The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-09-01
MISCELLANY.
BY pRoF. c. w. LARSON.



THIRD PAPER-cONcLUDED
Again, the air being fluid, its particles
move easily upon each other. But those par
ticles of the lowest stratum, which come in
contact with the earth meet, hereby, resist
ance which retards the progress of movement.
The particles of the atmosphere, which im-
pinge upon the particles Of matter forming the
crust of the earth, encounter thereby de-
gree of friction unknown to the upper regions
of the air Hence another reason for the tard-
mess of the movement of the air near the
ground.
Again, in case of those valleys which SO ex-
tend that their areas are at right angle to
the current of the wind, the circulation of the
air is somewhat complex. But we will notice
a few facts, which, perhaps, will somewhat il
Illuminate the subject.
As current of air passing over HILL
presses down upon the strata filling the valley
by contact with the strata and the uis-a-tergo
of the current the layer Immediately infring-
ed upon, is moved forward, somewhat as
plank, floating upon water is moved forward
ly upon it or as plank which floats with its
upper surface even with the water, is showed
along by the passing breeze. This stratum,
having acquired momentum, in like manner
as above described, influences the layer below
and so on until the entire strata of the valley
are in motion.
But owing to the amount of friction of the
particles of the air of the valley, and of the
difficulty of pushing all this mass up hill, as
it is forced over the opposite RIDGE and to the
circumstance that the force is not applied to
the most advantageous place, and in the most
advantageous way, the lower strata moves
more slowly than those above. In fact, it is
easy to conceive that the breeze, as it leaves
the brow of the hill, slides along, to a very
great extent, over the top Of the underlying
strata--sometimes pushing its upper surface
into FOLDS, sometimes causing waves, and
sometimes, for distance, Swimming over the
surface. In fact, the behavior may, in some
respects, be likened to plank forced along as
it rides upon the top Of new-fallen snow !;
now pushing before it layer no deeper than
its own thickness, now disturbing the entire
mass of crystals to the bottom, now sliding
over the top of the accumulated mass, or
plunging directly Into 1t, and driving it to
pieces.
Now should = valley l,ssyery deep, and at
he s...sa t;s,ss - se. m ht&s sass
= Tie Warren Co. CO q hilltop, would
d. o. i:sse, have time tosettle but very little
and as the agitation of the strata in the
valley would be very feeble, considerable of
air would remain almost stagnant, imbibing
the noxious gases arising from the decompo-
sition of vegetable and animal matter, and of
fering favorable condition to the life of
the infusorial tribes.
But the width of the redshale valley is suf-
fioient to obviate, in the main, this condition.
And yet the elevated temperature we enjoy,
to very great extent depends upon this cir
cumstance. The earth being warmed chiefly
by the direct rays of the sum- by the absorp-
tion of heat from warm air, brought into
contact with it, and cooled by the radiation of
its chloric, or by the absorption of its heat by
cool breezes passing over it, suffers greater
extremes in temperature ceteris pGribus In pro-
portion as the current Of air is more gentle,
and the greatest extremes when the air is at
q calm. For instance, In the Sahara Desert,
upon one of those Gains, the thermometer
at o'clock P. NJ frequently shows a temper
ature of 1900 or 1900 Fahrenheit, and upon
the very same spot, before next morning, may
be seen, frozen in the open air, ice an inch
thick; and the mercury reduced 300 or even
1EO ToI, O. frra, flx ,u,,,ld f,r "a rth ha on n.
jected to extremes ofltemperature, by radi-
alton, did not the ever changing winds labor
to restore an equilibrium.
During the cold ofthe Winter Of 1S78and IA
in this section, this law of radiation in cooling
the earth, was beautifully exhibited. In some
circumscribed valleys, more completely shelter-
edfrom the gentle breeze, in which the air was
reduced almost to perfect calm for instance,
Lambertville, Stockton, Pittstown, j. G. Dur
ham s, and vanleus' Corner, the mercury sank
to 100, 200, 24o, $50, 26o respectfully while
at the Seminary at Ringoes, the Thermometer
freely exposed to the breeze, only reached-4o,
and at the Amwell Nurseries, where the breeze
had full play, at an altitude of 151 #. above
the Seminary it barely reached-1o. Further
more, at the Seminary, the three thermome-
tiers, the one hanging under shelter fixed for
the purpose, freely exposed to the breeze, the
other hanging against the north side of the
house, the third, under the porch, on the
south side of the house, closely watched
throughout the entire cold spell, showed that
it was warmer out in the open air than against
either side of the house. For instance, at
sunrise, on the Goth Of January, the instru-
ment in the breeze was-4o, the one against the
N. side of the house--10o, while the one ON
the south side was--12o, showing that in the
breeze it was degrees warmer than against
the n side of the house, and degrees warm
er than under the porch on the s. side of the
house.
Again, on the 30th az sunrise, the instru-
ment in the breeze was ITO, the one against
the north of the house 200, and under the
south porch 20, showing that it was 30 warm
er in the open air than against the north of
the house, and 30 warmer than under the
south porch.
AZ ind 1.o,x IN