Like a father whose child has suddenly become a powerful and famous person, the J. M. began to feel his affection mingled with awe. From Sitka to San Diego was now Maria’s domain. She was a gigantic creature of the atmosphere, drawing moisture from the great Pacific and expending it as rain and snow upon a thousand miles of coast.

The Chief, that morning, moved about with a smile on his face. His forecast could have been no better if he had made the weather himself. And there was plenty of rain still to come.

5

The weakened wire on the transmission line was becoming so heavily loaded with ice that it could no longer withstand the strain. At eighteen seconds after 9:02 A.M., it broke. In the next fraction of a second the following results took place.

The wire began to fall toward the ground. Thirty-six thousand horse-power ceased to flow into the general P-L system. The immediate region (an unimportant foothill district) suffered a complete failure of electric energy. In towns within a radius of thirty miles the few lights still burning grew dim. In the operation-room at French Bar Power-House a bell rang loudly, the automatic oil switches broke the circuit, the ammeters hit the bumper, and the dynamos changed tone sharply. At Ringgold Sub-station, a hundred miles to the south, voltmeters and ammeters reacted and a bell rang. The frequency of the whole P-L system fell from 60.02 to 59.88. In the L. D.’s office, still another hundred miles away, a vibrating red line upon a recording-drum indicated this fall. At Elk Power-House, which was controlling the system, the same change was indicated on a dial. In the reserve steam power-house at Holladay the large turbine valves opened. Every electric clock from Shasta to Tehachapi was threatened with losing time, and many delicate automatic processes were endangered.

During the next fraction of a second the wire continued to fall. The operator at French Bar Power-House reacted to the signals and began to reach for a switch. The operator at Ringgold Sub-station moved his hand toward the desk-telephone. The controlling operator at Elk Power-House turned clockwise the valve upon which his hand was resting. In the Holladay steam power-house the steam pressure released by the opening of the automatic valve set a dynamo in motion.