Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-04-09
LIGHT IN THE AIR.
L Brilliant Exhibition Caused by Burning
Gas la a Cold Atmosphere.
IBeayer Falls (Pa Tribunel

Brilliant Exhibition Caused by Burning
Gas in a Cold Atmosphere.
IBeaver Falls tPa.) Tribune.l
At the Hartman steel works, in this
1iace, is a large tube extending perpen-
licularly above the surface of the ground
othe height OF thirty feet, from which the
natural gas is allowed to escape at night,
when the works are not in operation. The
gas is burned as 1t issues from the tube and
,orms blaze which Eliminates all of this
place, and, on cloudy nights, New Brigh-
5on. Since cold weather began it has been
noticed that in certain conditions of the
atmosphere, in addition to the general il l.
lumination of the valley for some two or
three miles, vertical, feathery and very
brilliant arrow of fire extends almost to
she zenith, and at its highest point is at
times the most brilliant and quite as bright
rs rod of iron at a white heat.
Saturday night the conditions of the at
mosphere seemed to be particularly well
adapted to the display of this truly won
derful phenomenon, and as the brilliant
shaft of light shot like a rocket from the
haze that dimmed it within ten or fifteen
degrees of the mouth of the tube, from
which the gas issued and grew more bril-
til it seemed to reach above the regions Of
Orion and pale his beauty, it was certainly
a wonder such as mortals have never be-
: fore witnessed.
1t appeared about eight O'Clock, and,
with the exception of few times, when
some increasing or temporary haziness
dimmed the lower half of it, the size and
brilliancy of the shaft remained up until
the writer last looked at It, which was q
little after eleven O'Clock.
The same phenomenon appeared at the
escape-pipe at the Phillipsburg glass
works and also at the Braden gas well, q
distance Of eight miles from where the
writer viewed it, and it was no doubt quite
as brilliant on nearer view as the fiery
arrow that reached from the steel orks
tube to point far above the pole star.
The splendor of this ph enomenon Is abb
solutely beyond the power of verbal de-
scription. No language can paint its
: beauty-no words can possibly convey any
adequate conception of the picture it pro-
duced. Standing a mile south of and look
ing due north at the tube from which the
burning gas was issuing, we saw the sky
lighted to distance of twenty degrees, or
more above the horizon. This light, ow-
ing to the peculiar natural pulsations of
the gas as it rushed from the tube, was in
continually leaping and flashing mo-
tion- Nearly to the same height the
atmosphere. seemed slightly hazy:
above that distance the sky was clear and
the stars in the northern consultations
quite bright; then from the mouth Of the
burning, flaming tube, straight as an ar
row, and reaching vertically to distance
OF seventy five OF eighty degrees above
the horizon, was this feathery, uuivering.
brilliant shaft of fire. Somewhat similar
threads Of FIRE are sometimes seen in
brilliant displays OF the aurora borealis,
but none can, in beauty and variety and
intensity, rival this wonderful pyrotech-
mic display Of natural gas on which our
wondering eyes gazed
Can any of our savants explain the
cause Of itf To philosopher or any lover
of the beautiful and the wonderful 1t Is
worth a trip Of thousand miles 70 see it
as we saw il Saturday night. We win add
that this phenomenon, as wen as several
others we have witnessed within the
past three months. appeared either in or
immediately preceding light, neecy
fan Of snow and the temperature rang
ing from twenty to thirty degrees above
zero, and when the atmosphere near the
surface was hazy or only very light and
nearly white, heecy clouds, II any, were
visible.