Blackout by Boa

A six-foot boa constrictor slithered out of the Panama jungle one night last week, writhed up a high-tension-line tower along the Panama Railroad track, then glided onto a cable. Forty-four thousand volts surged through the serpent in a whoosh of flame, cremated it within two watch-ticks. As the boa's charred body tumbled down, lights blinked off for a quarter hour along the Pacific side of the Canal Zone. Power failed for three minutes at the great locks of the Panama Canal, then surged back as automatic emergency equipment went to work. It was the Canal Zone's second boa-made blackout...

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