ELECTRIC SUPERSTITIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 224, 21 September 1907, Page 6

ELECTRIC SUPERSTITIONS.

LIVE WIRES AND POLES

AMERICAN TALES, WELLINGTON FACTS.

That blessed word electricity; whose syllables fill the breast of the average boardinghouse debater, is hailed in the same breath as a charm and a harm. Next to a benevolent Government, the multitude looks to electricity for corn and games, for the mind and body. Yet with all this trust in the agent termed the "subtle fluid" as a regenerator of this world, there is mingled a fear, a dread that the mysterious force is distinctly mischievous, and is ever ready to play pranks upon its tamers. Naturally electric cars have induced many a " Pro Bono Publico" to lift a %yarning finger, but the vehicles buzz on their way merrily, and the worst mishap that usually befalls a passenger is a crushing of a toe by a straphanger.

AMERICAN " SENSATIONS."

Perhaps the best way to begin a reference to popular fallacies about the ways of electric cars is to quote an American report entitled "An Electrified Puddle that dealt Death."

" One of these dangers, which is perhaps the most full of peril of any, arises from the great extension of electric traction and electric lighting;" the narrative runs. "A horrible tragedy occurred not long ago at Pittsburg, the American Birmingham A heavy thunderstorm drenched a large flag, making it so heavy that its weight broke the; staff, which fell upon an overhead wire and cut it in two. One end of the wire dropped into a great puddle between the tram-lines. A man crossing the street hurriedly to get out of the rain, stepped in the pool and instantly fell dead. A number of people, rushed to pick him up, and not knowing the cause of the accident, also stepped into the water. Three more were electrocuted and half a dozen received violent shocks. The street looked like a battlefield. In August last a similar accident occurred in Brooklyn. A wire was broken by the wind, and charged a pool, into which a man dropping off a, tram-car stepped and was killed, and almost immediately two great van horses coming close up behind were likewise lkiled as if by a lightning flash."

" NONSENSE."

Remembering that recently an accident to a sump allowed water to submerge a section of the rails in Willis Street for some . hours, the American item was shown to Mr S. Richardson, Chief Electrical Engineer to the Wellington Corporation, and he was asked about the " what might have been" in case the overhead wire had been broken and an end immersed in the flood. The expert replied that the American report was nonsense. The wire could not

charge a pool unless the water was insulated from the ground. ANOTHER COMMON BELIEF. It is widely believed that if a man has one foot on a rail and places a hand upon one of the metal uprights near the step he will receive a shock. Though this theory is supported by some persons who declare that they have evidence to support their faith, it is vigorously rejected by the expert. They say that as long as a car is on the rails a person could not get a shock by adopting %he tactics ]ust mentioned, but if a vehicle was off the metalled way a person who touched it while a foot was on the rail would complete the circuit and get a current through him, presuming, of course, that the trolly-head was still in contact with the overhead wire. There have been cases in Wellington where volunteers who have come forward to assist in replacing a car on the rails have received a very tingling surprise. ANIMATED TROLLY-STANDARD'S People who like to ride on the top of a double-decker may as well know that the standard carrying the pole may become " alive " under certain conditions, but they need not be alarmed. As soon as this happens, the fact is recorded by a red lamp, and the travellers are asked to descend. However, no inconvenience has yet been recorded on this score in Wellington, and in any case the voltage of the shock would not be serious. , In Christchurch the double-deckers are furnished with iron loops overhead, as a safeguard against a breakage in the overhead wire or the swishing of the trolly pole. In Wellington the cars have not this protective equipment, but it is submitted that its absence does not make the travelling less safe. The only time that a pole is likely to sway about is when it leaves the overhead wire while the car is going a great speed. In such a case the motorman at once knows that his current is cut off, and he can stop the car very quickly with his brakes. The Wellington "deckers" follow the lines of others which have served satisfactorily in various parts of the world. The latest patterns, however, have the top deck covered in. An obstacle to the adoption of such a type here is the wind, combined with difficult curves and grades. Accidents, mainly to horses, have happened in England by the "enlivening " of the poles that carry the wires. Similar mishaps cannot occur in Wellington, for the poles are well insulated in the earth; copper connects the bases with the rails.—Post.