File:John Feeks Western Union lineman killed by AC October 11 1889.png

From KYNNpedia

Original file ‎(1,035 × 1,500 pixels, file size: 1.35 MB, MIME type: image/png)

This file is from Wikimedia Commons and may be used by other projects. The description on its file description page there is shown below.

Summary

Description
English: An illustration of the death of Western Union lineman John Feeks from page 549 of the 1891 book Physique Populaire by Emile Desbeaux, drawn by D. Dumon.

On October 11, 1889, in New York City in a Downtown Manhattan district, Western Union lineman John Feeks was high up in the tangle of overhead electrical wires working on what were supposed to be low-voltage telegraph lines. As the lunchtime crowd below looked on he grabbed a nearby line that, unknown to him, had been shorted many blocks away with a high-voltage alternating-current line. The jolt entered through his bare right hand and exited his left steel-studded climbing boot. He was killed almost instantly, but his body fell into the tangle of wire and was cut open, bleeding, sparking, burning, and smoldered for the better part of an hour while a horrified crowd of thousands gathered below. Where the power came from that killed Feeks was never determined, although The United States Illuminating Company had alternating-current lines carrying many thousands of volts that ran nearby.


Obituary (The Wellsboro Agitator, Tuesday, October 15, 1889, Wellsboro, Tioga Co, Pa.)

A telegraph lineman named John Feeks met a horrible death on Chambers street, New York city, last Friday afternoon from contact with an electric-light wire. He presented a terrible sight, as he died on the net-work of wires in mid-air, while the deadly fluid actually made his body sizzle and the blood poured out on the sidewalk and over the clothing of the horrified-spectators. The accident, occurring in one of the busiest parts of the city, was witnessed by a large number of people. The man’s body lay limp and motionless over the mass of wires attached to the cross-trees of the pole. The firemen brought out a ladder and one went up with a pair of shears to cut the wires. The man was found to be dead. He probably touched the electric-light wire by accident. The body lay where it was until firemen went to the factory and had the current turned off. The victim’s face was turned towards the sidewalk, and in 15 minutes the wires had burned off half the face. The left arm was also seen to be burning, and every few seconds the blue flames spurted out from the various parts of the body. Hundreds of people stood shivering as they looked at the awful sight. No one dared to go near. Even the firemen’s faces blanched with horror. The body of the lineman could not be taken down from the wires for half an hour. Deputy Coroner Jenkins, who has witnessed some horrible sights during his official career, said this spectacle was the most ghastly he had ever seen. He was present while efforts were being made to get the body down and afterwards viewed it. A wire, he said, had cut through the lineman’s cheek and had burned clear into the cheek bone. A burn in the throat had severed the windpipe and many muscles and veins. If the mangled remained suspended in the air much longer the head would have been completely severed from the body.
Date
Source Physique Populaire by Emile Desbeaux 1891
Author D. Dumon
Other versions File:Western Union Lineman John Feeks.png

Licensing

Public domain
Public domain
This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1930, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
United States
United States
This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current02:50, 15 July 2015Thumbnail for version as of 02:50, 15 July 20151,035 × 1,500 (1.35 MB)wikimediacommons>Fountains of Bryn MawrUser created page with UploadWizard

The following page uses this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.

If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

Retrieved from "https://kynnco.com:443/kynnpedia/index.php?title=File:John_Feeks_Western_Union_lineman_killed_by_AC_October_11_1889.png"