THE CURRENT FAILED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 58, 1 November 1912, Page 3

THE CURRENT FAILED.

Last month an area, of four and three-quarter square miles of North London was deprived of its electric light through a tip breaking,out in the switch-room of, the Islington electric works. The fiye occurred between eight and nine o’clock at jnight and caused a great deal, of inconvenience.. Some streets were,, lit by,,. gas,., but many of the main thoroughfares and the majority of the places'of entertainment were enveloped in darkness." In many picture palaces vivid pictorial stories of love,, agd., hate c.ame to a sudden ending, a short wait, tho audiences wove,, told t}iat,, the remainder of the .programmes 1 1 would be abandoned. lAt.one theatre a large audience was watching the first act of “Milestones.” The play had just reached a most dramatic situation, when, suddenly, all the lights went out. The actors wont on with the dialogue, and the arrival ou the scene of a servant carrying a silver candelabrum was so timed that most of tho audience accepted tho dim lighting as part of the play. At a convenient interval the manager explained what had occurred, and soon the stage, tho front of the house and tho corridors were lighted with candles. At a musical hall a quartette was singing a part song about the shadows find tho gloaming when the lights failed and again the audience accepted tho dimmness as part of the “business.” At another hall there were some signs of panic, but the manageV went on to the stage and announced what had happened, and while an invisible artist sang a song the invisible audience joined in the chorus and gradually melted away. In hundreds of private houses and boarding houses there was excitement and confusion, and, in a very short space of time, shopkeepers were receiving numerous orders for' candles and oil. Two prisons were affected, but they were 'able to secure a limited gas supply. The Great Northern Hospital, however, had to manage as best it could with candles. Very prompt repairs were effected at the works and the many manufacturing firms which depend on the electric supply for their motive-power were not seriously inconvenienced.