ELECTRICAL DANGERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2671, 29 November 1909, Page 7

ELECTRICAL DANGERS.

INVENTION TO RENDER “LIVE WIRES” HARMLESS.

Some weeks ago the “Napier Telegraph published a paragraph concerning the invention of a Napier boy, Mr. M-. G. Newbould, for an automatic cutout for electric wires. A public demonstration of the invention was held at the Wellington tramway station, last week, and was attended with the greatest- possible success. The patent was tested under the personal supervision of Mr. Steuart Richardson, the chief electrical engineer of the Tramway Department, and Mr. Newbould explained the work .ing of the machine. The object!of the invention is to instantaneously cut off the current when a break occurs in a trolley wire, and. to enable the broken wire to be handled immediately with absolute safety. In the yard where the trial was conducted two trolley wires were placed in position, charged with 500 _ volts. There were two tests. In the first instance both trolley wires were brokoh without the application of the new cut-out machine,- and a. number bt lighted lamps which wore burning when the trial was made still continued to burn when the wires were severed, showing clearly that- the current was still in the wires, which were “alive.” g The second test was 'to show the value of the patent. Both wires were again broken, and instantaneously with their severance- the lights went out, showing that there was a cessation of current. There was no hitch, the trial being most successful. To ensure safety on all the lines served by elect-rio trams a machine would have to he placed at various points on all routes. Immediately a break occurred. then the whole trolley wire would be dead from one machine to the other. People riding on the top of tramcars would have a much greater sense of securitv if they knew that, in the event of a wire _ falling they would ran no risk of patent was installed, it is claimed for it that, an overhead wire would be quite harmless before even reaching people on the top deck, and they are very close to the wires. Mr. Newbould, the inventor, served his time in Cable’s foundry. The patent is held bv a company under the title of Newbould Patents, Ltd.