The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-13
From Various Sources.

k
 9 servatory on Mount Vesuvius'
 which has recently been de- stroyed, was situated nearly 2ooe rect above the level of the sea on Colle can teroni a ridge which In past eruptions or the volcano has separated the lava streams Into two branches
 There men of science, at the ifhin'- nent danger of their lives, have taken observations in times gone by that were of inestimable advantage in forecastlns the renewed activity of the volcano; anu there, on Saturday night, the famous Matteucci, official observer, with an American named Ferret, remained amid the storm of fire and lava, unui hhahy forced to flee for their lives.
 A splendidly equipped observatory Tn everv resnect. it was situated on a ledge of rock which ran out from the very foot of the crater. At one 'hhe occupying a position of vantage, where the streams of lava passed It oy OH either side-like an island swept by the sea-the successive eruptions had heG up the ravine which the watch tower of science" overlooked, until the ledge was almost on level with the sur rounding country, and thus was m inc for the destruction which met it in the torrent of fire on Saturday night.
 The romance of science surrounded the famous old observatory, and with the ruined tower the names ol '"o men were 1inked--Palmieri and Matteuee'' Palmeiri came first, and for score ol years, and until death claimed nm at the age of 91 years, In 1898, he renamed In the watch tower. Without preah he predicted each recurring erup'lon of the volcano for period or more than forty years, the instrument that ne had invented for noting the subter- ranean movements of the mountain being of so delicate nature that the slightest disturbance of the crater, the slightest trembling of the ground or change in the air was instantly regis tered.
 During the frightful eruption of 1872 he had an experience in the watch tower calculated to shatter the mlnd of the strongest devotee of science, but which he passed through with but added veneration for his 'mistress," as he termed the roaring volcano. On the night of April 26 of that year the eruption reached it's utmost terrify- ing heights. Prof Garrett F. Serviss, who visited Palmeiri in the observatory later has written about the events ot that night.
 .I could see him." writes the pro- lessor. lon that awful night of April 2b, when his observatory, shaken ana rocked by the convulsions of the noun tain. on whose very shoulder IS perched, was surrounded by two vast streams of molten lava, while biindlng clouds of smoke and ashes, intermlhgieu with burning fragments, swept ooWh unon it, blazing bombs from the cra'ei dropped by scores upon the terraces anu terrific lightning strokes fell thick anu east amid the roar and below or the
 ,olcano- audible fifty miles away
 ..rrbe heat of the observatory rose 10 ,oo desrees-an oven tempersture-yet pa,meiri never dreamed of deserting ms most. He was captain or science, anu this was his battlefield, whether II shouio nrove a Roncesvalles or Tours. NOT was there danger only from falling ms siles and burning lava; vast quanuiies of carbonic acid and sulphuretted hyoro- gen gases and other noxious exhaiatlons poured from the rended mountain, ren- dering the air at times foul and suffo- eating.
 ..People fled by the thousands from the san,irir-le of towns and cities lying on the shore of the bay miles away, but Pal