In Imitation of Birds

Sitting on high-tension wires is obviously for the birds. When a bird flutters down from the air and perches on a hot wire, the deadly current rushes about inside the body but, since it is not grounded, can go no farther and does no harm. Squirrels run greater electrical risks, but it is their own fault: they have a habit of nuzzling each other. A lone squirrel can scoot safely back and forth across a wire, but when a squirrel on a charged line touches noses with a friend on a grounded tower, or swishes its tail onto another wire, the result is dramatic: flash, bang, goodbye squirrels. For humans, messing around with high-tension wires has been even more hazardous. Linemen, working on charged wires while their bodies are grounded by contact with poles or towers, have had to use "hotsticks" and other clumsy but insulated tools to protect them from the current. There was always the danger that a careless motion might draw a deadly charge. A simple job like changing an insulator could take five man-hours when done in this way.

Last week President Philip Sporn of the American Electric Power Co. Inc. announced that his company has adopted a new "bird" technique of working on high-tension lines. The lineman does not climb the tower. Instead, he sits in a plastic bucket and is raised to the wire by a truck-mounted boom made of insulating fiber glass. When he reaches the wire, he clamps to it a cable that is connected to metal mesh lining the bucket. This operation sounds suicidal, but it is not. The current moves into the mesh, charging it along with the lineman's body. Nothing more happens. The insulated boom keeps the current from surging to the ground, so the lineman is as safe as a bird on the wire. He can work on it with bare hands and ordinary metal tools.

This system has been field-tested on transmission lines carrying 138,000 volts, and has proved a time and labor saver. But linemen must learn new habits to use the system safely. With their bodies charged with electricity straining to reach the ground, they must avoid all grounded objects. Poles and towers, which were friendly and safe under the old system, are enemies now. Brushing against them will bring the instantaneous fate that comes to nose-touching squirrels.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.