Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-12-13
treom the Evening Express.)

t<s~~ 49, @'~AANo Az FN>'g
Mr.. N. G. Carter, of San Gabriel,
describes to US strange scene
which he was unwittingly the
cause Of producing at his place.
Last night he. left his revolving
sprinkler playing upon his nursery
Of orange trees. The sprinkler
throws a fine spray over a space
probably twenty feet In diameter.
This morning Mr.. Carter was all
most dumb founded to see his trees
completely covered with coating
OF Ice. The limbs and stalks
were encased with the
aiming mail and from
dependent leaves and twigs there
was q bristling array of icicles.
Ono Of these icicles, by actual
measurement, proved to be twenty
two inches long and an inch in
diameter ut the base. Some trees,
nve or six feet in height, were SO
weighted down that they bent to
the ground. After the first flush of
establishment was gone Mr.. Carter
found himself rather pleased than
otherwise with his experiment.
Although his trees were budded
Mediterranean Sweets-the finest
varlety-and the coating OF ice
bodied no good for them, IT not total
destruction, he considered that the
chance of witnessing such spec
Il. frxt ~ !, h.,
full amount of their value. Mr.,
Carter is a Massachusetts man aud
the sight of the sleet laden branch
e. most forcibly called to mind his
old home. Mr.. Carter's family and
all of his near Beighhors were
shortly on hand to witness the
spectacle, and among them it will
prove, not only a nine.days' Won
der, but matter long to be remem-
bered.
Now, a word as to the phenome-
non-for it can hardly be consid
cred in any other light. Let 1t be
borne In mind that there was no
frost In the San Gabriel valley last
night, although the atmosphere
was rather cold for that locality.
The thermometer stood early this
morning at 3S degrees-six degrees
above the freezing point. Gala
lilies and tube roses in full bloom,
which are nipped on the slightest
provocation of frost, were standing
within ten feet of the improvised
"Winter scene," and were un-
touched. The only reasonable
theory which we can adduce for
the freezing of the water is this:
The temperature was already low,
(about 2S') and the atmosphere dry;
the water was thrown into the air
In a fine spray, iniucing rapid
evaporation and thus bringing the
temperature below the freezing
point In the immediate space GOV
cred by the sprinkler; in its abnor-
mally cold state the spray fell upon
the trees and CONCEALED little at q
time, thus creating in the course of
the night, the thick coating OF ice
and the astonishipgly large icicles.
It is a well-established principle in
physics that rapid evaporization in
duces freezing, and this is illus
trated by throwing q spray
of ether upon an object
capable of being CONCEALED, or
by the quick evaporation of ammo
mia Us is.done in the patent process
of ice-manufacture. The several
elements combined in Mr.. Carter's
nursery-the dry atmosphera and
quick evaporation, the ane spray
of water easily frozen and the con-
venient trees for exposing the wa
ter to the Z greatest freezing surface
brought about the strange circum-
stance which we have here noted.
When Mr.. Carter started for
town he left his mimic scene of
Winter with the sprinkler still!
playing upon it, thinking that the
trees would be less liable to Injury
If kept wet while the ice melted
away, than If exposed to the warm
sun without anything to break its
force