The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-07-18
FACTS ABOUT HAIL-sToNEs.
1t Takes But Ten Minutes to Form thu
Largest Ones Ever Known.

1t Takes But Ten Minutes to Form the
Largest Ones Ever Known.
Meteorologists are not unit in agree
ment upon the manner of formation OF
hail-stones. The theory of Dove has
been given most credence. He believed
that the Maidstone passed rapidly from
the cold air to the warm, moist air, and
again from the warm air into the cold
er, thus alternately taking on a jacket
OF moisture and freezing it around the
nucleus or heart. The formation OF the
nucleus itself, it is conceded, is from the
snow-fakes in the cold cloud, which be-
ing whirled about forms a small ball,
about which subsequent layers CONCEAL
as the ball is tossed about into the at
mospheres of different temperatures.
The Maidstone, from its varying shapes
and angularities, shows that 1t has had
a wild and irregular career in the sky,
sometimes melting into crooked shapes,
then being tossed upward and CONCEALED
rapidly. 1t takes but ten minutes, so
the meteorologists say, to form the
largest hail-stones known. While many
of those that fell Sunday were nearly
spherical, more of them were rough and
jagged, and some had fat face on one
side and were covered with nobules on
the other
The most remarkable hail-storm on
record was that of July 13, 17ss, which
passed from Touraine, France, to Bel
gium. 1t travelled in bands or separate
belts. While the western band had a
width OF ten miles and length of 400
miles, the eastern band had with of
i've miles and length of 500 miles. A
band of rain twelve miles wide was be-
tween them. Over 1000 communes suf-
fered, and property valued at SIS, 900, 600
was destroyed. The most fatal storm of
the kind was that of April 30, 1883, at
Moradabad, India, in which over $50
lives were lost. John Eliot, meteorolog-
ical reporter to the government of India,
says of this storm: "Verandas were
blown away, and the massive Pucca por-
tico was blown down. 1t was nearly
dark. Hail was on the ground two feet
deep. Persons caught in the open were
simply pounded to death. The area of
this storm was only about six or seven
miles around Moradabad."
Probably the worst hail-storm that
ever occurred in this country was that
of June 16, 1882, at Dubuque, Iowa. For
thirteen minutes, beginning at 2:35 p M,
hail-stones fell, some of which were sew
enteen inches in circumference The
largest weighed ~ pounds. They ex-
hibited diverse formations, some of
them having knobs and icicles half an
inch in length. Others were surrounded
by rings of different-colored ice, with
gravel and blades of grass imbedded
within. The foreman of the Novelty
Iron Works stated that he melted two
which had living frogs within them.
This report comes from the Monthly
Weather Review, issued by the Govern.
ment. ..r
A Dubuque newspaper report accom-
the picture states that hail |
stones as large as cocoanuts were thrown |
down, and some ladies cooled a pitcher |
of lemonade with them, and wrote to |
Eastern friends that they had made the
drink palatable with ice frozen in that
city on June 10. In falling the stones
went through the roofs of street cars
Baltimore Sun.