688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



remarkable for their regularity and uniformity. This was the second 

 stage, and the heavily laden Avires looked like nothing so much as 

 gigantic combs. 



It is not often that the third stage of development is reached ; but 

 it does sometimes happen that, when icicles and cylinder have attained 

 their full size, the rain ceases, the sky clears, and the sun begins to 

 shine. Its rays are much too feeble to melt the ice ; but they pass 

 through it to the more sensitive black wire within, whose temperature 

 is so much raised that it melts the particles of ice in immediate contact 

 with itself ; its cohesion with the heavy roll of ice above is destroyed, 

 and the latter, unable any longer to maintain its balance, tAvists round 

 so as to describe a semicircle and exactly reverse its position. The 

 icicles now stand up in the air above the wire, while the roll hangs 

 below it ; and, if there should be more rain, a second row of icicles 

 will be formed opposite the first, producing a striking resemblance to 

 the backbone of a fish, which is rendered still more perfect if there 

 happens to be any wind blowing in the direction of the telegraph line, 

 as in that case both rows of icicles will be slightly inclined toward the 

 wire in the same direction. This last stage of development may also 

 be attained without rain, should the sun have sufiicient power to melt 

 some of the ice ; the water from which will then trickle down to the 

 under-side of the roll of ice, and there form icicles in a similar manner. 

 As the sun gains in power, the wire increases in temperature, and 

 melts away more of the ice from within ; the icicles, borne down by 

 their own weight, drop lower and lower, until the wire reaches the 

 extreme points of the upper row, when of course the whole congealed 

 mass soon drops off. 



Herr Bajohr noticed that the effect produced by this phenomenon 

 on the two lines of telegraph differed considerably, that of the Rus- 

 sian government suffering far more than the other. The posts of the 

 Indo-European line are of iron, and the conducting- wires are thick and 

 strong ; and, though the wire was considerably stretched, it had on the 

 whole borne well the immense strain put upon it. Here and there, 

 w^here the line made a bend, the post at the angle, firmly fixed though 

 it was, had sometimes given way, and, wherever this was the case, sev- 

 eral of the neighboring posts had also succumbed. But the govern- 

 ment line, with its oaken posts and four thin wires, running parallel 

 with the Indo-European line, presented a much more dismal appear- 

 ance. The oaken posts, somewhat crooked to begin with, had not all 

 proved strong enough to sustain the weight of the four heavily laden 

 wires, and in some places had broken down altogether ; while, where 

 they remained erect, the wires were either broken, or completely 

 weighed to the ground by the burden laid upon them. All the posts, 

 both iron and oaken, were covered on the windward side with a crust 

 of ice several inches thick, reaching from the ground to the insulators, 

 where it joined the ice on the wires ; and in this way insulation was 



