Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1899-08-22
x HEADING OFT 7ORNAD(Sr
Fighting the Destructive Invader With Artil'
lerv- Wonderful Work In Oklahoma "a Can
the Terror of the Middle West Be Overcome {.

tirely free movement Of the air; nothing
In the shape ~ earth or walls exists to
modify its character, except, perhaps, to
intensity the contrasts Of attributes. Sim
ilarly conditioned are the states Of Iowa,
Nebraska and the eastern half of Dako-
ia. West of the one hundred and first
meridian we find a rugged and abrupt
country, traversed by great mountain
chains, which defect the course and mod
ify the temperature and moisture Of the
passing currents. On the east side of the
eighty-ninth meridian the great lakes in.
troduce an equally important factor In
the modification of passing currents"
When the tornado begins, it is tempo
rarily small, but it grows rapidly and
sucks air from farther and farther away.
A cyclone Is an immense tornado, with
out the spiral, Of rather with one so enor-
NOUS that the diameter of 1t Is thousands
Of miles. It has the popularity Of push
ing great masses of heated air to the
southwest, and these air masses start the
tornado.
A cyclone In itself is harmless. All the
"cyclones" one reads about are not cy-
clones, but tornadoes.
Tornadoes have been known in Ameri-
ca for century or more, and thousands
Of persons have been killed and injured
by them. A record of these visitations
since 1904 shows tremendous loss Of life
and property. On Feb. 8, 1884, the coun-
try from the Mississippi river to the At
lantic was the dancing ground for 60 ter
rible tornadoes, which killed so people
and injured nearly 5000, while they re-
duced to ruins 10000 buildings.
During the period from 1874 down to
the present time the most disastrous cy-
clone was that at st. Louis on May 81,
1896. The precise number Of persons
killed has never been known, but the
dead were several hundred and the In
jured many more.
One Of the earliest cyclones on record
was on May Z, 1910, In Adams county,
Miss, when BIT people were killed. The
same place was revisited two years later,
when 500 were killed. The property loss
was very great
Louisville was stricken in 1890, but the
same city was visited by whirlwind as
long ago rs Aug. 81. 1854. At that time
Is persons were killed.
Savannah and its vicinity seem pecul.
iarly subject to destructive windstorms.
That city was storm swept on Sept. 80,
1856, and again In 1893, with much loss
of life and property. On May 20 Of last
year a cyclone tore great holes In Iowa,
Illinois and Wisconsin. Seventy people
were killed, and the loss to property was
very great. So far as property loss goes
St. Louis thus far holds the record.
In speaking of the marvellous success
Of his plan for fighting tornadoes Captain
Hoades. the originator of the scheme
said:
II can hardly claim to have invented
the plan, for I~have twice seen water
spouts broken by the same method while
following my former avocation on thu
sea. Indeed 1t was this that first sug
gested the scheme to me.
"After the cyclone Of 1897 suggested
that Hennessey, which is directly in thu
path Of the south bound tornadoes, adop
this apparently strange plan Of protec