Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-02-06
The Freaks of ELECTRICITY

AhC 1ICdhS VI
Mr.. G. II. Simmons, Electrician of
the Western Union, Telegraph Company,
furnishes the Chicago Inter Ocean the
following highly interesting account of
the electrical phenomena which at
tended the great storm of the 7th and
9Th of January: ., .,,.- ,- -,...- ~.
The recent storm which passed over
the West and Northwest was accom-
panied by some very peculiar electrical
phenomena, rarely seen east of the great
prairies leading to the Rocky Noun
tains. This phenomena may be called
an electrical storm in contradistinction
to the .arlroral or magnetic storms-th
former being confined to comparative
small space, beyond which the state of
the electricity in the atmosphere re-
mains unchanged, while the latter mani
tests itself over whole continents stimuli
taneously, while evolving light by the
action of magnetic forces. The area in
which this electrical display was con-
fined was plainly marked, having Min
nesota for its north boundary, Southern
Iowa for the south, Detroit for the east,
and Omaha for the west limit.
The lines leading west were rendered
useless for the transmission of messages.
owing to an incessant discharge of cleo
trlclty, increasing III intensity until it
would leap from one strap of the switch
board to another, across the intervening
space, and then i'll luminous stream to
the ground plate of the lightning ar
roster. At times the whole brass work
of the switch board would appear as a
mass of flame, illuminating the office
with binding glare
Another singular fact observed was,
on some routes where number of wires
occupied the same poles one wire alone
was highly charged and so affected that
to work it was an i1npossibility, while all
the others were entirely free from any
external influence. In some cases the
wire occupying the top of the pole would
apparently receive the whole charge; in
other cases the bottom wire would re-
celye it, and still in others the charge
seemed to be divided equally between ell
the wires. In the Chicago office the eff
feet was similar to that observed in
Iowa, and every observation confirmed
the opinion that the center line of the
storm was due east from Des Moines,
Iowa, to Detroit, Mich, narrowing in
its limits north and south as it ap-
preached the latter place, where it ar
rived on the evening of the Sth inst, and
rapidly subsidized. A high wind, varying
from % to % miles per hour, with the
same range of temperature as first noted,
accompanied the electrical storm from
its inception in the West until it had
r1oCcn6 Ehi0a -
clear and bright, but the wind still blow
ing a gale. This display was observed
by large number of operators and
practical telegraph men, and all accord
in saying that its effects were entirely diff
ferent from those experienced during the
ordinary auroral storms with which they
are familiar
At the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains g similar phenomena has
been frequently witnessed upon wire
running north and south, but rarely on
an east or west wire. As a high wind
always prevails when the effect is expe-
rienced, many telegraph experts have at
trlbuted 1t to the friction of the wind,
but this theory does not appear tenable,
from the fact that we as frequently have
the wind without the electric charge.
That the electricity evolved by various
processes accumulates in the atmos-
phere, and various in condition and in
tensity, is universally admitted, and that
it is stronger in winter than in summer
has been abundantly proved. Sir VIM.
Thomson has shown, by experiments
with the electrometer, that, during
wind, the air is charged very intensely
positive. upon the theory that
the earth is charged negative to the at
mosphere, there must be point at the
surface of the earth where discharge oc-
ours or naturalization takes place. At
points where the relative humidity of
the air is very great this is doubtless
ever silently going on; but during sea-
sons of intense cold, when the air is
necessarily dry, the combination is evil
IDENTIFY rendered more difficult, and the
tension thereby greatly augmented If,
under these circumstances, good con-
ductors, such as telegraph wires, are in
terposed, they would certainly assist in
carrying good part of the atmospheric
charge to a point where the electrical
tension was far less.