The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men

The Boy with the U. S. Weather
Men, by

Francis William Rolt-Wheeler
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Title: The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men
Author: Francis William Rolt-Wheeler

Release Date: July 26, 2007 [eBook #22156]
Language: English
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U. S. Service Series.
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. WEATHER MEN
by
FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER
With Seventy-two Illustrations from Photographs

[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
Boston Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

[Illustration: THE FUNNEL OF DEATH.
Photograph of a tornado in Kansas, taken less than a minute before it
struck the point where the camera had stood.
(This is one of the best tornado photographs in the world and has not
been retouched.)
Courtesy of Geo. S. Bliss, U.S. Weather Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa.]

Published, September, 1917
Copyright, 1917 By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. All rights reserved
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. WEATHER MEN

Norwood Press Berwick & Smith Co Norwood, Mass. U. S. A.

PREFACE
The savage fury of the tempest and the burning splendor of the sun in
all ages have stirred the human race to fear and wonder. All the great
stories and legends of the world began as weather stories. The
lightnings were the thunderbolts of Jove, the thunder was the rolling of
celestial chariot-wheels, and the rains of spring were a goddess
weeping for her daughter, Nature, held a captive in the icy prison of
Winter.
We know a great deal more about the forces of the Weather than the
ancients did, yet we know but little still. The hurricane does not come
unheralded to our shores, the freezing grip of a cold wave is forecast in
time to enable us to fight it, the lightning is tamed by the metal finger
we thrust upward to the sky. But the tornado sweeps its funnel of death
over our cities in spite of all we do, the cloudburst falls where it will,
and rivers rush to flood with the melting of the snows upon the distant
mountains.
There is no battle greater than the battle with the Weather, which is
both our enemy and our ally. Death and disaster are the price we pay
for ignorance. Great victories have been won by knowledge.
Galveston's sea-wall dared and defeated the hurricane, the levees of the
Mississippi have held captive many a flood, and our myriad spears of
defence have snatched at the power of the lightning flash and hurled it
harmlessly to the ground.
We are not slaves to the demons of the Weather, now--not as we once
were. The United States Weather Bureau, day by day, draws closer and
closer the chains which bind the untrammeled violence of sun and
storm. High, high in the atmosphere, is a world all unexplored, where
no man can dwell; where, as yet, no human-made instrument has
reached. This unknown world calls for explorers, it calls for adventure,
it calls for daring and patient work. It is for Man to tame the forces of

the sky, and tame them he must and will. To show how much the
Weather Bureau is accomplishing, to depict the marvels of its work, to
portray the ruthless ferocity of the forces as yet uncontrolled and to
reveal the gripping fascination of this work, in which every American
boy may join, is the aim and purpose of
THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE ADRIFT ON THE FLOODED RIVER 1
CHAPTER II
THE HOME OF THE RAIN 34
CHAPTER III
PUTTING THE SUN TO WORK 72
CHAPTER IV
THE MASSACRE OF AN ARMY 105
CHAPTER V
THE RUNAWAY KITE 143
CHAPTER VI
DEFEATING THE FROST 180
CHAPTER VII

CLEARING AN INNOCENT MAN 210
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE WHIRL OF A TORNADO 255
CHAPTER IX
THE TRAIL OF THE HURRICANE 280
CHAPTER X
STRUCK BY LIGHTNING 312

ILLUSTRATIONS
The Funnel of Death Frontispiece FACING PAGE Futen, God of the
Winds 14 There, Before the Flood, Stood Anton's House 30 The Edge
of a Tornado's Whirl 38 In the Path of the Lightning 46 In the Path of
the Tornado 46 Facing a Climb on Snow-Shoes 56 Twenty-Five-Foot
Drift a Mile Long 56 Forest Ranger in Idaho 56 Observer Among the
Quaking Aspens 56 No Peak Too Lofty for