Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-06-13
PMsLOsOPHX' OF THE TORw.s.

Some people who have never seen a tor
nado at work, or visited places II has mado
desolate, may suspect the Iowa reporters
OF exaggeration. But there is no exhibi-
tion of power incredible in full blowing
tornado. It's general movement Is a hun
dred miles an hour, aud its rotary motion
one of unestimated rapdity. The atmos-
phere, itself material and pondersble sub
stance, is compressed in the wbrl and
dashed against all objects with the force OF
a thousand battering rams. An explosion
of gunpowder is merely the release of pent-
up gases, themselves of great tenuity, but
producing the known results by the speed
of their initial motion. Water, a soft,
yielding body in its quiescent state, is ca
pable of lining up stones hundreds OF tons
in weight and hurling them high 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 familiar expert
ment of shooting tallow candle through
board. A priori, there is nothing in the
leas surprising in tho accounts received of
the Iowa whirlwind. 1t 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 a quarter or half mi lie
or any other distance. Some of the most
extraordinary of the statements made
prove themselves, as where it is said that
large trees were driven deep into the ground
at long distance from where they were up
rooted. This Is precisely what the tornado
might be expected to do with trees. Thrown
by the mighty hand of the wind, they
would be only javelins or arrows, Of which
the trunk would represent the shaft and
the top the roathered part. 1t is said that
old stumps over which the cyclone swept
were, in some instances, cut off, fresh and
smooth, as by circular saw this would
be in conformity with a well-known law Of
tornadoes, which, when passing over level
surfaces, do not quite touch the ground,
but expend all thoir force within few
feet of it. The inconcevable rapid whr
Of the air would operate exactly like a saw
upon the stumps, as above described. But
when it comes to house, or forest, or a
hillock, or any large sized object which
obstructs its way, then its power seems to
be exerLed downward then it strikes into
the earth and roots up everything. One of
the Iowa stories speaks of scooping out
cellars, stones, human inmates and all,
which is not ut all improbable. We lack
exact information about the width OF the
tornado's path. Probably it was very mar
row, not more than two hundred or three
hundred feet, the intensity of the action
being proporiioned to the concentration at
the base. A cyclone in Connecticut many
years ago left a devasted path of not over
two hundred feet, leveing all objects in its
course, aud not even breaking the boughs
of trees just outside that limit. Its swath
was as well defined as q mowers in the
hay field. Many years since, a tornado
struck piece of country near Kearsage
mountaiE, New Hampshire, and prostrat-
ed every giant tree in a belt about three
hundred feet wide, finally passing up the
side of Kearsage and breaking its force on
the summit. The path of this tornado,
straight and clean cut, could be seen for
long time on the mountains side. 1t fol-
lows from these facts that if one is apprised
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 gener rally sweeps TOO suddenly up
on 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-
cnrronces foreran the Iowa event, and it
will be worth the while for scientific per-
sons to see if they were not conditions
precedent Of that grand climax. One was
the wonderful solar halo seen on Monday,
the Goth, in this city and vicinity, and we
do not know where else. Some authorities
speak of this as a not uncommon phenome-
non; 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
powerfully attraated to it, and its import
wonderingy guessed at. Those halos 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 aud 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 at
mosphere and presages storms. The move-
ment begun in this part of the country
may, perhaps, have terminated in the
ICY Of which we would speak occurred in
Iowa, as far back as the 14h instant, or q
week before the tornado burst forth. At
Des Moines, Iowa, and at other places in
the State, the air was filled with electricity,
although no storm occurred. For several
hours it was impossible TO work the tele-
graph wires but that was the least aston
ishing part of the manifestations. On the
castern-bound express train on the Rock
Island road the track seemed a road of fire
under and behind the cars. The light was
so vivid as to illuminate the track for some
distance in tho rear. One observer de-
scribes il as "trailing banner of fiame."
This, of course, was Immediately caused
by the friction of the car wheels, but the
atmosphere must havO been very highly
charged with electricity to permit its exhi-
bltion through such simple agency. Des
Moines is only nine miles from the center
of the tornado track, and that city herself
suffered TO some extent from a thunder
storm ON the eventful 22d instant The in
cldents 10 which we have referred are sep
a'rated by time or space from the Iowa tor
nado, but that is no reason why they should
be summarily rejected from the EQUATION.
Nature works fast in some things and slow
in others. 1t is we'll settled fact that the
greatest commissions of the elements, which
come uTon us suddenly, as If without
warning, are, in fact, slowly prepared, and