THE RISKS OF ELECTRIC LIGHT. 575 



people his mountain fastnesses with the picturesque and graceful elk, deer and 

 antelope?" If the American buifalo is not immortalized soon, whoever does it 

 will have to take the " Last of the Mohicans " for his model. 



The great opportunity open to a young American artist is to make an animal 

 painter of himself, or herself, and although this little article is modestly addressed 

 to amateur picture buyers, and not to artists in any sense, this suggestion is open 

 to appropriation by any one worthy to take it up. 



THE RISKS OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 



BY PROF. HENRY MORTON. 



The sources of danger in the use of the electric light are essentially two; 

 from the conducting wires and from the electric lamps. As long as the electric 

 fluid or electric energy is conveyed by a sufficiently good conductor it is perfect- 

 ly harmless, resembling a river flowing in its natural channel and powerless to 

 rise above its banks; it is only when some easier channel into surrounding ob- 

 jects is offered, or some partial obstruction of a certain character impedes its reg- 

 ular flow, that trouble may arise. The conditions of these difficulties are, more- 

 over, very peculiar. Thus, for example, if two electric conducting wires,s^ form- 

 ing the outgoing and returning paths of a powerful current, are placed near each 

 other, but are separated by a bad conductor, as for example, when both are 

 tacked onto a board partition wall, the current will follow" the wire from end to 

 end, with no development of heat in the same or tendency to leave the conductor 

 or pass into any adjacent object. If, however, between the two conducting wires 

 we introduce some imperfect conductor, such as a small wire, some metallic dust, 

 or a film of water containing mineral matter in solution, then a portion of the 

 current will be diverted into this "short cut" from wire to wire, and may heat 

 the wire or metallic dust or the wood wet with the aqueous solution, so as to 

 cause the ignition of inflammable matter. Accidents of this nature have already 

 occurred. Thus a telegraph or telephone wire having fallen across one or more 

 of the conductors used for street-lighting purposes has been fused, or, itself es- 

 caping, has caused the fusion of finer wires connected with it. 



Again, two wires, being the outgoing and returning circuits of a powerful 

 current, have been nailed side by side, without other insulation, on the same 

 board of a floor, partition, or ceiling ; and though used safely for a long time, 

 while the wood-work was in its normal state, have developed a very dangerous . 

 activity when the wood between them was wet with dirty or impure water. In 

 that case the water offers a circuit through which a cross current is established 

 which first heats the damp wood, then chars it, and finally establishes a series of 

 of minute arcs or electric sparks along the charred surface, which would soon de- 

 velop a conflagration if left uncorrected. 



