A rather alarming news report appeared in a West Virginia news paper in 1916 about the dangers of electricity in the bathroom. People were more easily electrocuted inside their homes long ago than they are today with all of our safety features.
Here is the original article.
Bathrooms May Be Death Chambers
Your bathroom may be a death chamber.
Few persons realize the risk which they may run when turning electric light switches in a bathroom.
Several lives are lost annually by accidental electrocutions which take place in bathtubs.
In some instances the deaths have been popularly attributed to faulty insulation. But it has been shown how a bather, standing in a tub of water by turning a switch with his wet hand may cause enough moisture to penetrate the electric socket and establish a circuit, thereby permitting the current to pass from the wires, through his body into the water and thence to the ground.
Thus the body acts very much as a lightening rod.
Electrocution may occur if one hand is in a washbowl of water and the other, being wet, is used to turn a switch. If only the key is touched and no moisture penetrates, of course no ill effects will follow.
Fatalities are believed to have resulted also when a bather in a tub has accidentally struck his head against a projecting light socket. The hair, it thoroughly wet, may supply sufficient moisture in such cases to complete a circuit.
Under these circumstances, a current that is ordinarily harmless may cause death.
A writer in one of the scientific publications makes this explanation regarding a fatality which occurred recently in an eastern state. Another accident, somewhat similar, occurred when a bather attempted to use an electric vibrator while sitting in a partly filled bathtub. [There are quite a few old reports about this happening to more than one person.]
Source: The Sunday telegram. (Clarksburg, W. Va.), 18 June 1916.
