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Radio News for November, 1928
"Friends, there is no use in keeping the
truth from you. The Wolf Creek line is
dead."
it murmur of amazement, mingled with
indignation, swept the great gathering. Harold
Dare raised his hand for silence.
"Friends, before you judge or blame, let
me tell you a few facts about the construction
of the Wolf Creek line. The wires
are run in duplicate -two complete sets
upon each tower. If an insulator should
fail, or a wire break, the other circuit would
still maintain service. There is not one
chance in a million that both lines should
fail at the saute moment -and of all tuo-
'meats, the very moment when failure would
mean the greatest personal blow possible,
a spectacular debacle calculated to shake
the confidence of the public in this project
and turn the admiration of the world to
ridicule. Let me remind you, ladies and
gentlemen, that although this line, strung
from sturdy towers founded upon eternal
rock, is made to withstand the ravages of
the centuries, a single blast of dynamite
might easily send one massive tower toppling
into a ravine, doing damage it would
take days to repair. As you all know,
there are forces bitterly opposing this great
project; they could have chosen no better.
time to strike than now. No apology I
could make would suffice; yet I promise
you that I shall not sleep nor rest until
the fiendish perpetrator of this crime against
humanity is brought to justice!"
The ovation these words received was
tremendous. The thousands went forth with
the warmest sympathy for the heroic stand
of their great friend and protector. Not
a woman but sighed a little in admiration
for this fearless hero who thus smiled coolly
in the very face of disaster; not a man but
clenched his fist and protruded his jaw
with just indignation toward the unprin-
cipled persecutors of the public's dauntless
champion.
Who might be behind these dark and
devious deeds? One none was whispered
about with steadily growing persistency.
Remembering the countless similar outrages
perpetrated in the past by the monster,
the public intuitively suspected Dandy Diavolo,
that arch super -villain of the Flicker
Films, who had ever pursued Dare with
increasing relentlessness through the superlative
Flicker Films, and in real life as well.
Dare himself did not doubt that his archenemy
was behind this plot, but his detectives
were unable to find any trace of
the villain, who had left for parts unknown
to spend a short vacation between pictures.
At two o'clock the next afternoon cante
news that rocked all Southern California.
The trouble in the Wolf Creek line had
been located. Three insulators of the six
on a single tower located on the edge of
a cliff above a deep valley had shattered,
allowing the wires to fall and short- circuit
both lines. Working in continuous shifts,
repairmen replaced the insulators in a few
hours.
The new insulator liad lasted hardy ten
minutes. The startled linemen had scarcely
gathered up their tools when a terrific arc
rent the air. One huge insulator, then a
second, shattered into a'thousand pieces,
as if struck by a giant's hammer. Two long
cables swung together and were welded
into one; then as the intense heat melted
the stranded copper, the severed wires
traced tattered shreds of flame as they
slipped along the steel tower to the ground.
New insulators were rushed from the
nearest supply station. Engineers hastened
to the spot to make observations. While
it was ostensibly their opinion that both
insulators had developed flaws, possibly
through strain while being hoisted to their
433
position several hundred feet in the air.
in their hearts was developing a fear that
some error had been made in the design.
The insulators used had been tested under
conditions so much more severe than any
met in practice that . failure was unthinkable.
Yet nothing seemed to stop the mad
surge of half a million volts across this one
apparent weak spot in the whole Wolf
Creek line. Frankly, they were baffled.
The new insulator was hoisted to its place
under the strict scrutiny of world- famous
electrical engineers. It had been given a
thorough test and was apparently electrically
perfect. 'l'he voltage was applied gradu-
ally. At Wolf Creek station, a group of
engineers watched tensely the meters registering
line conditions, while at the tower
itself, motion- picture cameras, equipped with
telescopic lenses, made slow- motion pictures
of the insulator from various angles. At
length the line was carrying its full load.
For moments the engineers watched, while
reel after reel of film ran swiftly through
the cameras.
Suddenly the meters at Wolf Creek quiv-
ered. As suddenly the needles shot across
the scale; great circuit -breakers tripped;
an arc flared and was quenched; and the
generators whined at high speed as the
load was removed from the line. The
frightened engineers stared helplessly at
one another. The Wolf Creek lines were
dead!
It was an old story the engineers saw
re- enacted before their eves as a few hours
later they sat in the projection room of
the Dare laboratories at Hollywood. A
tongue of flame suddenly bridged the gap
between a cable and the tower. It grew
to a broad ribbon, and slowly two great
strings of bell- shaped insulators separated
from their mountings amid a shower of
large fragments of porcelain. As if in
sympathy, another insulator on the other
side of the tower also burst hito splinters
of porcelain and the three floated leisurely
to ground, while the cables tangled, melted.
and dropped out of sight in the canyon.
(Continued on page 479)
"d million people gazed horror -stricken; for to
the topmost cross -arm of the /rge tower clung
two lining skeletons- skeletons whose hands
clutched pliers, skeletons that shouted hoarsely
for lights!"