The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-19

onward and from the little start he derived
from the friend of his father dates his sue
cess in life. He is the architect of his own
fame and fortune. Hon. John B. Packer, a
relative of Mr.. Cameron's, resides here, and
is the owner of magnificent mansion on
Market street. near the river. He will pro-
badly be reelected to Congress during the
coming campaign.
SING ULAR ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON
tornado passed over some parts of Min
nesota few days ago which was marked by
the same characteristics as that which visited
some parts of New York and New England
about the same time. 1t was very severe in
some towns, while in the neighboring places
it was not felt at all, or at most was scarcely
noticed, and it appeared to travel in a mar
row path. A writer in the st. Paul Press,
who witnessed the storm at Owatonna, in the
southern part of Minnesota, gives the fol-
lowing account of its singular appearance
there:-
This morning at about half f-past two o clock
this city was visited by the most terrific and
destructive tornado which it has ever known.
The round house of the Winona and st. Peter
Railroad Company was unroofed, and large
portion of the walls demolished The engine
Clermont was nearly buried in the debris,
watchman was in the house when it fell, but
found safe refuge in the pit underneath the
engine tender. The wheel of the windmill
on the eminence west of the city was COM
| pletely destroyed. This wheel was nearly
one hundred feet in diameter. A large ice
house was blown to pieces. The cheese fac
tory was so badly damaged as to be unfit for
| further use without repairs, and / am told
that the summers accumulation of cheese
must be removed.
The upper portion of the fronts of several
buildings was blown off; awnings and sign
boards were badly damaged; trees and garden
fences suffered severely, and chimneys and
outbuildings were generally capsized. Some
roofs we're badly broken, and others damaged
but little.
There was neither rain nor hail. There
seemed to be one current approaching the
city from the southwest and another from the
southeast, and when / first noticed these cur
rents they were quite distant from each other,
but they rapidly approached, converging di-
rectly upon the city. When apparently a
mile away there appeared midway between
the two currents, and at q low elevation, a
light, small at first, but gradually increasing,
until it reached the size of an ordinary hogs
head. Its base was parallel to the surface of
the earth The sides seemed to approach
each other to an inclination of about thirty
degrees. At the top of this cone and appa-
rently just separated from it, appeared a
bright blaze, which shot towards the zenith
in forked flames, / Judge from ten to fifteen
feet in height. The cone beneath the blaze
seemed to revolve rapidly around an axis,
vertical to the centre of the earth.
The brilliancy of this air-fend became con-
stantly more intense as the currents ap-
preached each other, and it's revolutions be-
came proportionately more rapid, until in the
shock caused by the collision which occurred
on Cedar street, some fifty feet north of the
public square-a terrific and deafening sound
was heard, followed by a dispersion of some
fifty fragments of electrical light, in appa-
rently solid form. These were seen rico
cheting in every direction, approaching the
earth, and withdrawing from it in fantastic
though appalling gyrations. The scene of
this phenomenon was the region of the great
est disaster. The wind blew sharply, but did
not do the damage. There was a fierce and
terrible force in the air, not in the air itself,
which pothing could Withstand. Single shin
giles were plucked from roofs. One picket
was torn from the fence while its fellows were
unmoved. A single row of onions in a neigh
bors garden were torn from the ground, and
the others left to grow and ripen undisturbed.
The foregoing facts furnish data upon
which base the following theory:-The ex-
cessive heat of the two preceding days was
such as to produce great disturbance in the
atmosphere, and give rise to the formation of
strong aerial currents, which, after becom-
ing complicated, rioted awhile in close COM
bat, and then separated, perhaps by electri-
cal force, formed again in different quarters
two strong channels of moving air emerg-
ing upon a common centre. Approaching
each other, the space through which the cleo
tricity inherent in the air was diffused be-
came rapidly less, and still less, at the same
time it would be carried along by it's own ad-
hesion to the moving mass of clouds.
1t thus became gradually condensed, and
by its own motion, together with the con.
stantly increasing pressure of the approach
ing currents, forming walls through which it
could not break, and the friction caused by
the mobility of its own particles upon them
selves intensified the heat until it became
first luminous, then lambent, then concen.
trated in tangible form, and finally yielding
to the power of its own explosive force
burst asunder, forming numerous balls OF
concentrated fire, which discolored aud
spent their fury on surrounding objects.
Traces of this tornado are visible as far east
as Lewiston, unattended, however, by any
serious damage.
The first building society of st. Paul. Mimi.
hoe. Aaax IN, icbfy