River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-05-06
ANOyEL BAROMETER.
How q Girl Unfailingly Indicates Chan.
ges of Altitude.

Denver Inter-0cean.
In this age ofscienti6c progress, when
every week heralds the finding of new
planet, or the invention of a patent
medicine, it is extremely gratifying to
learn Of the discovery of a new scien-
ti6c principle Of practical importance,
such as was brought to the worlds no.
tice by student of Yale college while
spending his last vacation in Colorado.
The discovery was of a cheap, conven-
lent aid comparatively accurate means
of aseertainiDg the altitude of noun.
tains, or any elevated portion of land.
We, all know that the ordinary
methcd Of obtaining such information,
when it is impossible or inadvisable to
use the engineers level, is by means of
a mercurial or aneroid barometer. Now,
no two harometers ever agree-a defect
produced, no doubt, by their close
family come ction with scientific ex-
pertsv-snd the unplessantnesses arising
from this cause between gentlemen of
science, each of whom is prepared to
swear to the accuracy of his particular
instrument, and the correctness of his
own observations, are innumerable.
Like the majority of great discoveries,
this one was the result of pure accident.
When visiting Manitou, one afternoon
with some friends the young student
and a lady companion ssparated from
the Others and strolled slowly up the
mountains. After ascending few
| hundred feet the student noticed that
his companions pressure on mis- arm
| vlsiblyancreaseG, and when nearly to
the sIs)w line, became so great that it
was NECESSARY for him to encircle her
waist 9Th his arm to support her.
Bringing all mis- collegiate knowledge
to bess upon this slight hint, and ex-
perimsnting with great variety of girls
under every possible condition of eli
mate ind temperature, he established
the fat.s that the girl-pressure increased
regularly at the rate of one pound TO
every hundred feet of altitude and that
ABOVE 1.-TWO thousand five hundred feet
the arth-encircling method commenced.
| While: here his deductions were based
and hi* elevations calculated from the
hotel Iorch at Manitou where the pres.
sure VAS zero, but on returning east
! he fopnd that the same relative rule
held good. That is to say, starting
from any given base, or zero-point, as
| Newport, Long Branch, or Saratoga, the
pressure increased in the same regular
ratio Us at Manitou. An exhaustive
series ST experiments also showed him
that only girls, between the ages of 16
and 90, are reliable for this purpose.
Those. below that limit being, except in
a few care instances. entirely nonsen-
sitive, and those above so cratic in their
register as to be useless-sometimes
showing an elevation of one thousand
feet when Just out of sight of the base
and before any altitude was attained,
and others, especially if of an esthetic
nature, showing no pressure whatever.
He also found that the presence of q
third PARTY entirely neutrabzed the girl
barometer, but that upon its removal
the correct pressure corresponding 10
the altitude returned imm ediately.
The great value Of this discovery the
scientific world will not be slow to re-
cognia.e ano avail itself of. Choice lots
of assorted girls can be easily kept in a
neutral condition at available points
ready Mt any time for the use of investi-
gators, and professors can no longer
plead the inaccuracy of their barome-
tiers ar an excuse for their errors in re
gard 20 the heights of our mountain
peaks, 1t will also recommend itself
to the favor ofthe political economist,
opening up, as it does, new field of
industry for woman.
Hereafter no expert should attempt TO
explore our mountains unprovlded with
one OF the latest improved girl-barome'
| tors