SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 955 



commissions or similar bodies to establish 

 regulations, and no government agency to 

 take the lead in the investigation, the mat- 

 ter has been entirely neglected in many 

 cases until the serious damage resulting 

 has made the question a very acute one. 



LIFE HAZARD IN ELECTRICAL WORK 



Another question affecting public-utility 

 companies is the life hazard in electrical 

 work. There are altogether too many pre- 

 ventable fatalities due to high-potential 

 electrical circuits, not only to employees of 

 the electrical companies, but also to the 

 public. In many eases such accidents 

 could have been avoided if the companies 

 had taken greater precautions, either by 

 instructing their employees more carefully, 

 or providing them with rubber gloves and 

 other protective devices, or having repairs 

 made only on dead lines, or using more 

 substantial and more expensive construc- 

 tion, or running the high-potential trans- 

 mission lines on private rights of way in- 

 stead of on the highway, or keeping the 

 dangerous wires away from telephone 

 wires and on separate pole lines, or taking 

 still other precautions which experience 

 shows are necessary. The long-distance 

 transmission of power is being resorted to 

 more and more, and higher voltages are 

 being used than a few years ago would 

 have been thought possible. One thou- 

 sand volts is a dangerous voltage, but 

 transmission at fifty to a hundred thou- 

 sand volts is becoming common. As water 

 power is utilized more and more, the coun- 

 try will finally be covered with a network 

 of high-potential transmission and distri- 

 bution lines, and it is a matter of vital 

 concern that all reasonable precautions be 

 taken in the construction and operation of 

 such lines. So long as public utilities were 

 regarded as private business and a com- 

 pany was free to make as much money as 



possible and invest as little as possible in 

 its plant, the tendency was to economize 

 unduly with respect to protective devices, 

 and any construction that was more ex- 

 pensive than the mechanical or electrical 

 requirements demanded was avoided. But 

 when we regard railroads, electric light 

 and power companies and telephone and 

 telegraph companies not only as public 

 utilities, but as quasi-public institutions, 

 and permit them to charge enough to make 

 a good profit, but to make the rates as low 

 as good service permits, then it is seen that 

 the public pays for the cost of protection, 

 and it is entitled to require that every 

 reasonable precaution be taken to safe- 

 guard human life. This latter is the view 

 which is now becoming general, and the 

 public-service commissions are therefore 

 greatly interested in having rules and 

 regulations worked out in such a way as to 

 be capable of enforcement upon the elec- 

 trical companies. On the other hand, the 

 electrical companies themselves are anxious 

 for such information. It is not necessary 

 to make original investigations in every 

 case; it is often a question of collecting 

 and digesting the information already in 

 existence, and with the cooperation of 

 numerous agencies which stand ready to 

 assist, work out a body of rules and regu- 

 lations that will be as useful as possible. 

 Congress has recently made a special ap- 

 propriation to permit the bureau to under- 

 take such a study of the life hazard in 

 electrical work, and it is hoped that val- 

 uable results may be accomplished. 



RAILROAD SCALES 



Another investigation of great practical 

 importance, in which the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission and the Bureau of 

 Standards are cooperating, is the investi- 

 gation of the accuracy of railroad scales^ 

 especially car scales, for weighing freight. 



