Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-05-03
Norm SIGNALS.


50 much loss Of life and property by storms
has attended the increased commerce of the
civilized world of late. that the attention Of
governments has been directed toward finding
some means of averting such losses. If ship
masters and others interested could be noti-
fed Of the approaching storms that would
soon ogerwhelm them, they could be rarity
or fully prepared 10 escape their consequences.
How to inform them was the question Eng
land, whose commerce is so vast, and whose
coast trade is both so extensive and danger
Gus, entered on a plan of giving needed in
formation regarding storms several years ago.
and soon after her France and other continen-
tai countries followed. At different points
about the country, elevated OF prominent
ones, telegraph stations, with a special corps
Of observers and operators, are established /.
and on the approach Of storms telegrams tell
ing Indications, direction and apparent force
Of the approaching tempest, are forwarded to
other stations, to important ports, and light
houses. At all of these places storm signals
are arranged, made with large cones and
drums, raised to prominent view, which tell
by different position the probable direction
and intensityof the storm. For night signals
triangIes or squares Of lights are used. Eng
land i indebted to Admiral Fltzroy for these
valuable arrangements. Doubtless hundreds
of lives and millions Of property have been
saved the ten years past, by means of them.
These facts and results have aroused to ac-
ton, looking toward the same ends, scientific
men in our country, as also the government
The Atlantic seaboard and our Great Lakes
are very subject to destructive storms Often
a hurricane will sweep over some part of our
commercial waters, by which a score or hun
dred families will be thrown into mourning
and want, and by which also occurs a great
loss of shipping and property Can such dis
astrous results be escaped, is the problem our
government is now solving
The tracks Of great storms have been pretty
generally determined. Almost everything on
the earth is subject to known laws and the
searching mind of is busy in the aerial
ocean about Us, looking for the laws, if any,
which govern that, and its moods and
changes A theory is proposed that has
great plausibility. 1t is simply this: that
the sun heat, which governs the tempera-
ture of the oceans, making them hot at the
equator, thereby making the equatorial cur
rents, one of which moves "a the Gulf Stream
along our eastern coast, Just the same, governs
the atmosphere, making movements in that
similar to those Of the oceans. For instance,
many great storms, or cyclones, the phase
which the great storms assume, are found To
follow the track Of the Gulf Stream from the
West Indies along our Atlantic seaboard, and
either follow that stream on toward Europe,
precipitating themselves on Norway, the
Azores, and England, or else going off in what
are termed ofshooting cyclones, and falling
with destructive power on the Atlantic
States Probably that fearful tornado which
vented its fury on Virginia last September
was one of those offsbooting cyclones from
their maintrack along the Gulf Stream.
A track so netimes taken by those equato-
rial storms is through the Yucatan Channel,
across the Gulf of Mexico, often venting a
portion of their fiery force on Texas and Lou
isiana; then following ~ the Mississippi
fdiACJs thil Jih7 ACoblu uCIiDA ~ 6hCAA "'AAC
along the river states, and almost always de-
cecting toward the northeast and east, as if
running against an impossible barrier in the
polar colds Of northern British America.
Three or four days are consumed in their
passage from Louisiana to the Great Lakes,
ample time to give notice and to prepare for
them The center of these storms, few
hundred yards wide, are often peculiarly de-
structive, in their tornado form.
Tha one which was attended with such
deadly effect at East St. Louis, two weeks
ago, was probably child Of the tropics.
The course was up the Mississippi, being felt
he same day at Helena, Ark, and then pass
ing off toward tie northeast, from East St.
Louis.
Similar to these observed Gacts is the the
ory of storms from the west, which is also
borne out somewhat by actual observation.
Like the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Is an
oceanic current that runs through the Pacific,
from the tropics of Japan and so across to-
ward America, touching at Alaska first, then
with more or less force sweeping by British
America, down in Oregon and California.
This fact accounts for the warm temperature
ON the west coast of our continent at a point