Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Electricity Accident
January 18, 1902
LINEMAN’S AWFUL DEATH
His Burning Body Hung From Spike On the Pole.
Philadelphia. Jan 20 – With smoke and flames
issuing from his body,
GEORGE CLARKE, a Bell Telephone
lineman, hung suspended Saturday afternoon, from
an iron spike near the top of a tall pole, while
a crowd stood on the pavement watching his death
agony. An electric current of 3,500 volts had
passed through the doomed man.
CLARKE was
making a telephone connection at the top of the
pole at Wilton avenue and Jefferson street, West
Philadelphia, when his elbow came in contact
with the heavily charged wire. The
explosion-like sound was heard several squares
away, but death was not instantaneous.
CLARKE’S
body writhed in agony for a moment, and then he
fell from the top of the pole to a point about
12 feet below, where his belt caught in one of
the iron spikes of the pole, and there he hung
suspended, with smoke and flames issuing from
his body. THOMAS
ATTWOOD, another lineman, and
J. F. FERNWOOD,
a helper, got the body down with ropes, and
when it reached the pavement there were still
some signs of life.
A woman who was passing said she was a
physician, and was asked to take the case in
hand.
“He is just dead,” she said, as she concluded
her examination. The body was removed to the
morgue.
“I was standing outside my door, two blocks from
the telephone pole, when the accident occurred,”
sasid [sic] MR. WILSON.
“I heard a report which I thought was an
explosion. I saw the man hanging on the pole and
helped to get him down. I can’t account for the
sound of the explosion. It was a most peculiar
sound and sent a chill through me.”
THOMAS L. BOETTIGLER, a grocer, said:
“The explosion, or whatever it was, startled
everyone in the neighborhood. My mother-in-law,
who was in my house, fainted with the fright.”
The News, Frederick, MD 20 Jan 1902
Transcribed by Regina
McVey. Thank you, Regina!
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