INQUEST

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1938, Page 2

INQUEST

DEATH OF EDNA E. TAYLOR. The inquest into the death of Edna Emma Taylor which took place on February 25, was concluded yesterday afternoon at the Courthouse.. The following evidence was taken on February 26. ur.gyiv, John Hutchison gave evidence that he was a grocer’s assistant residing in Park Street. The body the coroner had viewed in his presence was that of Edna Emma Taylor, whom he had known for 1£ years. She enjoyed good health. He did not know of her having suffered any injuries. Had known of her life as having been a happy one. Last saw her alive on February 23. she was then in good health. Deceased had her 26th birthday on January 16, 1938. knew the deceased to be the housekeeper of Henry James Cooper, residing at Livingston Street. HokitiKa. At yesterday’s proceedings, Sergt. Gilligan led the evidence and Mr J. Hannan appeared on behalf of H. o. Cooper. Evidence was given' as fpllows;— Robert Finlay Aitken, medical p.«ctitioner. residing at Hokitika, stated that on February 25, he was called the heuse of S'. J Cooper in Livingstone Street about 4.45 p.m. He found the deceased Edna Emma Taylor in a bedroom on a bed. She was dead. In his opinion she had been dead for two or three hours. Theio were electrical contact burns on the back’ of the right hand and wrist and also an exit uurn on the back of the right shoulder, also water in the lungs. The cause of death in his opinion was due to electrical shock causing cardiac syncope, resulting in the stoppage of the heart’s action It was impossible to tell whether the water in the lungs was inhaled before or after the shock but the circumstances pointed to it being after the shock.

. Henry James Cooper, a single man residing at Livingstone Street at the time of the accident, knew the deceas-j ed, who was his housekeeper. He was 1 an electrical licensed wireman and had j held a license for five years. He was! employed by the Beatty Washing Ma- I chine Coy,, as service agent. His duties'were to service the washing ma-j chines, and fitting any electrical plugs i as required by'the salesman. The wash- j Jug machines are put into houses.- for.-; the tw roost* of demonstration. He did , not.deliver the machines. He was notit, , tied and lie fitted them. for the electric current. A washing machine was left at >his house: .He put’ it in the wash house. There was no electricity in the wa.slihouse. He connected the machine with' 'electricity from fte bathroom which adjoins. 1 He connected, it into a double adaptor. .He took the light out and fitted the double adaptor- in. The ,flex was passed through' the wall into the* washhouse and connected to; the motor of the washing machine; The washing machine was already earthed. He did not do it himself. The earth wire was fitted from a lug on the washing machine on to the cold water pipe. He had fitted other machines of a similar sort. The fittings he used.in this j case were not similar to those used in other cases. The other fittings lie had made were from pines. He did not remember having fitted any other, machine by means of a double adaptor. The fittings he used in this particular case he considered were 100 per cent, safe. They worn.all standard British material. The fitting in the washing: machine was by means of an adaptor fitted into the machine. There were no loose ends. The co’d water pine in the washhouse leads into 'the cohl water nipe in the bathroom. The fitting of the earth wire was done to cold water pipe in every case where, possible. He tried out. the fittings of the machine and considered all. was secure and safe for usage. These were onlv temporary fittings. On February 25 he left his home about 1.30 n.m. His housekeeper was then attending to the usual

housetop!*! duties. He returned home about 4.30 p.m. On entering the house snw' water coming from the bathroom. Went into / the bathroom. Tbe toot water tap was running. Ho did not think the cold water tap was running. He did not trv the water to see if it were toot, or cold. The deceased was in the bathroom. From appearances she had been preparing to have a bath. The bath was full of water. Deceased was at the‘end of the bath away from the taps. Far feet were on the floor and she was bent over, her body lying across tbe side of the bath. Her head was j in the watpr and fully submerged. He switched the electric power off from the switch board ami pulling the cord from the ceiling of the bathroom, disconnecting it. He smelt the burning of the electric motor.in the washing machine. men he pulled the connection in the bathroom bo t.Vmghf it also disconnected the washing machine electric fittings. mien he lifted the bodv of deceased hoc were warm hut the body was cold. He placed her on a bed in a bedroom and rang for the doctor. He though she was dead, He did rud notice nnv marks «r burns. Deceased eninved excellent health. She had been in his emplov for eighteen months and do ring that time was Perfectly I>am>v ! ; ,nl contented and as far as.he knew j she had no worries, Dr AHken arrived . two or Five minutes after he rang him. | Recognised that electric current came , into the bath bnt he could not account, for it doing so. | To Mu Hannan—-The installing of a temporary ecnncc+iori is Frenuenflv do.m | b„t not from a light. Tf a rmrchaso ,s . effected a newer point installed. The I machine had been worked in his ores- j mmo and worked satisfactorily the day previously. After boi™ "‘"d be disconnected the point from the lighting ncint. The machine was nnt in the house three days before. He had pro-

posed Putting in a power point at the week end. lie presumed that as lie had disconnected the points that the deceased must have connected the machine again to use it. | : .Raymond George Caesar stated lie was employed by the Beatty Washing Machine Company as salesman. lie sold a washing machine to H. J. Cooper, and took it round on February 21. Next day he carried it into the washhouse, put on an earth to the water pipe, it was fastened on the washing machine from a bolt on the frame. He used a proper earth wire. He is not an electrician. He had used the same machine on Monday morning for a demonstration and had used. the same eartbwire on the machine. There was no-insulation on the earth wire. He connected it with the cold water pipe. He put the ends of the wire round the pipe and tightened it with a pair oi pliers. This was the usual procedure. He had made hundreds of similar connections. He connected the machine with the electric power. All their machines are fitted with three cord fie* with a three point plug. They come from the factory like that That is the connection for the electric power. He used his own electrical fittings at a demonstration and when that is completed he takes away those fittings. Where there is no point the earth wire is left. He left the earth wire in this instance thinking that their agent would instal the machine properly. Mr Cooper is their service agent. Witness had both bare and insulated wire for earth wires, but he was not sure which sort he placed, on the machine in the present case. He did not think if he had placed a bare wire on as an I earth it would be necessary for anyone j else to place an insulated wire on in- ! stead. He could not say how many t strands were on the earth wire. II | there were more than three strands in j the wire he would place it round the 'cold water tap in the same way as a j single wire. If it were required would bare the covered wire. He

demonstrated the machine handling the hot and cold water for an hour. That was in the washhouse. He received no shocks whatever. He did not go into the bathroom at all. The object of the earth wire was to be a safeguard in case of any escape of electric power. He did not. know if it were p 'ssible for any escape of power to reach the bath. J o hn Noble Robinson, 'inspector .appointed ,by the Government of electrical wiring installations, residing at Hampden Street, stated he made an inspection of the electric wiring in the bouse of H. J. Cooper in Livingstone ,Street. He Aver.t to>tlie, house on the ,evening ef Feb. 25th about 9 o’clock. In the wash house 'was an electric washingmachine. In'the bathroom he found a two circuit' adaptor lying on the floor with a broken lamp beside it. There was a lamp in the bathroom apparently fitted in after the accident. There were no other fittings in the room. Tlie switch to control the light in the bathroom was on the wall in the kitchen. The wash house adjoins the bathroom. He-, found a length of , twin flexible cable lying on the floor of the wash house: It was fitted with a two-point adaptor"‘tin one end only and two hare conductors at the other end. He took possession of this piece of flex and also a lamp holder which j auparently had been attached to it. 'lt was a bayonet lamp holder. He I noticed a hole in the wall between the bathroom and wash house. There was )an apparently new washing machine jin the wash house. ■lt was not connected to any power then. There was an insulated wire leading from it ana I on the end of that piece of insulated ‘ wire there was a two contact adaptor, i On screwing back the cover of this two contact adaptor it was found that the conductor was a three core conductor. There was an earth wire connected to the machine. It was a piece of cable wire with seven strands. During Fnj day’s inspection he found on screwing back the cover of the two-contact ) adaptor from the wire attached to tlie

washing machine, a third wire was found in the flexible lead. This vice was intended for earthing the machine hut it had been cut off shorter than the other two wires, and its end was uninsulated. It was in such close proximity to one terminal that it could easily have touched it, when the cover was screwed on again, or when the cover had originally been screwed on. There was every possibility, and a big probability, that this would cause an electric contact between the wire which was intended to earth the rna- | chine and a live wire. r lhe end of the earthing ‘wire which could have been cut back to get it out of the road, was not cut back far enough to get it out of the road, and it showed signs of electrical arcing. It showed signs ol an appreciable amount ol current having passed through. The diet ol the arcing established that tact. Du the 25th the continuity test showed that the red conductor was connected through to the high pressure water pipe, and that that pipe was connected with the cold water pipe in the bathroom. The white and black conductors in this electrical wire were connected with the winding terminal ol the washing machine motor. An insulation test of the winding of the motor 'of the machine to the frame showed an j insulation resistance of 70 megohms. This showed that at the time of the test there was no possibility ol electa u '.power passing from the motor winding I of the machine to the frame of the | machine. He made a further tost botween the cold water tap in the batli- | room and the sheet metal hath. II j was hard to make a. satisfactory conI tact and maintain it. It was nccos- ! sarv to press against, the cold water pipe to make an electrical contact at all That satisfactory contact when they cot, if would he dangerous. It would be only dangerous if it he-

came electrified from any supply source. Tlie high pressure was not connected with the installation earthpipe on the neutral bus bar on the I switchboard. He found the resistance to earth of the high pressure water pipe to be .53 ohms. This was considerably higher than it should bo. The lighting circuit fuse installed i' l j the switchboard was double the capacity of that usually used for lighting ! purposes. It showed uo sign oi heating. It was less of a safeguard than I a single wire. The high pressure water pipe was purposely connected up by his instructions for testing purpose*’

to a live phase wire, thrcnig.n a five ampere fuse wire, which fused. That was repeating as near as they could what was thought actually happeneu on the afternoon of the 2oth. The high pressure water supply was connected up again and a current of six amperes passed to earth through it. With a. volt meter, a voltage of 05

volts was measured between the cold water tap in the bath room and the hath. Standing on the damp floor in ordinary shoes it was possible to holcl on tnJ cold water tap in the bathroom, and only experience a shg-.c shock. He examined the fittings in connection with the washing machine. From the test made and examination of the fittings, and temporary wiring, especially the two contact adaptor on the end of the three core flexible lead attached to the washing machine, he was of opinion that a dangerous potential could have ex*stecT "between the cold water tap in the bathroom and the sheet metal bath, and to a lesser degree between the same to.d water tap and the floor of the bathroom. He was satisfied- there was a serious danger, hut whether it was sufficient to cause death •he was not - prepared to say. The burns on the deceased could have been caused if the deceased was making contact- for a long period with live metal.

This concluded the evidence. The Coroner returned a verdict that Edna Emma Taylor came to her death iby electrocution at the residence of Henry James Cooper on February 25, 1935.