HAZARDOUS FEAT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144050, 20 March 1913, Page 3

HAZARDOUS FEAT.

ELECTRICITY-PROOF MAN. GIVES EXHIBITION IN WELLINGTON. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 20. Charles Quill, who is anpearing at the Theatre Royal under the name of “Elecfcra,”, was fined £3 and costs today on a charge of interfering without authority with the overhead tramway wire. It was explained that defendant was giving an exhibition of resisting electricity in the public street. The Dominion of Wednesday said:— The act that “Electra” performed at 7.45 p.m. in the open street was positively hair-raising. He was to take the full current (500 volts) from the trollywire whilst standing bare-footed on the rail, thus: One wire led from the trollywire by means of a long pole with a hook on the top, and fastened to. his right wrist, whilst he placed his right foot on the rail. • Without any warning “Electra” stepped on the rail, and immediately he took tho full “load,’ and in two seconds shouted, “Take it off—take it offl” as he squirmed and wriggled ns one possessed, and when the pole was jerked upwards, and the circuit broken, “Electra,” palo and obviously shaken, staggered off the track. Prior to the test “Electra” demonstrated that the wire which ho connected with the trolly-wire was carrying the load, by attaching a metal weight to it, and allowing it to drop on the tramrail. The result was a brilliant flash of electric light which hurt the eyes.