NEW USE FOR ELECTRICITY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 5 September 1912, Page 6

NEW USE FOR ELECTRICITY

The teredo of the Pacific Ocean, attacks ail submerged woodwork, destroying a wharf completely iv the coarse of a lew years, is being successfully combated, according to the Philadelphia Itecord, by tue use -of electricity. A floating power plant, equipped for self-propulsion, Jias been •designed for this purpose, and current is passed through salt water, releasing chlorine, hydrogen, bromide, iodine, and sodium-hydroxide or concentrated' lye. The teredos are killed within a very few moments by the great volume of chlorine gas liberated. This treatment does not render the piling immune from further attack, but It h claimed that an occasional treatment will keep the borers from penetrating to any great depth, so that the timbers can be preserved indefinitely at a comparatively low charge. The operation of destroying the teredos is not. -at all complex. The wharf is first wired, and electrodes are suspended from it so as to be .submerged at a greater or lesser depth, the details varying with local conditions. The power plant on a barge has a. capacity of 20,000 to 40,000 amperes, but the voltage is exceedingly low. The current is turned on for about an hour.