Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1893 — Danger from Electricity. [ARTICLE]

Danger from Electricity.

The continuous current is like a snake, which strikes once and loses its fangs. The alternating current is a snake which can strike again and again. The latter current is coming into use in electric lighting, and it may yet bo employed in the transmission of power. its use over that of the continuous current The dangers from its employment are very great, and will need careful safeguards. It is not however, the possible risk to life in the contact with the ground and a dangling dead wire, whieh hat come in contact with the overhead system of electric propulsion, that constitutes the most serious danger from electricity. What is most to be feared » the ease with which extensive tires can be started in cities by means of bare or poorly insulated electric circuits, of which the earth forms a portion. The electric current seeks to return to the generator which produces it by the path of least resistance. If, therefore, a telegraph or telephone wire, or any metallic conductor, should come in contact with a bare wire conveying a powerful current, this current would seek tbe ground by every possible way; and if the telegraph or telephone wire should be connected., with the ground, the powerful eurrent would be directed through telegraph or telephone instruments in offices and houses to ground connections. It is said, in reply to this view, that lightning frequently has entered houses by telephone and telegraph wires, and has merely burnt out a coil or fused a wire, and has not caused any serious conflagration. A sudden discharge through a circuit, however, is not so dangerous as a slow, insidious heating, which might go on for several hours before it is discovered. This heating could easily be produced by a portion of a powerful current leaking into houses and offices from a wire which has fallen upon a bare inetallie circuit through which a current is flowing. What is to prevent, it may be asked, a great city being set on tire by electricity, in a hundred places at once, on the night of a blizzard? The inquiry is certainly not a frivolous one. The elements of danger are with us, and the questions of safeguards demand the most careful consideration by our municipal authorities.—Atlantic Monthly.