Star Stories  

Mercury Gets Up to 106

Highest Temperature This Season Reached at 3:30 o’clock

The temperature at Kansas City continues to break all records. The mercury began work early this morning with the sinister purpose of surpassing yesterday’s performance and it went away beyond the mark. It succeeded from the start in making new weather history for this section.

At 8 o’clock it was at 90 degrees, the highest recorded for that hour of the day.

It broke the noon record by going to 101 and then played general havoc with meteorological statistics by scoring 106 degrees at 3:30 this afternoon. At 3 o’clock it had reached 104.6, surpassing the highest previous record.

Then it cut loose and jumped up 1.4 degrees in the next half hour.

There was no breeze to make the heat less oppressive. It was hoped that one would arise and if it only developed force enough to hurl a feather, it might deprive the solar giant of some of his terrible power. It might produce a little respite pending results from the public prayers for rain made by the governor’s proclamation yesterday.

Kansas City suffered more from the heat yesterday and last night than it has any time within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. The mercury added a tenth of a degree to its highest previous record, which was made last week, and scored 104 even. One-tenth of a degree of heat makes no perceptible difference to the feelings of the public, but yesterday there was no breeze stirring and the air was heavy and somewhat humid.

When, at 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon the mercury, carrying out its policy of expansion, reached 104 degrees and broke the records of the weather bureau, it did not show a representative temperature that is endured by common mortals who move and have their being amidst conditions that enhance the heat of the sun. The government thermometer is stowed away carefully in a little latticed shelter on the roof of one of the tallest buildings on one of the highest altitudes in the city. The purpose of the government is to get the best temperature that is absolutely free from the influence of artificial heat, such as is injected into the atmosphere by the radiation from brick walls and paved streets Even the smoke from chimneys – and there is no lack of it in Kansas City – adds a certain amount of artificial heat to the atmosphere. The temperature recorded by the government thermometer probably does not apply to half a dozen persons in Kansas City. The unofficial thermometers nearer the ground are as varied as the conditions connected with the different vocations of persons in different localities in the town.

Down in the engine and boiler rooms of the one of the big packing houses Saturday and Sunday men worked in a temperature of 130 degrees, shown by a standard thermometer. They threw open furnace doors, bowed their heads to keep their faces from being blistered, and plunged long heavy iron bars back and forth into the glowing coals until the water fell like rain from their half naked bodies. Every few minutes they staggered outside to a shady place and lay gasping while fellow workmen threw buckets of water over them. A moment’s rest to revive them and then another turn at raking and poking and throwing coal into the fierce fire that a great industry might be able to run and help supply the world with things to eat. Sometimes the men failed to revive and the foreman stripped off and lent a hand, while messengers were sent to search for more help. Such work called for endurance that might be termed heroic. The same thing has been taking place every day of the hot wave at every big plant in Kansas City. The conservative readings of the government thermometer do not apply to these men.

Down in the railway yards switchmen leaned against the shady sides of box cars and fanned themselves with their hats while cinders burned their soles and sent the temperature to 112 degrees in the shade – of the box cars. The official record does not interest them.

Down on the business streets, where the asphalt absorbs heat all day and throws it off at night, the parched pedestrian consults the mercury that does business in the same surroundings as himself and finds a temperature of 108 or 110 degrees. The official record does not apply to him. It is useful to him for statistical purposes to refer back to. When he recalls the history of the present hot wave he will add several degrees to the government record and still not jeopardize his reputation for veracity.

There must, however, be an official standard or basis. To supply that is the function of the government thermometer. It does not pretend to tell the degree of heat endured by different people in different parts of town.