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The Committee had also before it the regulations of the Board of Trade for securing the safety of the public and for insuring a proper and efficient supply of electrical energy These papers were carefully examined by the Committee, which then proceeded to consider and draft regulations for the control of electric light and power supplies and the erection of electric-light power and traction wires. Regulations. It was considered desirable to carefully revise and amend the regulations drawn up at the first Conference of the Committee in Sydney These, as amended, are now embodied in the complete Code of Regulations appended to this report (Appendix A), which the Committee recommends for adoption throughout the Australasian Colonies. They are arranged in the following order:— 1. Electric Light and Power Definitions. Regulations as to safety Conduits for underground wires. Aerial conductors. Converting stations. Consumers' premises. Alternating current transformers. Regulations as to supply 2. Electric Traction. Definitions. Regulations. Electric Tramway System. The various methods of constructing electric tramways received very careful consideration, with a view to ascertaining the possible dangers and interferences likely to arise from their use. Briefly stated, there are three systems —it being unnecessary to refer to a fourth where storage batteries are carried in the car, and no external conducting wires are necessary :— 1. That known as the single trolly, consisting of one overhead bare wire, insulated from earth, with an uninsulated return lead, of which the rails form the whole or part, to generator This system has already been introduced in Sydney, Hobart, and Box Hill (near Melbourne) 2 That known as the double trolly, having both wires (forming the lead and return) carried overhead and insulated from earth. 3. The underground conduit system, in which one or both conductors (lead and return) are insulated. The objections raised to the overhead trolly system are — 1 That it is unsightly, especially in the principal streets of a city 2. That it is a source of danger and an impediment in the event of fire. 3. That the rails forming the whole or greater part of the return lead to generator are uninsulated from earth, and, where the overhead conductor runs parallel with the telephone, telegraph, and railway signal wires, the induction and leakage are a cause of serious disturbance, especially on telephone wires, as will be seen in the memorandum appended to this Report, laid before the Committee by Mr Robert Henry, Superintendent of Telegraphs in Tasmania {vide Appendix B) The same objection applies to some extent to the underground system, where the return wire is connected with the earth. Speaking on the question of the overhead trolly system, Sir F J. Bramwell, in his evidence before the Joint Committee of the House of Lords and House of Commons before referred to on page 2, says, referring to the Leeds tramway, "that it A 2

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