TELEPHONES IN THUNDERSTORMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1182, 26 November 1880, Page 2

TELEPHONES IN THUNDERSTORMS.

There 'appears' to be some danger (says the -Ejyftiii N&wb) attending', the ■of the new agent " which science 'is 'daily htiiisirig rrhofe and ! niore. "Recent : experience in the United States goes to prove that the telephone may do miich mischief. During a heavy thunderstorm

the telephone wires at Louisville became so charged with electricity that numbers of telephones were destroyed. People using the instruments during the storm also ran great risks. It is reported one man who had his ear to the tube was struck by lightening, and has been deaf ever since. Two other persons engaged in conversation at each end of a telephone were similarly struck. The lightening flash burst the instrument, it only frightened one person, but it threw him violently to the ground. He received a violent shock and was taken up insensible. Accidents of this kind are not unlikely to occur during periods of great electrical disturbances. They may, however, in some measure be avoided by adopting the proper precautions. The telephonic apparatus is provided with a safety plug which if made use of at the first synatons of the storm will effecually isolate the instrument from -"the lightening But although this may protect life, it will hardly protect the apparatus, and if the -telephone is to be largely employed in latitudes much visited- by storms, some further invention seems desirable to isolate the wires. No doubt this will receive Mr. Edison's immediate attention.