The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-05-27

Rouge in August, 1861 commanded corp
under Bragg at Stone River at the end of 1862
and at Chickamauga in September, 1868; de
feated Sigel at Newmarket in May, 1854; par
ticipated in Early's advance on Washington
in July of that year, and shared in his detea
near Winchester in September. In January
1865, he was appointed Confederate Secretar!
of War. After the surrender of Gen. Lee h
went to Europe, whence he returned in 1868
and has since lived in Kentucky.
Prof. BrOun, of the Georgia University, OF
the Late Cyclones.
Upon the special request of the Georgis
Teachers Convention, lately held in Griffin
Prof. Leroy Broun made the following re-
marks upon the subject of the recent cyclones
that have devastcd this section of the country
Whenever we are unable to account for any
occurrence beyond the range of the ordinary
in nature, we are accustomed to say it is the
result of electricity. What is electricity
Many'of those who 80 fippantly use the name
would be unable to answer the question
Electricity is produced by the falling of rain
| by the change of air to vapor; by the change
of vapor to rain; by the uniform physical
| changes that occur upon the surface OF the
globe. We see the.evidence of its existence
in the flash that leaps from cloud to cloud, and
illuminates creation by the blaze of its intol-
erable glory. We see the proof of its exist
ence in the bolt that shivers to atoms the mag
nifcent forest king, or leaves in ruins the
structure that boasts to be the result of the
architectural art of ages.
Electricity has nothing whatever to do with
these cyclones.
L IL. a ,se& of Oa-
nus had caused these atmospheric disturbances.
These troubles were caused by the unequal dis
tribution of heat upon the surface of the earth.
To any one having the slightest idea of the
relative size of the Sun and the planet of We
nus, to say nothing of the comparative intiu-
ence of the source of all heat, and a body that
is not even self-luminous, it would be hardly
necessary to say that the idea is absurd. We
nus has no more to do with those disturbances
than the amours of the fabled goddess whose
name she bears.
To give the simplest illustration: Suppose
circular sheet of water to be covered by a
surface of iron, precluding all escape, save at
one small orifce. Suppose an immense press
ure to be applied upon this iron surface Com,
mon sense would teach that this water would
have tendency to escape through this orihce
with force and upward tendency proper
toned to the pressure and the smallness of the
ori6ce. Now the earth is covered with a
stratum of atmosphere which may be taken for
all practicable purpose to be forty-fi miles in
thickness. In the equatorial regions where
the solar heat is greatest the atmosphere be-
comes rarifed and consequently lightened and
rises upward. A partial vacuum is necessarily
produced The air from the polar regions
moves in to supply the deficiency or partial
vacuum. Were the earth stationary, current
would be produced from the North pole to the
equator. For the sake of simplicity we will
only consider the Northern hemisphere in
which we live. Were the earth stationary, the
current would be due North to South, but the
earth moves from West to East and consequent
ly the current is bent out of its natural course
into a Northwest wind. The rarified and
liehtened air rises and begins to flow back to-
ward the North pole. These two currents must
be opposed to each other, and whenever two
winds of approximately equal force meet there
must be rotary motion.
About the time of the cyclones that swept
across Georgia, an area of low barometer was
reported at the Signal Office in Washington,
extending from southwest to northeast. Above
or north of this area was an area OF high press
ure. Thus this area of low pressure formed
trough upon which the areas of high pressure
we're superimposed, and the added weight rest
ing upon the lower stratum of air produced
tendency to rise upward at the point of least
resistance. These from all directions were es'
tablished currents towards this point, and to
any one who has observed the tendency of
water to form in what are familiarly known as
whirlpools the rotary or whirling motion thus
produced will be easily understood.
: A cannon ball moves at about the rate OF 49,
600 feet per second. A cubic yard of air
weighs about two pounds, and would therefore
move toward this vacuum and orihce with
momentum of about $4,000 pounds. A thou
sand cubic yards of air would move at the mo-
mentum of about $4,000, 900 pounds, and when
we consider the apparently immense height OF
the atmosphere, we can, to some extent, con-
ceive of the limitless force of the tornado.
And as the rotating current OF air passes up
ward, it encounters the northeasterly current
which carries it forward with great velocity In
the prevailing direction northeast.
The phosphorescent appearance OF the clouds
electricity of the earth, and the surrounding
atmosphere, and thus one side of the cloud
might assume the appearance of phosphores-
cence or electrified briliancy while the other
side would appear shrouded in gloom. These
clouds are not the producers but the mere ac-
compartments of the cyclone and their elec-
trical conditions and the accompanying phe-
nomena of rain and hail are accounted for
upon the simplest natural principles that need
not be enumerated here. From the tremen-
dous momentum of huge bodies of air rushing
toward a common centre with an awful power
to which the rush of the bullet or the impetus
of the cannon ball are but as the breath OF the
Zephyr to the whirl of the storm, we can readl-
" conceive how in its path, the strength OF the
oak becomes as a straw, and the work of man
dissolves into ruin before the power of Him who
holds the world in the hollow of His hand
The above is but a brief and imperfect sum-
mary of the remarks of Professor Broun. Be
fore the magic of his clear analysis and plain
and simple Statements, the causes producing
the ordinary phenomena to the cyclone, became
easy of comprehension to the audience who
fronnted him. To explain the terrible power ana
| ,....n,,;,,,ont, Of on oytrn ordinary