Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-05-28

~ dAat II was given. p!E+sf< o.! & 7fzs 1850
z' James McCardle came very near bids
ding his friends good bye through the
carelessness of a green hand, who dropped
a;slab on the saw IN Washburn hmill q
which in its reaction just missed James
head. Attention to business is good
thing ina saw mill. ....:.
From the. Alexadria Post: =>a3# re >~z@a %
The Post ot May 7th contained the fol-
lowing paragraph ~. 4. ,ef@a:s3sss i ..|z
i Some scientific lightning rod men. in at
tempting to rod the tall iron. smoke stack of
the: Osakis steam saw mill succeeded in knock
ing down the whole stack, and entailing heavy
loss upon the owner and stopping the mill for
some days. z%s" Gs'.':SSs<%2 St:s - @{'1@$'. ''f
At the time that item. was v written, no
one connected with this office knew who,
the ''lightning rod men" were. The
statement was drawn very mild lest some
over-sensitiye mortal should be "struck. !"
1T now transpires that Russell & Moore,
styling themselves ''human benefactors,"
consider the item q !tttrefectlon on; their
ability as lightning rod men," q That
smoke stack is 764 feet high; and around
it the human benefactors coiled 1O5 feet
of wire twist, at Al cents foot. making
the neat little sum of $49,35. That
smoke stack Is three feet In diameter, and
over feet in circumference, its inner
circumference is 9feet, making 10 feet IN
horizontal breadth of conducting surface.
It Is a continuous body Of metal, steadied
by five heavy, iron guys, leading to five
different anchorages. It rests on the I'M
mense, iron furnace, attached to huge
iron boilers, and these to the iron and
steel mechanism of the ponderous engine,
and iron pumps leading to wells and the
lake. The engine is fastened down to the
foundation stills by large iron bolts.
whose lower ends constantly rest in wet
earth. This lofty stack, with all its guys
and masses of metal and continuous and
numerous conducting and distributing
surfaces reaching to wet ground and wells
Of water, as a protection against light
| ming is better and worth more than a
hundred of the best lightning rods ever
erected. It would safely convey to the
earth a thunderbolt that not fifty COM
mon rods could carry. To "rod" this
stack is an unequivical piece of nonsensi-
cal humbuggery, as useless as expensive.
As scientific achievement it is proudly
fathered by the '"hqman benefactors,'
and is tall monument of:thenr. liability
as lightning rod men, T. Benighted Chi
cago and Cleveland have stupidity failed
to rod their lofty, boiler iron stand-pipes.
The "human benefactors' could afford a
trip to these cities to secure couple OF
good fat jobs. To 'rod up'' Mount
Blanc to protect the Swiss cottages around
its base would be 9 fitting sequel to a
scientific career so self-sacr ifcingly be,
| gun by ''human benefactors." Russell &
Young probably put up as, good lightning
rods as any that are made; but they made
a "scientifc"5 blundeE in :rodding the
Osakls steam saw mill. Besides, insur-
ance companies attach no value to light
ming rods and give no lower rates on
rodded than on unrodded buildings !; nor
any lower rate on the lives of the in
mates of one class Of dwellings over those
of the other. Many practical and scien-
tifc men seriously question whether
lightning rods are any protection. No
electrician considers them a reliable safe
guard. tx / = D.: ~H-! -.