Zap! Play it Safe Around Electricity!

Electrical Safety at the

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high on power poles or buried under ground to protect people from being shocked. The circus has a different system for getting its electricity. The circus has to move to a new town three times a week, so it brings its own generating plant along. Two diesel-powered gen erators, each small enough to fit in the back of a pick-up truck, make enough electricity to supply light and energy for the entire circus.

here can you see lions and tigers, acrobats, and clowns? At the circus, of

At the circus and in your home, “insula

tors,” like special rub ber and plastic, keep electricity from leaving the wires it travels on. An insulator is some thing electricity can’t travel through easily.

course! And while you are enjoying the performance, behind the scenes are other feats that are just as amazing. We visited the Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus and learned it is like a small portable city of about 275 people that travels to 125 towns every year! Permanent cities get their electricity

To distribute electricity around the circus, power lines must be set up carefully from the generator. Circus power lines are kept a safe distance away from people in very creative ways. The cables out to the mid way do run overhead, just

from big generating plants. A distribution system of power lines carries the electricity from the power plant to homes, schools, and businesses. Power lines are

like power lines on poles in a regular neighborhood. But in some places, the only choice is to put specially insulated cables right on the ground. For example, the main elec tric cable from the generator to the Big Top is about as big around as a man’s arm, so it is on the ground. To make sure no electricity leaks out, these power lines are double insulated. They have a special rubber jacket

4 ZAP!