The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-07-26

on the deck of Persian Gulf steam
er 1870 degrees Fahrenheit has been
recorded in the morning, while on
shore, at Muscat, a black bulb solar
thermometer in the sun has register
ed 1877 degrees.
Great Britain has once or twice
approached this high record. The
heat of the summer Of 1926 was 50
great that in some localities wheat
and barley were pulled up by hand,
being too short in the stalk to cut
in the usual manner. The pastures
were so burned that cattle had to
be fed on sprouts of gorse, streams
dried up, and it was years later be-
fore many of them got their fish
again.
In 1851 disastrous heat wave
was experienced in different parts
of Europe. In HYDE Park the
shade reading varied from ninty to
ninty-tour degrees; in Paris during
review scores of soldiers fell VIC
Tins TO sunstroke, while at Alder
shot men dropped dead at drill.
Two years latter New York spent a
week in dreadful heat; the city
seemed as if it were on fire, two
hundred and fourteen people being
killed by sunstroke.
Another great heat experience
fell to the lot of the United States
in July, 1876, especially in the Mid
die and Southern States. In Wash
ington the heat was so intense that
a prominent official declared the
rails became SO expanded by the
action of the sun as to rise up IN
curved lines, drawing the bolts. In
| 1881 again we stewed in an atm is
phere of 1O5 degrees in the shade,
and ia the same year 1O1 degrees
was reached in England.
LONDON DAY BEATS RECORD.
The day really entitled to the
proud distinction of being the hot
testof the nineteenth century, in
London, was July %, 1885. when
1852 degrees Fahrenheit was regis
tered in the open air. On July z,
1886, l55 degrees Fahrenheit was
recorded, the previous days reading
having been 151.5: the 4th of the
same month in the following year it
was 151.7; aud on August IA, 1876,
147 degrees was registered.
The hottest place in the United
States is in Arizona. 10 the town
of Yuma, which is at the junction of
the ella and Colorado rivers, in the
southwes tern portion of the State,
the temperature recorded as normal
for July is 118 degrees-not high,
perhaps, when compared to the phe-
nomenal jumps which the mercury
has taken, but certainly high when
one reflects on it's being the normal
every day weather.
FORCE OF SOLAR HEAT.
These facts and figures give some
idea of what the sun is capable Of
or tie terrific force of solar heat the
astronomers have given wonder
ing world as good notion as can be
conveyed by words.
For instance, Sir Robert Ball. the
famous astronomer, has stated that
if the earth were likened to a grain
of mustard-Seed, the sun by the
same comparison would be as large
as cocoanut, while the heating
power of single square foot of its
surface would be sufficient If placed
under the boilers of an Atlantic
liner to enable her to break The re-
cord in crossing the herring pond "
If the suns heat we're maintained
by earthly means, in doing so all
the coal in existence would be con-
sumed in a tenth part of second.
Another famous astronomer in his
day, the late Richard Anthony Proc
tor. explained the total heat of the
sun in another way. According to
him, it was equal to that which
would result from burning some
thing like twelve billion tons of coal
per second, and it's heat would be
strong enough to melt not far short
Of three trillion tons of ice in an
hour. But of this almost unthink-
able force of heat the earth receives
but small proportion only about
one in two Thousand millions of
solar rays Scrap Book.