The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-07-30
A Fearful Tornado--The Kind They
Have out west. ~ "a @


The OwatOnna correspondent Of the st.
Paul Pres, writing under date Of July 90,
says: At Fl o'clock this city was visited
by the most terrific and destructive lorna:
do which it has ever known. The round
hotlse of tho Winona and st. Peter Rail:
road Company was unroOied and q large
portion of the walls demolished. The en-
CINE "Clermont" was nearly buried In the,
debris, but sustained no serious damage.
The night watclmRtl was, In the house
when It fell, but found safe refuge In the
pit underneath the engipe-tender. The
wheel Of the wind-mIlt 81 the Eminence
west OF the city WIS completely destroyed.
This wheel was nearly one hundred feet
in diameter. A large eeshouse was blown
TO atoms. The cheese factory was so
badly damaged as to be unfit for further
use without repairs, and lam told that
the summers accumulation Of cheese
must be removed. do not know wheth-
or the disaster will occasion all inter-
ruption In the manufacture or mot The
upper portion of:the fronts, Of several
buildings was blown off; trees and garden
fences suffered severely, and chimngys and
out.buildings were quite generally cap
sized. Some, roofs were quite badly
broken, and others damaged but little.
There was neither rain nor hail. There
seemed to be one currents approaching the
city from the Southwest atd another from
the southeast, and when / first noticed
these currents they we're quite distant
from each other, but they rapidly ap-
preached, conveFgfng directly upon the
city. When apparently a mile away,
there appeared midway between the two
currents, and at o low elevation, q light,
small at first, but gradually increasing,
until It reached tho size OF an ordinary
hogshcad. It's base was parallel to the
surface OF the earth. The sides seemed
to approach each other at an inclination
of about thirty degrees. At the top Of
this cone, and apparently just separated
from it, appeared-a bright blaze, which
shot toward the zenith In fOrked flames,
Judge from ten to fifteen feet in height.
The cone beneath the blaze seemed tore.
volvc rapidly around an axis, vertical TO
the centre Of the earth. Tho brilliancy
OF this air fiend became constantly more
intense US the currents approached each
other, and its revolutions became pro.
portionately more rapid, until In
the shock caused by the collision, which
occurred in Cedar street, some fifty rods
north OF the public square-a terrible and
deafening sound was heard, followed by
dispersion Of some fifty fragments Of
electrical light, in apparently solid form.
They were seen richOcheting in every
direction, approaching the earth and with.
drawing from it In fantastic though APP
palling gyrations. Tho scene of this phe-
nomena was the region of the greatest
disaster. Tho wind blew sharply, but
did not do tho damage. There was a
fierce unl terrible force In the air, not the
air itself, which nothing could Withstand.
Single shingles were plucked from tho
roofs One picket was torn from the
fence, while its fellows were unmoved. A
single row Of onions in neighbours gar
den were torn from the ground, and the
others left to grow ind rfpen undisturbed.
The foregoing facts furnish data upon
which base the following theory: The
excessive heat of the two preceding days
was such as to produce great dis
turbance in the atmosphere, and
to give rise to the formation : Of
strong Rrial currents, which after becom-
ing complicated, rioted awhile in close
combat, and then separated, perhaps by
electrical force, formed again in different
quarters-two strong channels Of moving
air emerging upon aacommon centre!
Approaching each other the space through
which tho electricity inherent in the air
was diffuscd, became rapidly less, and
still less at the I. Same-attime !. 1t
would DO carried Nalong by It's
own adhesion to the moving mass Of
clouds. 1t thus becameIg gradually con-
densed, and by its own motion, together
with tile constantly increasing pressure Of
the approaching currents, forming walls
through which it could not break, and
the friction caused by the mobility OF its
own particles upon themselves, intensified
the heat until It became first luminous,
then lambert, then concentrated In tanCi.
bic form, and finally, yielding to the power
Of its own explosive force, burst asunder,
forming numerous balls Of concentrated
fire, which dissolved and spent their fury
on surrounding objects, Traces Of this
tornado are visible as far east as Lewiston,
unattended, however, by any serious
damage. De a,ac