EFFECTS OF VAGRANT ELECTRICITY. 



361 



the earth. The cost of arriving at this condition is prohibitive, 

 and the improved track return is, and always must be, a palliative 

 merely, not a cure. 



Assuming, then, that under the most favorable character of elec- 

 tric-railway construction some of the current may be expected to 

 stray from the straight and narrow path, it behooves us to consider 

 how it may best be cared for in order that it may not cause electroly- 

 sis. Since corrosion of this nature occurs only at those points where 

 electricity leaves the metal, one might suppose that the attachment 

 of a conducting wire to the affected part would result in the harm- 

 less carrying away of the current. In isolated cases, in small towns, 

 such a plan might accomplish the desired result. It is open to the 

 objection, however, that it in a measure legalizes the conveyance 

 of electricity on conductors other than those designed for the pur- 



•»»s«»-r^ ■-, 



Lead Service Pipe showing the Effects of Eight Months' Electrolytic Action, and 



CLEARLY ILLUSTRATING THE FaCT THAT DaMAGE OCCURS ONLY WHERE THE ElECTEICITY 



LEAVES THE CONDUCTOR. The interior suiiace is unattacked. 



pose. In larger towns, with more than one power house and with 

 car lines radiating from and circumscribing the business center, 

 the attachment of conducting mres entails a ceaseless disturbance 

 of the electrical equilibrium, curing the evil in spots and develop- 

 ing new danger points. Furtluermore, these connections tend to 

 decrease the resistance -of the total illegitimate return, thereby 



