The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-17
TELLS OF STORMS
That OF Chicago Includes q New
Searchlieht Signal
Some Interesting Infornation Regarding
This Unique Addition to the Signal
APpaxatus-A Curious Vul-
gar HelIef.

-
twenty miles Of Chicago, when they
saw a beam of white light sweep
slowly across the sky. some Of those
chilly nights in the last week Of May,
knew that it was q warning of frost,
and with blankets and straw mats
made haste to cover their tender plants,
and so save their early crops Out on
the lake, and In the harbor where YES
sells deeply laden with grain were
the pilots saw q streak of red-and-
white light shoot across the sky from
the direction of the big city, they knew
that it was not display Of surorA
borealis, but a warning of . marine
storm with kigh westerly winds. And
if the beam was solid red, it was quickly
interpreted as presaging . storm with
high eastcriy winds And. remember
ing the big storm of last May, writes
John T. Bramhall in Leslie's Weekly,
the boats kept the harbor IN safety until
the storm went by. These lights came
from the government signal station,
high up On the tower of the Auditorium,
from the level top of which the electric
protector can throw light twenty or
thirty miles over the horizon in any
direction.
The use Of tho searchrght for this
purpose is entirely new. and is the re-
suit Of the progressive pohcy Of the
secretary of agriculture, Hon. J. Ster-
ling Morton, who has brought the
weather bureau to q state Of efficiency
and usefulness never before attained,
and who has been ably seconded in his
efforts by Prof. W. L. Moore, who won
the post of chief observer Of the district
of the northwest By his success In q
severe competitive examination, in
which problems in weather forecasting
formed the chief part. Prof. Moore
was trained by Maj. 81. II. c. Dun,
woody, the assistant chief of the
weather bureau, who is rated by scien-
tific men as the foremost practical
in the world. Prof.
Moore's recent promotion to the posi-
ton Of chief Of the weather bureau
service is only just recognition of his
high capacity and eminently useful
career. The searchlight used for tho
Chicago weather signal is thirty
inch protector which was made by
the General Electric company for
the cruiser Maine. When needed on
the ship it will be replaced by forty
eight inch Of not one still larger re- |
Hector, similar to those powerful
lights which threw their beams from |
the great roof of the Manufactures |
building at the worlds fair down upon !
the Wooded Island and the Court Of
Honor, and illulnined the heavens |
for miles around. The apparatus /
at present used is rated at twenty J
thousand candle-power, and the light |
sent forth is increased by the reflector
10 about one hundred Thousand candle
power. The carbon used is an inch in
and the current is taken from
he house mains at a potential OF ono
and seventeen volts and re-
luced to forty-seven volts by rheo-
tats. The present protector is directed
~ hand, but the larger one will be OPP
rated by keyboard in the tower. Tho
,eam of white light from the big appa-
atus, it is calculated, may be thrown,
n clear weather, over q circle having q
adius of forty miles Or more
The Chicago weather Office is the
Of tho service for the
PIPER lake region, extending from
indiana on the east and Indian terri
Dry on the south to the international
on the north and the crest
f the Rocky mountains on the west
region that floats commerce as heavy :
s the Atlantic seaboard, and includes
he great cereal-growing states of the
ountry.
1t is curious to note how far the pop
lar fiction of the actual control Of the I
'eather by the official observer has
rown into vulgar belief. In times !,
hen 3 change of weather, for hot or ,
old, wet or dry, is anxiously looked
or. il is not uncommon for rough-vis- !
ged, gray-whiskeredm men TO invade the :
" parlor of the weather man" aDd ,
arnestly beg or vehemently demand !
he desired alteration in meteorologic I
,nditions. Others, of the class known !,
5 ''crsnks," come to divulge their pc.
1liar Systems" and to plead for an ex-
langc of condolences, that they may
e the better enabled to deal out rain a
: shine to the satisfaction of their
atrons. Such people are briefly re-
FRED to the weather chart and the o
lrious indicators, and are obliged, q
any of them being unable TO read Il
Ten barometer. to make the best Of q,
lch means of information. II
q SURE Sign. A
Mrs Wayupp That new servant oi