Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1881-01-06
Where It was Hot.

Speaking of hot weather." said the old
est inhabitant, as he unbuttoned his ulster
and laid his plush cap on the table, 81
don't regard it as even pleasantly warm
I've been out in the sun sn day trying TO
get some heat INTO my system, and | tell
you gentlemen, in confidence, Pm bit
chilly yet"
tEver seen it any warmer at this season
of the yeari" asked the reporter.
Wunst. seen it in the spring Of 1914
so hot that you'd think this weather was
an ice box. was building telegraph
line in South America, and what do you
think we used for poles 7"
''Iron perhaps"
''ron? Iron wouldn't stand a minute.
Why, The works in my watch melted
and ran down my leg, and it felt cool. too,
cause it was liquid. No, sir, iron wasn't
no more use than ice. We couldn't use
wood cause it caught fire as soon as ex-
posed. so we used salt. We just squirted
a stream of salt water straight up through
six inch nozzle The heat eVaporated the
salt water and left tust class column of
salt Then we made 1t the right length
by cutting il off sufficiently at the bot
TOM"
''But how would you run the wire
Didn't; we jist pinted it the way we
wanted it to 90 from the top of hill, and
theexpasnion run it right along from column
to column. That's what l call warm
weather, that is.
'How fast did the wire seem to go q"
about eighty mule an hour. We
built seven hundred miles of telegraph In
one afternoon
"How did you keep up with t2 How
could you keep head aud get your salt
columns up fast enough 2"
''Well, sir that was the simplest cOntrl.
vance ever was. We had two parallel bars
of railroad iron and wagon that just fit
the bars. We..rivetcd cross-piece to the
fur ard ones, and fastened the wagon To il.
Them bands expanded lengthways at the
rate of hundred and fifty miles an hour,
aud carried the wagon right along III Its
own tracks. We could head off the wire,
get up pole, hitch on q wire and ketch
up with the end in no time. Pm sayin',
gentlemen, it was hot in that vicinity"
But the men couldn't climb one Of these
columns?
''Of curse they couldn't-wouldn't
no d 'em."
''How did they take the half hitch
around the insulatori Did you squirt
them with the steml"
''Not we. You can't squirt man up
that way; besides the water was bilin' hot.
We had four thousand tons of quicksilver,
and We put little on the ground under
ord ifll Paioa An To fha tom of
of them poles at the rate of q thousand
miles a second. That's what call hot.
Now, I'm just shriverin."
"You must have gauged the quantity of
mercury pretty close 10 stop in the right
place ?"
'FOh. we got II after while. The fret
GvU rreta went up five Ur six hundred miles,
and one of them had to wait until the fol-
lowing winter TO get back. We sent him
grub aud things by the quicksilver COM
munication until he was froZe down, and
We paid him double wages while be was
gone"
Didn't the wire melt2 T"
''Melt, of course it did.
Then the line didn't stay up.
Deed it did, and that's just what made
IL sldl up 4Ou huOW nC&b ElSBS. ANON
when we took hltches around the insula-
tors, we left the wires slack 50 when it
melted ii arched up instead of bellyin'
down, and it coIldn'. fall any morn a
bridge. The funniest thing in the whole
business was tina. when we got through we
had a railroad, them bars of iron made
smashin' good road-for summer ira
VEL"
Not for winter, tOo?"
Wasn't worth a nickel for winter.
When cool weather came on they contract
ed so there wasn't morn yard and half
OF the road left. :"
''Didn't the telegraph wire contract
too9"
''Some but not much. 1t tigLtened a
good deal, but stayed where it was.
"Didn't 1t break ?'
Couldn't. That wire was melted.
You can't break a stream of water, and
that wire was liquid"
"Look here old man." objected the re-
porter, if the winter was cold enough to
contract the railroad it was cold enough TO
freeze the wire solid"
"Why didn't it do it then? Look here,
young man, you want to speculate. Now
[ got Dothin' to do with speculations, |
deal in facts" and the oldest inhabitant
buttoned up his ulster, adjusted his plush
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