The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-02-01
WEIGHT OF RAINFALL
SOME CURIOUS COMPARISONS THAT
ARE INTERESTING.

Two Inches Of Rainfall Means That MIL
Lions Or Tons of Water Have FalIen-I
LOGON olives or Coal Foil in Place of Rail
We M lght DO Surprised.
Everytime anybody picks up paper ant
reads a weather report he finds that 81
many inches of rain have fallen during
certain period. The amount Of precipita
tion is always expressed In inches. Peopl
read 1t without any very clear idea Of jus
how much water has really tumbled from
the clouds To say that the rainfall was al
inch ia 30 many hours conveys very littl
notion of how many gallons or tons of mois
ture fell, excepting to some one like Lieu
tenant Finley or Professor Davidson, VIII
know all about such things and keep tab
on the weather.
The rainfall from Saturday night to Tues
day Morning at 10 o'clock was very ligh
compared with the deluges that have food
cd San Francisco's streets In previous years
There was only 1.73 inches. But has any
body W ho reads this bald statement an ide
Of how many tons Of water cume down
Was 1t 900, 900 or 1000, 600 tonse Perhap
the average LAY" reader doesn't believe
could have been nearly that much
Well, there were Just 100000 tons G
dampness distributed over the little cit
and county of San Francisco.
Fivemillion tons ia n good deal II
had fopped down MI at once there woul
have been good many more roofs crushed
great many more windows broken, an
the umbrella man would have change
places with Senator Fair. But it distril
uted itself along through several days, an
the good people went about in mackintoshe
or listened to it pelt on the roof, totally vi
conscious of what I'M enormous weight wa
being suddenly dropped down upon thei
devoted heads.
Butthen that rain Of Sunday and Nor
day and part Of Tuesday was mere featl
erweight compared with some downpour
we have had. On Feb. 4 and 8 Of 1887 s. 1
inches were precipitated, and that mean
Il, $50 $50 tons in San Francisco,
An ordinary sized locomotive weigh
about fifty tons. Imagine what an undo
sirable state of affairs 1t would be II go, 81
railrohd engines had plunked down fron
the clouds in less than two days Tha
would be little over ten minute. TIL
rain Of pitchforks or cats and dogs woul
be far preferable.
Or suppose an equal amount OF coal wa
dumped down here with the market al
ready glutted. San Franciscans would fin
Themselves pelted with li,Sg0,650 loads q
the h hrd black fuel and would appreciat
the rneuviable lot of Chinese laundry
man in hoodlum alley. The tonnag
would represent great deal more than tn
output OF many famous coal mine durin
its entire life
So much for the weight OF the water
Now let'ssee how many gallons there were
In b ton of water there are 240 gallons
no from Saturday night until Tuesda
morning the sewers and bitches and stream
Of San Francisco carried into the bay an,
ocean or the thirsty ground absorbe,
l,20OO00,0 900 gallons Of water. That ais
leaves margin for trickling down tn
backs OF people whose umbrellas had heel
stolen. just plain figures do not conve
verylnuch OF an idea when they run up int
the billions, so u few comparisons will max
them easier for the mind to grasp. Suppos
TINT water was put into ordinary tomat
cans There would be 4 500, COO, 600 of them
If tile CANS were all loaded into big ships, {
would take over 4, 600 vessels to carry ava
all the rain that fell in San Francisco alone
On imagine them put into railroad DO.
ShiH iAiCn CdF Will lOiu lO,NtV tOHlaI
cans. That would take S2O, COO freight cars
Allowing twenty cars to a train, 1t woui,
require 10000 trains to get the goods t.
market, orenough to more than reach from
herd TO New York That would be freigh
blockade indeed, and all the traffic woul,
bear at that.
One gallon of water spread out in laye
An Inch thick will cover two square feet
al In al Il, al. ia.
steiin had come down on these two sqIIar
feet aud been frozen, it would have formet
an obelisk Of ice towering into the cloud
for d distance Of eighty miles. That woul,
rather put the Washington monument ant
Cleppatru's Needle out of the towering bust
ness, and man on top of it wouldn't hay
felt neighborly with anything except few
local political ambitions.
0f course it rained quite hard at times
and II man out in tho damp making for tn
nest-est saloon was not apt to stop and con
slider that enough water was falling t
make i'll bulk nearly two such monstrou
pyramids az Cheops or Jeezah That BIZ
monument or tomb or whatever it is tool
hundreds of years and millions of men t
finish and is now known us the first of tn
seven wonders of the world. Modern en-
girIeers, with nil the improved machiner
Of Ibis later day, wonder how in the worl,
the old Egyptians managed to pile up sucl
blocks OF stone and carry them to such
height. They look aghast ut the trenlen
dous amount OF material required for tn
building But the basy imps of the uppe
air in two days deposited enough materia
right in San Francisco to make nearly tw,
such gigantic pyramids and didn't hal
try.
The discharge of water over Niagara fall
is Ri6,0O0,oD0 gallons per minute. That i
the largest body of falling water in Ameri
en- 1t makes loud noise and attract
many people to see it plunge nearly 200 fee
ard then kick mp MS much Robbery MS u pc
itical convention. 1t IL called one of tn,
seven natural wonders. But right here il
San Francisco in two days enough ruin fel
to keep Niagara supplied for six minutes
ard there's plenty more where that cam,
from
Estimating San Frncisco's population n
10000 and figuring that each person re
qnires IN average of twenty gallons pei
day, enough rain fell on Sunday and Mon
dRy to fill u great reservoir which woult
last the city for 1900 days or nearly 81,
YEARS And still Spring valley prices hay,
not suffered any precipitation.-Sa Fran
cisco Examiner.