SOME PERILS OF ELECTRICITY.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4310, 13 November 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOME PERILS OF ELECTRICITY.

! _ l That electricity, though a good servant is a bad master has been illustrated bv a recent appalling accident at O-'inate. in Italy, where ten persons b'i-tb killed in the attempt to <df tho electric light m their houses, i had suddenlv burst out through the fusing of the wires, and everyone who came in contact with the current, with the intention of putting out the inc, was electrocuted. T _ ... .. KILLED B\ A MILK-CAN. This disaster shows that the progress of science has its perils for those who are not perfectly familiar with the manipulation that new inventions require. The general use of electricity m tho United States has naturally made that country the scene of a large proportion of the reported accidents of this type. One of :'■(* strangest of these befell a guard, or "conductor,' on the Albanv air 1 llwis- n Railroad. \\ hen be was ad, t'!~ mechanism of lus car his t*- to;. milkcan, thus forming a .-liort cocuit. Before he could !»*» ref-v-,- , j le was so badly burnt Uiat he half an hour. At Reading, i>. Pennsylvania, a young man was carrying a piece of iron pipe on his dioukler when one end of it came m contact with a live electric wire, and he received a shock that proved fatal. CRIPPLE AS LIFE-SAVER. Not long ago, at Pittsburg, a cripple with two artificial legs found his own disability the means of saving the life of another person. As he was going one day along :• street he saw a man writhing in agony at the end of a trol-lev-lir.e f*': carrying 1,-500 \o 1 ts, which had" 1 Token from its moorings, and of -\-* . h du fellow was unable to let. The '-ripple caught _bim around th-» .-.a:-, and succeeded in jerking him -.-. :•> from the wire. As the c-crk and wooden legs of the rescuer were non-conductors, the current could not reach the ground through Ins body. A FARMER'S EXPERIENCE. An American farmer was driving along the road after a storm, when his horse suddenly dropped dead. It was crossing a pool which had been caused by tho heavy rain. Into this pool had fallen the end of a broken electric wire, which had thus charged the water with a deadly current. Member of American fire brigades are now carefully warned against the risks of similar occurrences. When called to fires which are caused by some mishap to electrical equipments tiiey are careful not to turn their hose upon tho blaze until they are certain that there is no risk of tho stream of water becoming electrified. On the English side of the Atlantic one of the few fatal accidents reported in connection with the use of electricity occurred in a Scottish, colliery. A Fifeshire miner was engaged ni fastening a piece of corrugated iron on a box covering the electric cable when the nail lie was using pierced the cable and he received a shock that instantlv killed him. AT A SEASIDE RESORT.

Last year, in one of the English seaside resorts, a young man who was a. passenger in a new electric tramcar was getting out, an, in order to steady himself. passed his left hand along one of the handrails, to which straps are attached. Near the door he suddenly felt a severe shock, and found that he could not move his hand from the rail, neither could he move his left foot. A friend seized him and pulled him clear of the rails. He was taken to a surgery, where it was found that his left hand was severely burnt. It is supposed that through some leakage of current the hand-rails must have become charged with electricity. An accident of a very different kind was reported a few months ago at a meeting of the Electricity Committee of the Acton Council (Eng.). Tt was announced that one of the transformers at the generating station had broken down through a mouse getting into it, and that the repairs would cost £-30.