R. W. Garton Company sues Indianapolis Northern Traction Company for payment on refused glass insulators

POLARISCOPE INVOLVED IN

TRACTION COMPANY CASE

Quality of Glass Insulators Demonstrated

by College Professor to Federal

Court Jurors.

The Federal Court jury was treated to a demonstration with a polariscope yesterday by Prof. J. Francis Harding of Purdue. By its use the jurors were made to see by reflection the coloring in cer­tain glass insulators, the quality of which is under consideration as the de­termining factor in the suit of the W. R. Garton Company against the Indianapolis Northern Traction Company. The Garton Company, it appears, had a contract to furnish the traction company in 1902 about 27,000 insulators.

After they had been furnished the trac­tion company refused payment, stating that the insulators were so far below grade as to constitute a menace to the company’s electric service. It was asserted in court that at times the break­age of insulators was reported at the rate of fifty per day. The defects in the making of the insulators, it was argued, were apparent in the coloring, the most perfect insulator being colorless. The in­sulators put under the polariscope were part of the number furnished the traction company. The judgment asked by the Garton Company is for $9,000 with inter­est since 1905.