ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES IN IDAHO TERRITORY. 551 
PHYSICS. 
REMARKABLE ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES IN IDAHO TER- 
RITORY. 
D. A. WILLIAMS. 
For the benefit of those interested in electrical science perhaps a few facts 
regarding the difficulties experienced in operating the telegraph lines of Idaho 
Territory may be useful, and possibly a remedy suggested by the scientific reader 
of the Review. 
On account of the dryness of the climate of Idaho Territory, it has been 
supposed no such difficulty as was experienced during the past summer would 
ever occur, but the practical telegraphers of the Oregon Short Line Railroad have 
met an obstacle, although it may not be insurmountable, is nevertheless very an- 
noying, and new in telegraphic experience. 
Twenty-five miles west of Pocatello the railroad and telegraph line crosses 
the Snake River just below its change of direction from west to almost due south. 
The road crosses the river directly over the American Falls, or Rapids, which it 
is thought by some develop or throw into the atmosphere, thence to the wire, 
a large amount of electricity. 
The Snake River is not again seen from the railroad until a distance of one 
hundred and thirty-five miles is reached almost due west, thus the river courses 
around a great bend or elbow ; when at King Hill it is again touched by the rail- 
road but not crossed. 
The writer was located at Shoshone, nearly midway between the American 
Falls and King Hill Station, which is also the junction of the Wood River Branch 
of the O. S. L. R. R., extending northward to the silver mines of Idaho. It was 
here that the writer had an excellent opportunity to observe the electrical dis- 
turbances as they occurred frequently between the months of May and October 
the past season. 
When the telegraph wire had been extended as far west as King Hill we 
noticed whenever a storm-cloud appeared southwest (where they always appeared 
in summer,) there would occur a strange noise on the wire. At first the noise 
would be faint, but as the cloud (which to all appearances shed no rain, as rain 
seldom falls on the great lava plains of that district,) approached, ^following the 
course of the river, the peculiar humming noise would continue to increase until 
it became a roar, but more remarkable still, every "relay magnet" on the tele- 
graph wire between the American Falls and King Hill would become useless 
and remain so until the storm had passed north of the American Falls. When 
the electric current was reversed, and the magnets would appear as in an open 
VII- 33 
