association.] ! CHRISTCHURCH, August 22. r This morning someone flew a kite with fine copper wire, instead of i string attached to it, over the 11.000 1 volt feeder which carries electric pow- - er from Addington to IVoolston for the Christchurch-Lyttelton electrified . railway. The kite string came down I across this feeder wire, and the 1500 > volt overhead gear of the railway line. The electric power was interrupted i’ and the electric train services were } delayed. A railway employee narrowly - escaped a fatal electric shock, and members of the public were exposed to the same risk. i The interruption to the power sup- ) ply came just about, 10 a.in. Patrol officers of the P.W.D. immediately set ’ out to find the cause of the break, and the crossing keeper at Ensor’s Road • provided the necessary clue, when he . informed the patrol that he had seen an electric flash some distance down the line. A train which pulled in to . Wbolston station carried a further clue to the cause of the. stoppage, because it was trailing a long length of fine cotton covered copper wire. Meanwhile a further length of this wire had been found by patrols hanging from overhead railway wires. Be . cause it looked like a. piece of string, the suspended length of wire, was not at first regarded with suspicion, and a railway surfaceman was about to pull it. down. Fortunately—for the hanging wire was then carrying 1500 volts —an electrical equipment officer warned him not to touch it.