The St. Johns herald., 1895-11-23
WEATHER SERVICE.
That of Chicago Includes a New
 Searchjght SigneL
Some Interesting Info nation Regarding This Unique Addition to the Signal
 Apparatus-A Curious VuI- gar i3elief.

The gardeners within a radius Of twenty miles of Chicago, when they saw a beam of white light sweep slowly 2 ross the sky, so,ae of those chilly nights in the last week of May, knelv that it was warning Of frost, and with blanle.s and straw mats made haste to cover their tender plans and so save their early crops. Out on the lake, and in the harbor where yes sels deeply laden with grain were reaf to 20 down to the straits, when the pilots saw a streak of red-and zvh;-e light shoot across the sky from the direction of the big city, they knew tha. IL w3.s not display of aurora Dore4'is but warning of a marine stl4al with high westerly winds. And f -sle beam was solid red, it was quickly interpreted as presaging storm with nj. h easterly winds. And. remember in.- the big storm Of last May, writes John T. Bramhal in Leslie's Weekly, the boats kept the harbor in safety until tn storm went by. These lights came frc.n the government signal station, hi h up on the tower of the Auditorium, from the level top of which the electric projecoOr can throw light twenty or tn. -ty miles ever the horizon in any direction.
 The use of the searchlight for this purpose is entirely new, and is the re- su- of the progressive policy of the secretary of agriculture, Hon. J. Ster- lin:s Morton, who has brought the weather bureau to state of efficiency an l usefulness never before attained, anl who has been ably seconded in his ef.orts by Prof W. l.. Moore, who won ;he post of chief observer of the district of he northwest by his success in severe competitive examination, in which problems in weather forecaSting formed the chief part. Prof. Moore was trained by Maj. II. II. c. Dun- woody, the assistant chief of the weather bureau, who is rated by scien- tie men as the foremost practical meteorologist in the world. Prof. Moores 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 the Chicago weather signal is thirty inch projector which was made by the General Electric company for tLe cruiser Maine. When needed on the ship it will be replaced by forty e;ght inch (if 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 llumined the heavens for miles around. The apparatus at present used is rated at twenty thousand candle-power, and the light sent forth is increased by the reflector 60 about one hundred thousand candle power. The carbon used is an inch in diameter, and the currents taken from the house mains at potential of one hundred and seventeen volts and re- duced to forty-seven volts by rheo- stats. The present projector is directed by hand, but the larger one will be op- erated by keyboard in the tower. The beam of white light from the big appa- ratus, it is calculated, may be thrown, in clear weather, over circle having T.; lius of forty miles or more.
 The Chicago weather office is the headquarters of the service for the uppcr lake region, extending from Indiana on the east and Indian terri tcry on the south to the international boundary on the north and the crest of the Rocky mountains on the vest re-, ion that floats commerce as heavy f the Atlantic sea board, and includes f, e great cereal-growing states of the country.
 u Is curious to note how far the pop ula1 fction of the actual control of the weather by the official observer has cauaA into a vulgar belief In times N.2eI a change of weather, for hot or cold vet or dry, is anXioUsly looked fur, It Is not uncommon for rough-vis- age gry-whiskered men to invade the s'v parlor of the weather man" and earnestly beg or vehemently demand the desired alteration in meteorologic conditions. Others, of the class known as ''cranks,n come to divulge their pe- culiar '.systems" and to plead for an ex- change of condolences, that they may b. tine better enabled to deal out rain or sine to the satisfaction of their ratrcns. Such people are briefly re- farred to the weather chart and the var.ous indicators, and are obliged, izany of them being unable to read even barometer, to make the best of such means of information.