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September 1, 1908 WASN'T WORKING ON WIRES.
J. W. Harris Had No Business on Pole From Which He Fell.
No reason has been found why J. W. Harris of Topeka, who was killed yesterday afternoon, near Fourth street and Roland avenue, Kansas City, Kas., by falling off a telephone pole, should have been tampering with the wires of the Home Telephone Company. He died from the effects of a broken back at noon yesterday.
All the electrical companies with wires at the spot where he was working at the time of the accident accounted for all their men yesterday.
A brother of Harris came to Kansas City, Kas., last night and will return to Topeka with the body this morning. He says his brother was a lineman and was in good standing in Topeka. The stranger who was with Harris at the time of the mishap has not been found and no one who saw the two men working among the wires could give the police a description of him.Labels: Kansas City Kas, telephone, Topeka, Utilities July 21, 1908 UNION DEPOT IN DARKNESS.
Passengers Couldn't Find Their Way Out and Trains Were Delayed.
The Union depot was in total darkness for five minutes, from 8:54 until 8:59, last night. Trouble at the power house shut off all the electricity just at the time the passengers were going to the Santa Fe, Chicago & Alton, M., K. & T., Missouri Pacific and Wabash 9 o'clock trains.
It was homeseekers' night and the depot was crowded when the lights went out. The depot employes did not start to procure lights for a moment, expecting the "juice" to come back immediately. Finally they lighted a few gas jets and procured candles. The telegraphy office looked as thought it were decorated for a Santa Claus reception, for each operator had a candle all his own.
The arc lights came back five minutes after they went out but the incandescents were out until 9:13. Many of the 9 o'clock trains went out several minutes late, waiting for the passengers who could not find their way through the dark depot.Labels: railroad, telegraph, Union depot, Utilities May 29, 1908 RAIN INTERFERES WITH LIGHTS.
Insulation on Electric Wires Is Be- coming Saturated.
Prevailing rains are interfering with the electric light wires. Insulation is becoming saturated and the result is that electricity is "cutting around" instead of going out on spurs to lamps.
"There is nothing that can be done to prevent these new troubles," said an official of the electric light company yesterday. "Weatherproof insulation does not mean waterproof insulation. Ordinarily it is waterproof, but that is where it gets a chance to dry out after one rain before another falls. The last two weeks there has been rain so often and the sun so seldom that the insulation is becoming saturated. Dim lights are the result in some places. Only sunshine can cure that sort of defect."Labels: Utilities, weather April 20, 1908 BURNED BY ELECTRIC WIRE.
Carroll Freeman, Argentine, Was Un- conscious From the Shock.
While twenty children were playing at the foot of Ash street at Argentine yesterday morning one of them, Carroll Freeman, caught hold of a guy wire, which extends across the tops of two telephone poles, and down to a stake in the ground, and before his comrades could pull him free of the wire, he was seriously burned. Clyde Foster was the first lad to rescue and his quickness probably saved Carroll's life.
Carroll's left hand was burned to the bone, and the toes on both his feet were scorched. His rescuer was slightly burned on the hands from taking hold of Carroll's garments and clinging while he pulled the helpless boy from the wire.
Walter Freeman, Carroll's father, who lives at 202 North Eleventh street, said last night that the boy would recover. After being brought home in the morning the lad remained unconscious until six o'clock in the evening, when he came to himself and rallied rapidly. The Foster boy lives on Ruby street, a block west from Ash. He is 13 and Carroll is of about the same age.
Walter Freeman explains the accident by saying that an electric light wire, carrying a heavy voltage, sagged and touched the guy wire, where it crossed from one telephone pole to the other. The end of the guy wire, which ran toward the ground, being attached to a dry post, had no opportunity to ground the electric wire current. When the lad took hold of the wire, the current grounded through his body, Freeman says. That explanation would account for the boy's toes being burned.Labels: accident, Argentine, children, Utilities April 7, 1908 FILLED CONVENTION HALL.
Beardsley and Warner the Speakers at Closing Republican Party.
Republicans held the closing general rally of the campaign in Convention hall last night. Speeches were made by Senator William Warner, Mayor Beardsley and R. R. Brewster.
The big hall was crowded to overflowing with men, women and children, many bringing their entire families to hear the speeches of the workers for the Republican administration. Repeated applause from a vicinity within close reach of the platform where the speakers stood followed the attacks on the different corporations, James A. Reed and Mr. Thomas T. Crittenden, Jr. Bitter attacks were made upon the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, and pictures of cities were shown where the street car fare is less than 5 cents, in one of which, at least, the fare was reduced by a public utilities commission.
Another series of pictures of the different Republican candidates for election today and of different improvements in the city made under the Beardsley administration was shown.
Senator William Warner acted as chairman of the meeting and delivered the opening address. The first part of his speech was pertaining to national and state affairs, in which he upheld the policies of President Roosevelt, and added that William H. Taft intends to carry out those policies. He gave a short talk on the railroad corporations as they are conducted today and as they were before President Roosevelt's administration.
NEED OF A COMMISSION.
He soon turned, however, to the election today in Kansas City, and in a brief address commended every candidate and attacked the Metropolitan street railway, Mr. Reed and Mr. Crittenden. One of his principal points was that a utilities commission will give the city a chance to govern corporations, and not the corporations to govern the city. "Corporations should not govern the city and dictate to the people how much they shall pay for their service, or how city affairs shall be operated," said Senator Warner. "I believe in a public utilities commission. The people should control and regulate the electric light plant and the Metropolitan street railway. We do not know whether these corporations and others are conducted properly, we do not know whether they are charging us unreasonable prices for service. A public utilities commission would see the books of these corporations and determine for the citizens if the corporations are meeting the public's interest.Labels: Convention Hall, James A. Reed, Mayor Beardsley, Metropolitan Street Railway Company, politics, President Roosevelt, Senator Warner, Utilities March 28, 1908 WILL THEIR PAY BE RAISED?
Question City Employes Are Asking Mayor Beardsley.
"If a public utilities commission will raise the salaries of private utility corporations, as is being asserted by political orators, I hope the same commission will have the power to do likewise to underpaid employes of the city," said W. H. Applegate, emoployed as a laborer at the Turkey creek water pumping station, yesterday.
"I have lived in Kansas City for forty years," he continued, "and have been employed as laborer for a number of years at Turkey creek water pumping station at $1.75 a day. This was the salary paid in 1891, and has never been raised, although the cost of living has advanced 40 per cent.
"Some months ago, with a delegation of laborers from the pumping station, we appealed to the board of public works for a slight increase in pay, but were refused. George Hoffmann, president of the board, said to us: "Boys, you have got an easy job and 365 days to work."Labels: employment, laborer, Mayor Beardsley, public works, Utilities March 24, 1908 BELL 'PHONES TO BE LOWER.
Compromise With City in Pole Tax Controversy.
An ordinance introduced in the upper house last night, and referred for one week to the committee on streets, alleys and grades, contemplates the immediate reduction of Bell telephone rates from $96 to $60, in the business district, and from $60 to $36 per year for instruments in residences.
Accompanying this ordinance was another effecting a compromise between the city and the Mirrouri and Kansas Telephone Company, populraly known as the Bell system, whereby the city drops its pole and conduit scheme of taxation and is to accept 2 per cent of the gross earnings of the company, in addition to the right to use one conduit and all pins on the Bell poles, for the carrying of police and fire department wires. Further, the city is to receive $28,533.34 as a settlement of arrears of disputed taxes and also to get a receipt for something like $7,500 due the Bell compny for services already rendered.Labels: telephone, Utilities February 28, 1908 THREE YEARS FOR FOREST.
He Admitted That He Stole Gas Stove Worth $3.
Albert Forest, who stole a gas stove last Wednesday and was arrested in front of the Kansas City Missouri Gas Comany's office while he had the stove on his back, entered a plea of guilty to a burglary charge yesterday afternoon, and was sentenced to serve three years in the penitentiary. The stove was worth $3, but Forest brokeinto the Western Auction and Mercantile Company's store to get it. He also stole the padlock from the door.Labels: crime, penitentiary, Utilities March 29, 1907
STREET CAR EARNINGS GROW.
February Shows a Total Net of $46,000, Against $37,000 Last Year.
The joint net earnings of the Metropolitan Street Railway and the Kanas City Electric Light Company for the month of February, according to the auditor's statement issued yesterday, amounted to $46,318.52, against $37,417.34 for the corresponding month in 1906. The net earnings of the two companies for the nine months of the fiscal year which ended with February were $836,085.76. The same nine months of the fiscal year ending June, 1906, showed $725,042.79. The gross earnings for February were $423,509.04. The February taxes and interest amounted to $146,876.59.
Labels: Metropolitan Street Railway Company, Utilities February 6, 1907
HIS GAS BILL WAS $26.
On the First Reading the Company Sent a Bill for $78.
"Here is your gas bill, ma'am," said a boy to Mrs. C. F. Hutchings, of 20 South Eighteenth street, Kansas City, Kas., handing her a folded sheet of paper. Mrs. Hutchings closed the door and then read the bill.
"Seventy eight dollars!" she cried. "Oh no, surely that is wrong. They mean $7.80."
She laid the bill away. When her husband came home she showed it to him.
"Seventy-eight dollars!" also exclaimed Mr. Hutchings when he had read it. "What is this --- a bill for the past year?"
Careful examination showed taut the statement was for the month of January only. Mr. Hutchings took an pencil and paper and began to figure.
"At 26 cents a thousand cubic fee, $78 would buy 312,000 cubic feet of gas," said Mr. Hutchings.
The company when the matter was brought to its attention, re-read the meter. The bill was then reduced to $26.00.
Labels: Kansas City Kas, Utilities January 5, 1907
GIVEN BACK THEIR $50,000.
McGowan, Morgan and Small Comply With Requirements
The $50,000 in cash deposited with the city by Mssrs. McGowan, Morgan and Small, grantees of the natural gas franchinse, as a guarantee that they would be furnishing natural gas to consumers through seventy-five miles of mains before January 1, was paid back to James B. McGowan, representing the grantees, by order of the board of public works yesterday. The company reported that it had more than complied with its part of the arrangement, as early in December it was furnishing consumers through 84.92 miles of mains, or nearly nine more miles than required by the provisions of the franchise. S. F. Scott, city gas inspector, who conducted the inspection to determine the correctness of the gas company's statement, reported that it was practically correct, and that all gas lamps throughout the district served with natural gas were equipped with mantles and the light was satisfactory.
Arrangements for connecting up other districts of the city with natural gas are being pushed, and it is thought that early in February another large area will be served.Labels: Utilities |
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