Attacking the problem from a directly opposite standpoint, there seems
to be a chance of successfully invoking the aid of some purely chemical
method of rendering lead and iron innocuous, electrolytically speaking.
If we can obtain an insulating oxide, lacquer, or varnish that will
retain its high-resistance properties during the ordinary lifetime of
the buried metal, it will be possible to effectually protect pipes and
cable coverings by coating them prior to burial. Or, if we can stumble
upon an electrolysis-proof alloy, formed by the addition of a few per
cent of some foreign metal to the pipe material during manufacture, the
buried conductor will need no protection whatever.
But, supposing that we discover this lacquer or this alloy and by such
means guard against damage to all new construction, how are we to care
for the metals already buried? We can not dig them all up and paint
them, neither can we attempt to replace them by the new alloy. I do
not see that the state of the art to-day presents any solution of the
difficulty, other than the banishment of the single trolley system.
None of the electrical remedies (so called) offers more than partial
and temporary relief, and the chemical field is just beginning to be
explored.
Permit me to state most emphatically that this is not intended as an
argument in favor of the abolishment of single trolley systems. Our
civilization owes more to them than could be rehearsed in catalogue
form within the limits of one issue of this magazine. We have
nothing at present that can be employed as a satisfactory substitute
for the ordinary electric railway. The underground trolley is a
safe substitute, but the great expense of installation renders it
available for very few localities. The overhead trolley, with two
wires and no ground return, is cumbersome, vexatious, and unsightly.
The storage battery is more or less experimental in its nature. The
electro-magnetic contact systems, with plates set in the pavement at
stated intervals, make no pretense of avoiding electrolytic troubles.
The compressed-air motor has yet to receive popular approval.
[Illustration: LEAD SERVICE PIPE SHOWING THE DEPTH TO WHICH THE PIPE
HAS BEEN AFFECTED.
In this instance the outer covering consists of a salt of lead, having
no strength whatever.]
There seems to be a mistaken impression abroad that the railway
companies are indifferent to this subject. So far as my experience and
information go, this is not the case. They are only too anxious to
find a remedy--not, as some electricians have stated, to save their
coal-pile, for energy is wasted in forcing the electricity back to the
power house, no matter what the path, but because they fear that at
some future date the taxpayer, the corporation, and the municipality
will band together, present overwhelming bills for damages, and
sweep the trolleys off the face of the earth. The instinct of
self-preservation, if nothing else, demands that the electric-railway
companies should put forth every endeavor to solve the electrolysis
problem.
And yet, conservative judgment requires that the railway companies
should not take the initiative. It is one of boyhood’s maxims not to
shoot arrows at a hornet’s nest unless one has mud handy to apply to
the subsequently afflicted part. Thus it happens that the railway
company remains apparently inactive, bearing the burden of public
condemnation, while we, whose lethargy is responsible for failing
pipes, read electrolysis articles in the daily press and wonder how
soon the impending catastrophe is likely to occur.
This condition of affairs is deplorable; for, while we may not care
how extensively or how frequently the city authorities or the private
corporations are obliged to renew their underground metals, we are
at least vitally concerned as to whether the stray electricity is
endangering our steel office buildings, our bridges, our water supply,
our immunity from conflagrations, and the safety of the hundred and one
appliances that go to make up our modern civilization.
Are the Brooklyn Bridge anchor plates going to pieces, or are they
not? Are the elevated railroad structures about to fall apart, or are
they not? The consulting electrical engineer says “Yes,” the railway
man says “No.” The municipal authorities say nothing. “When doctors
disagree----”
I deem it doubly unfortunate that so much valuable brain energy has
been inefficiently expended in the discussion of electrolysis. Each
writer has viewed it from his own standpoint. Electrical literature has
acquired in this way a series of views, interesting and instructive,
but also bewildering. There is no composite view, such as might be
obtained from the report of a commission composed of a technical
representative of each of the interests affected. So far as I am able
to learn, such a commission has never existed.
* * * * *
A curious coincidence of superstitions, illustrating anew how all
men are kin, is exemplified in the native belief, mentioned in Mrs.
R. Langloh Perkins’s book of More Australian Legendary Tales, that
any child who touches one of the brilliant fungi growing on dead
trees--which are called “devil’s bread”--will be spirited away
by ghosts. An English reviewer of the book remembers having been
dragged away from a fungus of this kind for the same reason. In the
north of England children used to be told that, if they touched the
dangerous growths, a fungus of the same kind would grow from the
tip of every finger.