Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-02-10
A Cure For Blizzards.

telS the OLHeT uay.
1T is limited that you have made
an important discovery"
$50 | have. / am Capt. John
White, of Montana, the man who first
discovered the birthplace of billiards.,
and who invented a cure for them"
"Tell me about it?"
"Well, have nothing to conceal in
the matter. For five winters past /
have been in the far West watching
cold waves or billiards. Nineteen
out of every twenty start on line
drawn from Fort Union, in the north
ern part of Montana, to Fort Lara
mie, in Southern Wyoming. There
are mountains, rivers, valleys and
plains on that line, and these bring
about the conditions required for a
radical atmospheric change"
"Did you ever see blizzard born 2"
"a hundred of them."
"What is the operation ?"
"Well, for instance, one day last
winter | was in a camp on the Pow
der river, in Wyoming and directly
west of the Black Hills. 1t was
pleasant, sunshiny day, and during
the forenoon the wind blew smartly
from the hills. Just about noon,
while | was preparing my dinner, a
puff of wind from the Laramie Noun
tains, to the south, hit me. On the
plains, q mile to the south of me, and
just where two valleys brought these
two different winds to focus point,
cloud of snow was lifted high in air,
and the wind began to circle. In ten
minutes the cloud began moving to-
ward me, and the mercury soon went
down eleven degrees. The cloud bore
to the northeast, struck the north fork
of the Big Cheyenne River, and fol-
lowed it east to Fort Sully, spreading
its fanks as it went. AT Sully it ran
down the Missouri to the Iowa State
line. Here the wave was hundred
miles long. When it got down to
Omaha it wars 200 miles. 1t left the
river there and went east, and by the
time the center reached Des Moines
one wing was at Minneapolis, due
north, and the other at Sedalia, due
south. From wing to wing was 500
miles. That wave took in Wisconsin,
Illinois, and Indiana, and was kept
from Michigan by lake influences, and
later on all the Atlantic coast, from
Maine to Virginia, was overspread by
it. This was only one out of the
many | have seen born"
Gould it have been stopped ?"
Certainly. 1t was no larger than
barrel when it started"
"What is your cure for these cold
waves?"
"Well, I've been experimenting.
You must warm the air as the first
step. In that case you kill the germ
and the blizzard falls fiat. On this
line Of the birthplace of blizzards, a
distance of 500 miles, base-burner
coal stoves should be set up six feet
apart. Ten thousand stoves might
do it, but the government might as
well add 5000 more and make sure
thing of it. Each stove would burn,
say nine tons of coal during the win
ter. One man, as l figure it, could
attend to five stoves. AS all the
stoves would be out of doors, only
one length of pipe would be required.
| figure ON saving $4,000 joints of
stove-pipe. This item alone would
pay for most Of the coal. Every
blizzard costs the country $4,000, 900.
We have an average of ten per sea-
son. figure that / can stop every
one for 100000 each. This saves
the country $29,OOO,OOO per season.
The government puts $20,0O0,000 in
its pocket, and hands me the other
nine."
"And you have an idea your scheme
will be adopted p
Certainly. The only fear l have
is that the government may want to
put plain stoves OH me, while | shall
stick for the nickel-plated affairs.
There's no use in going into the thing
with anything cheap. I shall return
in about week, as | will then know
exactly how much l can save on
stove-pipe. l hope you will come and
see me. This afternoon ! shall try
and figure on using one leg to stove,
thus saving 10000 stove-legs. This
would pay for the coal for 367 stoves.
Don't forget to come and see me-
Free Press.