The Ravalli Republican. [volume] (Stevensville, Mont.) 1894-1899, 1898-12-14
5TORKV|LLE CENTER.

knew Of" said Colonel Calliper,
twas one that was set u1o some years
ago in 5torkville Center, vt. There
was q swamp about two or three
miles north Of the town that bred
mosquitoes at least as large as any
that ever wore, and in summer
when the wind was right they would
come down on us III swa1ms, and
they certainly did give us a good
deal Of trouble When the wind
was blowing the other way and
blowing strong, they never used to
bother us at all, and this suggested
the idea Of putting up a plant to
keep a wind blowing in that direc~
ton all the time, and such a plant
was finally set up. There was some
opposition to it at first-a good deal,
in fact-but when it was finally in
operation it worked SO perfectly
that the sentiment in favor Of it be-
came practically unanimous.
-OCCfY CC1l U1lC LOV1 Ii lul1 luC . w Nl1lp
and pretty we'll up toward the
swamp we set up a long line Of poles
right across the country, extending
on either side out beyond the line of
the town, and on these poles there
was carried, at height Of about 12
feet from the ground, a perforated
pipe with the perforations toward
the swamp, and that's all there was
to it but the power, and one steam
engine at the center Of the line sup
piled that, furnishing comp, essed
air which was forced into tile dis
tributing pipe at various places
along the line and out through all
the perforations in front. It was
like long sprinkler, except that it
diln t sprinkle. It supplied air, and
all these jets Of air, expanding, unit
ell at a little distance in front of the
perforations, and, still expanding,
but yet retaining ample strength
they made a continuous and suffi-
GENTLY vigorous blast reaching from
the ground to a height higher than
mosquitoes fly "a wall Of wind
against which mosquitoes could
make no headway. One man could
operate this wh Ole plant easily.
"Of course, we made some mis-
takes at first, including one that
might have been expected in the i'll
torcst OF economy. In those days
we mover used to light our street
lamps OIL moonlight rights-that is,
Oh nights that We're moonlight ac-
cording to the calendar They might
be the cloudiest, blacklist nights
that ever were, but if it was moon
light officially we didn't light up.
We made Il similar mistake at first
in operating the wind plant When
the wind was in the right quarter
to blow the mosquitoes away and
ticre was plenty of it, we used to
save fuel and let the wind plant lie
idle, but aftel. the wind had changed
once or twice in the night we gave
up the economy idea and ran thu
plant regularly every night without
regald to the weather from the be-
ginning to the end of the season. I
think our season there was little
shorter than it is about here. We
used to start the wind plant June 1
and shut down Sept. 30.
.'SBut the greatest difficulty we
ever had over the plant was when a
town Just to the south of us suod us
on account OF it, claiming large
damages from the operation Of it,
and getting out a temporary injunc-
tion restraining us from the use Of
it. During that period OF suspension
we suffered from the mosquitoes,
as>Ee had done before the Inaugural
ton Of the plant, these sutferings
being magnitied in our minds no
doubt by the freedom from them
which we had for some time ell
joyed.
'Tllis town that sued us claimed
that they had got all our mosqui-
toes. They said th;s of the original
current of mosquitoes from the
swamp the part that under ordinary
circumstances would have come to-
Storkville Center and staid there
had not been permanently held back
by our wind plant, but only defect
ed: around it's wings, and that the
mosquitoes thus DETECTED had re-
united below Storkville Center and
gone on to them, and that SO they
got their own and ours, too, and
they asked for a permanent injunc-
ton and damages.
"Storkville Center won, but for
all that the wind plant finally fell
into t}isuse I don't know just how
this came about. I suppose they
didn't keep it in order, and it didn't
work SO perfectly, and then there
were new people coming up all the
time and more OF less opposition
from them, and the others didn'
take so much interest III it as they
did at first, and finally they stopped
using it altogether, and the whole
plant went to decay. was out that
way toward the swamp the last time
WAS in Storkville Center, and there
wasn't SO much as a single post Of