Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-07-03
Philosophy of the Tornado.

Some people who have never seen a tor
nadO at work, or visited places it has made
desolate may suspect the Iowa reporters
of exaggeratiOr But there is no cXhIbi-
ton of power incredible in "a full blowing
tornado. Its general movement is hun
dred miles an hour, and its rotary motion
one of unestimated rapidity. The atmos-
phere, itself a material and pOnderous
substance is compressed in the Whirl and
dashed against all objects with the force
OF thousand battering-rams. Al eXplo-
sion Of gunpowder is merely the release
of pentup gases, themselves of great tenu
ity, but producing the known results by
the speed of their initial motion. Water,
oft, yielding body in its quicsccnt state,
is capable of lifting up stones hundreds of
upon the beach. In all these cases the
force Of the first impact supplies the want
Of solidity in the materials which do the
mischief; as is again illustrated by the fa
milar experiment of shooting a talloW
candle through board A pri0ri, there
is nothing in the least surprising
in the accounts received of the
Iowa whirlwind. It could tear up
trees and blow down the strongest houses
and stone walls, and bear human beings,
cattle, hogs, sheep, and everything else
in its path, through the air for quarter
or half mile or any other distance Some
Of the most extraordinary of the state
mcnts made prove themselves, as where it
is said that large trees were driven deep
into the ground at long distances from
where they were uprOoted This is pre-
cisely what the tornado might be expected
to DO with trees. Thrown by the mighty
hand of the wind, they would be only jaw
al ling of viii oh 1o fr1,, l.
represent the shaft and the top the feather
ed part. 1t is said that old stumps
over which the cyclone swept,
were, in some instances, cut off,
fresh and smooth, as by a circular
saw; this would be in conformity with
a well-known Flaw of tornadoes, which,
when passing over level surfaces, do not
quite touch the ground, but expend all
their force within few feet of it. The
inconceivably rapid whirl of the air
would operate exactly like a saw upon the
stumps, as above described. But when it
comes to a house, or a forest, or hillock,
or any large-sized object which obstructs
its way, then its power seems to be eXerted
more downward; then it strikes into the
earth and roots up everything. One of
the Iowa stories speaks of scoOping out
cellars, stones, human inmates, ana all,
which is not improbable. We lack exact
| information about the width of this tor.
nado's path. Probably it was very mar
| row, not more than two or three hundred
feet, the intensity of the action being pro-
pOrtioned to the concentration at the base
A cyclone in Connecticut many years ago
left a devastated path of not over two hun
dred feet, leveling all objects in its course,
and not even breaking the boughs of trees
i,Jct "a hot We I,
well-defned as a mowers in the hay-feld
| Many years since tornado struck piece
of country near kcarsarge Mountain, New
| Hampshire, and Frustrated every giant
| tree in a belt about three hundred feet
wide, finally passing up the side of kear-
sarge and breaking its force on the sum-
NIT. The path of this tornado, straight
and clean cut could be seen for long
! time on the mountains side 1t follows
from these facts that if one is appraised of
| the approach of tornado in season, and
| notes the direction of the wind that pre-
| cedes it, he may possibly escape its effects
| But it generally sweeps too suddenly upon
| its prey to permit this. Fortunately in
| this country, such cyclones as that of
| Iowa are among the rarest of phenomena.
Two very remarkable meteorological oc-
| currCnces toreran the Iowa event, and it
| will be worth the while for scienti-
| tic persons to see if they were not condi-
! lions precedent of that grand climax
| One was the wonderful solar halo seen on
Monday, the Goth, in this city and vicln-
| ity, and we do not know where else
| Some authorities speak of this as not
uncommon phenomenon; and that is true
of some circles which appear about the
| sun, but this particular one was very
marked and striking The attention of
| the most careless observer was most pow
erfully attracted to it, and its import Won
! deringly guessed at. These halOes have
been explained on the theory of the pres
ence of small ice-crystals moving in the
upper air, and when coming between the
spectator and the sun, causing the appari-
ton of the halo by their united refracting
power. Their passage through the air in
great numbers so as to produce the phe-
nomenon of a solar halo, indicates, we
may suppose, violent disturbance in the
atmosphere and presages storms, The
movement begun in this part of the coun-
try may, perhaps, have terminated in the
frightful cyclone of Iowa The other
prodigy of which we would speak occurred
in Iowa, as far back as the 14th instant, or
week before the tornado burst forth. At
Des Moines, Iowa, and at other places in
the State, the air was filled with electri-
city, although no storm occurred. For
several hours it was impossible to work