The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-02-07
The Freaks of Electricity.

Mr.. &. III. Simmons, Electrician of
the Western Union Telegraph Company.
furnishes the Chicago hitter Ocean the
following highly interesting account of
the electrical phenomena which Mt
tended the great storm of the eth and
Sth 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 auroral or magnetic storms-the
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
taneousy, 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
tricity, increasing III intensity until it
would leap from one strap of the switch
board to another, across the Intervening
space, and then III "A luminous stream to
the ground plate of the lightning an
roster. At times the whole brass work
Of the switch board would appear rs Il
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 impossibility, 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-
ceive it, and still in others the charge
seemed to be divided equally between all
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 us it APP
preached the latter place, where it ar
rived on the evening of the Sth inst, ard
rapidly subsidized. \ 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
passed Chicago, where the weather was
clear and bright, but the wind still blow
ing gale. This display was observed
by large number of operators and
practical telegraph men, and all accord
i'll saying that its effects were entirely diff
ordinary auroral storms with which they
are familiar
At the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains similar phenomena has
been frequently witnessed upon a 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
trlbutad it 20 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 III 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. Now, 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 tbe atmospheric
charge to point where the electrical
tension was far less.