The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-03
OFFICES NOT SUITABLE.

expense
OFFICES NOT SUITABLE.
The board of trade building suits Mr..
Moore as far as height and general
adaptability is concerned but the two
Offices vacant in the building would
not be accepted by him under any con-
sideration, he says. Manager Peck
will, however, endeavor to move some
tenants around if possible so as to
give him just the kind of rooms he
wants.
Mr.. Moore will decide upon the loca-
ton of The station before ne leaves
the city, and states that it will be in
complete working order in thirty days.
Observer Donaldson, who will be in
charge, is at present doing temporary
duty in Jacksonville, Fla, and was for
many years in charge of the station
at Ithaca, n. Y. He is 50 years old
and mas been in the weather service
for over twelve years. He will be as
sisted by a messenger named Johnson,
who comes here from Cairo, Ill.
Thirty feet above the roof of the
building selected for the station, there
will be erected a platform and small
house containing the weather instru-
ments. On poles above this will be
the windvanes and thermometers. All
of these instruments will be connected
electrically with the offices below. so
that the observer can nearly always
read the observations without ascend
ing to the platform. The cost of estab-
fishing ana maintaining the station
during the first year will be about $lO,-
600, and in subsequent years between
81, 900 and $1,000.
When asked just what advantages
will accrue to the city by reason OF
the establishment of the station here,
Mr.. Moore grew very enthusiastic, and
said:
THE ADVANTAGES.
1.-THE recording accurately of all the
climatical data of a city has a most
important bearing on its industriai
economy. There are a thousand and
one industries in which the element OF
weather plays an important part. In
many industries it is necessary that
there be recorded accurately every
moment out of the twenty-four, the
temperature, the precipitation, the
relative humidity, the direction and
force of the wind, etc, so that the
manufactures may study the bearing
of the condition of the weather upon
his product.
Il could cite a hundred instances in
which the information sent out by the
dierent stations is put to use. Tell an
engineer the greatest amount of water
that falls in an hour and something
about your watershed, and he'll be
oil TO iI1St ~ 10
| ity of your sewers should be.
"If the greatest cold and the great
est heat are accurately known, the
| contractor will know just how much tC
| allow for the contraction and eXpar-
sion of metal in building the steel
! frame Of building or a bridge. You
would be surprised, too, to see how
| often the records of the weather sta
| tions throughout the country have
| been taken into court.
Before l became chief of the bureau
I was on the stand over one hundred
times, testifying as to weather condi.
tions at certain times. ! remember one
suit, where a railroad company was
being sued for over 100000 for dam,
age done by a fire said to have beer
| caused by a spark from a locomotive
| The company cOntended that the Win-
| was blowing in another direction tha'
night and the sparks from the engin,
couldn't have set the place on fire.
went on the stand with my record,
and showed that the wind was blow,
ing in just the opposite direction at the
particular time the fire started ant
that a spark could have caused tn,
! fire.
TESTIMONY HANGS A MAN.
"In another case in Chicago, l be,
lieve my testimony hung a man who
was being tried for murder. The de,
| fense brought on fourteen different
witnesses. who testified that on the
night of the shooting a thick fog over,
hung the city and that it was impos
sible for the witnesses for the prose
cution, who had already testified, tC
have seen the shooting.
II went on the stand and showed by
| my records that ii was an impossible