Electric streetcar lines contributed more overhead high-voltage wires, which mingled and crossed with telephone wires, telegraph wires, and wires for stock tickers. The gruesome death of a Western Union lineman, whose body dangled over the streets of Manhattan for an hour with blue flames shooting from his mouth, symbolized the danger they presented. Even indirect contact with the wires was dangerous. If a telephone wire crossed a high-voltage power line, a person picking up the telephone could be electrocuted.77
