The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-10

a weI-worn topic of discussion among
meteOrOlogists. Some observations to
settle the question have been made by
Col. w. E. Badgley, whose conclusions
are reported to the Royal MeteorOlOgi-
cal Society. He finds that the earth al
ways eXhales water vap0r by night,
and probably a greater quantity by
day; that this quantity is always con-
siderable, and variation in it is mainly
due to the season of the year; that the
greater part of the dew comes from the
earth vapOr, and that plants exhale
water vapor and do not exude mois-
ture. The total quantity of dew col
lected on grass plates In the year was
/. 6147 inches.
TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES.-In
considering the possibility of transmit
ting electric signals to a distance with
out wires, Prof. John rOwbridge states
that the chief advantage of such a
system would probably be the protec-
ton of steamers during fog. In tele-
graphy by electromagnetic induction
from moving trains the signals are
made to pass through the air fJr ten
or twelve feet, and b~etweentwo circuits
tuned in uniSon-or having the same
electrical capacity-signals might be
exchanged at a few hundred feet, while
by static induction an enormous plate,
highly charged and carefully insulated,
might be made to give from a hill
effects perceptible to the horizon. These
methods could not oe used for a dis
lance of half a mile, however, without
apparatus of great size and power.
BY another method, a buOyed wire
trailed for half a mile from a dynamo
on ship-board might receive telephone
messages from a similar arrangement
on another vassel perhaps half a mile
away, but such signals would at least
be very faint. Cloud reflections from
electric search lights might be een at
some distance in a medium fog, and
loud sOunds-which can be heard much
farther through water than through
air-might be received by telephone at
a distance of a mile. But at present
Prof. Trowbridge regards the S of
small patrol boats as the only practic-
able mean of giving communications
to increase the safety of steamers.
carry electric lights, could be kept at
any desired distance ahead by electric
motors, and would give prompt n
ing of distractions.
STORED COLD.-The storage of cold,
as Mr.. Charles Morris remarks, is a
negative process whichmay be treated
as a positive one in considering it's ap-
parent struggle with the better-knOwn
process of heatstorage. The source of
stored cold is the upper atmosphere,
and the principal storing substance is
snow. Probably few persons have
OOnCi6Onn6 Uho% ON IponnpHonf MORT in
human affairs this pOet-landed sub
stance plays, or that the beautiful snow
has it's aspect of terror, and has done
more to limit mans domain of earth
than any other of the ~unfriendly
agencies of nature. Snow is water
which has lost it's latent heat, or, in a
negative sense, has absorbed the cold
of the upper atmosphere and left in
it's place the heat that might have
served for the benefit of man. The
snow extends it's hostile influence by
several curious methods. The COM
paratively light falls of temperate lati-
tudes are of minor import Ance, since
they yield readily to the early spring
sunshine; but the deep and persistent
falls of polar regions are far mOr TX
haustive of solar heat, chilling the sur
face in their melting and spreading the
influence by the winds, while glacier
and iceberg are powerful agents in
conveying the stored cold to warmer
regions. The glaciers accumulate
where more snow is brought to land
than melts, and the principal seats of
glacier formation in the north frigid
zone are Greenland and Alaska. The
r~efrigerating portion of the southern
hemisphere is much greater, but it's in
fuence is exerted on unvisited seas. 1t
is estimated that the south polar ice
caps cannot be less than three miles,
and may be twelve miles in height,
and the thrust of this vast ice noun
tain pushes off the land a lofty ice cliff
at a rate of not less than a quarter of a
mile annually, and this around a circle
of great extent. Long ago, but since
mans time began, the influence of the
snow extended much farther toward
the tropics than now, a glacial flow
from the north reached far down in
the temperate zone. and much of the
oceAn-how much it is impossible to
te1-was swallowed up in the vast
ocean of ice that buried lands now
populous and teeming with the fruits
of human industry made possible by a
great victory of sunbeams owe snow