OCR Text |
Show Fire, Slwck Hazards Threaten To Mar Christmas Festivities FH ., . ;-: I f f yefT "fe W0 1 ; ; y - -"; , ' s 1 P - , r n - - VvV 1 All because of faulty electrical appliances, ap-pliances, fires and accidents will spoil hundreds of Christmas gatherings gather-ings this year. Though home should be the safest place during the holidays, engineers of Underwriters' Laboratories, Chicago, Chi-cago, point out that if you should have an accident during the next few weeks, chances are good that it will happen in your own home. An estimated 125,000,000 electrical electri-cal cords now being used throughout the nation offer the greatest potential poten-tial danger at Christmas time, it is pointed out. Cords receive exceptionally excep-tionally harsh treatment, being chewed by children and dogs, twisted twist-ed and pulled, run under rugs and walked on. Faulty plug and socket connections often result, creating serious se-rious hazards. Engineers explain that shock or fire is less often due to electrical wiring than to damaged cords. Safe cord is manufactured under rigid requirements, with ample copper wire for carrying the current without with-out overheating. There is also suf- "Lights out," says Rascal, pulling the lamp cord. And if the cord hadn't been given a tougher pull test to make it safe, it might have been "lights out" for Rascal, sure enough. ficient insulation over the wire to prevent shock. To prove that rubber rub-ber cord is sufficiently tough to stand abuse, two inches of insulation insula-tion must stretch nine inches without with-out breaking.. "Bombs" are used to determine the condition of cord after several months' use. Bombs are heavy steel containers in which rubber rub-ber insulation is "bombarded" with pure oxygen at high pressure to cause rapid aging. Since damaged or poorly constructed con-structed cords are often responsible responsi-ble for home fires and accidents, special care is needed during the Christmas season. Danger is especially espe-cially great between now and March, the records show, since during dur-ing that time a lire breaks out every ev-ery two minutes. |