Show wrecking a bridge by electrics electricity Electric ty Y one of tile the most ingenious uses to which electricity electric ty was ever put was in the wrecking of a brid bridge bride e over the wabash wabash in indiana this bridge had been purchased by the county authorities who intended to replace it by a steel structure erected on the old piers and abutments the owner agreed to remove the ardre bridge iii m thirty days the task much greater than was anticipated but it was successfully ace accomplished the difficulty lay in tho the short time agreed upon for the removal of tin bridge several wreckers to whom tile the was wag submitted declared are I 1 that it would bs ba impossible within 30 days to pull down the old brid bridge bride e without injury to tile the biers piers the structure might be blown up lip with ditl i dynamite but the explosion would also destroy the othe piers were it fired tile the heat would crack and injure the masonry of the bridge the 30 lays days expired and an ail extension ox ex of one week was waa granted the owner was at his bis wits its end when lie chanced upon in an electrician elect rican wiio who proposed not to blow up lip tile the bridge but to burn it apart his proposal was gladly accepted each span of the bridge was composed of nine nine chords of three tin timbers ibers each the twenty seven sills were to be cut simul so that the span would drop between the piers into the river river tile the cutting was to be accomplished by burning through tile the wood with loops of iron resistance made red hot by tile the passage of alie electric cur current tile the job was begun F fifty if ty four resistance loops were heated to wreck each span and the alie spans were wrecked one at a time bent current was used to heat the iron wires ellers cherry red the result res tilt wa was exactly xa C aly the same saine with every span between the on oil of tho the current an I 1 the alie fall or of the span au all hour and fifteen minutes ini elapsed then the mass of timber fell in to the water well inside the piers so that they were f t aured s tile the cut iii made ade by tha li ot w wire ir 1 r w was as sharp a and nd clean 1 and the 1 wood was not charred clia more inore than th ail an a n inch i n oll from ille place 1 ace of facture tile the whole operation took but a faw hours the current wao first turned on at about five in the morning t and at thoin two in the afternoon the last J span cras crashed lidd down dow to the rivers river bed 4 |