Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-31
The Cold Wave.
The Refractory and Inconsistent Their
m0meter.


The Refractory and Inconsistent Their
mOmeter.
That it was cold yesterday the public need
not be informed. The Thermometers that
record of heat and cold so indispensable in
well-regulated communities, and SO much de-
pended upon in the heated terms and cold
snaps-was eagerly consulted yesterday
morning. Many of these consultations oc-
CURED at about that notably interesting do
nestle crisis when, according to well-founded
Evolutionary reports, the lords of creation are
expected to get up and make the fire, or
start anew the sleepy furnace or steam heat
er. That the weather had all of a sudden
distinguished itself and grown striEngly cold
was attested by the unanimous verdict of the
community when business hours arrived and
people began to meet and talk. The news
from the thermometer was eagerly called for.
Every one was prepared to hear that the
thermometer had settled down to point far
below zero. A howl of disappointment arose
when it was found from one thermometer
that it had merely dropped to A. below. An
expectant public had been fully prepared to
hear that it was 140 below, and was ready to
dwell with resignation and conscious salts
faction on such record and even to bear
with frozen water-pipes with such state of
facts. But to learn that it was only a few
degrees below was disappointing exasper-
ating-and many refused to believe in the or
binary thermometer, and pointed out its de-
fects as a not thoroughly reliable witness with
energy. Once the thermometer was popular
ly believed to be in the main an authority
so reliable that to question it was heresy-
but after the Neurological bureau at Yale
commenced operations faith in its reliability
was rudely shaken. This was particularly SO
when Yale College through this new bursau
pointed out the variations liable to exist in
the ordinary every day world Thermometers,
and offered to regulate or rate the thermome-
tsTS of the public and make them veritablo
truth tellers to high degree, without a
penny of expense, except the expense of send
ing them to the sbureau. The thermometer
did wofully vary about town yesterday. Some
reckless Thermometers marked 80 below, when
others in the very same spot and at the same
moment obstinately refused to bulge an inch
beyond 40 below. Another under the same
circumstances meanly lowered at % below,
when the public felt that it ought to have
touched the pulse of the atmosphere to the
tune of dozen below, or at least 50 below,
which figure some Thermometers had struck.
The news from the signal bureau was now
awaited with special interest Mr.. Sherman,
the signal officer, was consulted, and behold
it was found that the official thermometer of
the government had told the story at zero
only that and nothing more. However, the
signal service news was rather more after all
than was bargained for, as the genial clerk OF
the weather gave forth the probabilities as
indicating colder weather yet to follow to-
day. The lowest point ever touched by the
thermometer at the signal station was 140 be-
low That was Jan. %, 1873.
The new fall of snow mantlng the earth
anew yesterday morning called out brigade
of snow shovelers, and city snow shovelers
we're out in all parts of the suburbs breaking
in roads where the snow was deep enough to
impede travel The snow cleaners were out
in force, and the memorable city bylaws were
evidently being observed pretty thoroughly
on the highways and in the byways in all di-
rections.
AS showing the interest taken in the Their
mometer yesterday, seven were sold last
evening at Mr.. John H. Klock's in the space
of an hour.
At 8 o'clock last evening the weather was
down to zero again and still falling. The
creaking of carts as they crunched along over
the snow made music which told also unmis-
kaI Of frio he
hackman blew his mittened fingers and
stamped his ten dollar boots on the street
corners while waiting for call in endeavor-
ing to keep up the caloric, and the policeman
tramped his steady pace with ears muf1ed
up with Christmas tippets, while the stores
were deserted of customers, and Jack Frost
had full sway in picture painting on the win
dows.
The trains on the Consolidated road had
two engines Wednesday night. The o'clock
train in from Hartford yesterday morning
came in drawn by two engines. The train
brought one sleeping car load of passengers
who were transferred from the N. Y. & n. E.
road, owing to the breaking down of an en-
CINE. The Shore Line train due here at D.
m. yesterday was two hours late, owing to
the snow blockade on the Stonington road
The 1926 train from Springfield was nearly an
hour late.
The storm was one of the most widespread
and severe that we have had in this country
in twenty-five years, and the fall of snow was
heavy, 81 inches falling here, in Hartford
and 10 in the middle of New York State. The
wind was very quiet and the snow fall very
even.
Mill river, at Neck bridge, where the cur
rent is swift and deep, was frozen over dur
ing the night, the ice being four or five inch
es thick there yesterday.
The snow ploughs did good execution on
the horse railroads yesterday, and on all the
roads very good time was made with the
teams doubled
In Hartford, yesterday, the temperature at
sunrise at one place on Asylum Hill was 50
below zero at Union Hall Hotel 60 below; at
the South End GO below; by aself-registering
thermometer on Windsor avenue 70 below
by other thermometers in different parts of
the city 60 and 70 below.
In towns around Hartford the range was
from 70 to 1Oo below.