New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-10-20

find more than sought, in fact more
than dreamed of as existing. found
some trees-black Oaks-that had losta
strip or two of bark, but all that re-
NAMED on the tree was separated from
the trunk and some of it hanging loose.
found the bark entirely detached from
the stem and incasing it like a sheath.
I pulled it off by piecemeal all around
one tree and down to the roots. Further
search resulted in finding hickory
trce-species, carya sulcata, the thick
shelled and thick-barked hickory-that
also had its bark detached by an explo-
sion from the stem, not one particle of
it gone. however, but most of it hang
ing so loose that it can be shaken. Not
a vestige can be seen on the bark Of any
flying missile having struck the tree.
1t is one of the most wonderful, i'm
portant and significant physical facts l
ever saw. 1t should be secured by some
scientific institution, and, if not for it's
scientific Importance, as memento of
one of the most fatal tornadoes on
record. But it will be of inestimable
value for study and information to fu-
ture generations in their researches into
the mysteries of Nature. The tree
stands about rod northwest of shat
tered black oak equally as interesting
and significant, whose top, bowed
southeastward-for hold there was no
wind-by the electric attraction of the
intense vortex, was prevented from
breaking down by forming a brace of q
strip two inches thick, split off the
trunk by simultaneous explosion. The
strip is not separated from the trunk at
its ends. The brace makes an angle of
about one hundred and thirty-fve de-
grees. 1t is evidently owing to the
simultaneousness of the pull and ex-
plosion that the brace was formed. The
fragment, forced out by the explosion,
was prevented from returning by the
shattered trunk bending from the pull
at its top at the same instant.
l brought away specimens of limbs,
stems from Usage orange hedges and
tops of brush that We're in the track Of
the tornado. They are not only divest-
ed of their bark, but the ends of the
limbs and the smallest twigs even are
rifted into fine fbers so that they look
like paint-brushes or little brooms.
There is significant fact accompanying
this rifting which gives clew that I'M
ravels tho whole mystery. This fact is,
that only green branches and twigs are
rifted into fibers, the twigs to the very
stems to which they are attached. The
dry and dead branches and twigs are
intact.
What explanation can be given of
these phenomena, and what cause can
be assigned for their occurrence? There
is but one explanation that can be given,
and but one cause that can be assigned
for all of them. That explanation is
that they all are the effect of electric
action, and consequently that electrici-
ty is the cause of them.
That electricity is the cause of them
is evident from we'll establishcd cleo
trio laws and from well-known modes
of electric action. Beccaria, one hun
dred and fifteen years ago, perforated
solid glass bail two inches in diameter.
In one end Of the perforation he put q
wire and drop of water on the end
OF it; in the other end he put another
wire in contact with the water. Both
wires were part of I. circuit in connec.
ton with a Lcydcn jar. In passing a
discharge through the circuit, the glass
ball was dispersed into dust. What
was the cause of this explosion and
consequent dispersion?
One pound Of water measures 22.752
cubic inches. If The water be gasificd
it will make 1852 cubic inches of gas,
chat is 1881 cubic inches of oxygen
gas and 29,SSS cubic inches of by dro-
gen. The water, therefore, in being
gasilied, dilatcs about two thousand
times in volume. The passage of the
electric current electrolyscs, that is
CASTLES, as instantaneously the water as
fire eXplOdcs gunpowder. The drop of
water hence was instantaneously ex-
pandcd to two thousand times it's orig.
inal volume, and this shattered the glass
ball into fine dust.
The sap under the bark and in the
body OF green wood was in the lorna
do Instantly gasiied by the bursting up
from the earth of negative electric
current to meet the positive elcctrici-
ty descending on the cloud-spout. An
explosion was the consequence; the sap,
or rather the water in it, was expanded
by Justification two thousand times liz
volume, throwing off the bark, shattcr-
ing the trunk and rifting the green
tWigs into minute tibcrs. That this
was what took place is proven conclu-
sively by the fact that the dead and dry
limbs and twigs were not affected, and,
though in immediate contact with green
ones. remained intact.
The great affinity Of tornadoes for
bodies of water, for railroads, for me-
tallic roofs, for anything made of metal
or containing it, is explained upon the
same principle. Metals are the best
conductors OF electricity known. They,
hence, respond with the greatest alac-
rity to the inductive action of the cleo
trio cloud. and confront it with higher
charges of electricity than any other
objects upon the surface of the earth.
The most violent electric explosions,
hence, occur at the points covered by
metals. Every one conversant with
electric laws knows that this will be the
natural and inevitable result.
1 could take up seriatim all the phe-
nomena attending tornadoes and DEM
OAocA'ICO CA1so OAOJ HAO VIC CACCGS u
electricity, but have neither time nor
space to devote to that purpose. One
more remark and I will close. That
torpadoes are electric phenomena is
beyond controversy. All experience
and observation prove it conclusively.
This proof is amply furnished in their
aspect, if it were in nothing else. The
funnel-shaped pitch-black cloud-spout
depending and dangling from the buff
colored Or deep orange upper cloud in
dicates it. A fiery red core is some
times in this jet-black spout; sometimes
green, blue and red flames run all
around and over the lower end of the
spout as though it were on fire; at
other times the spout has dull leaden
core like a burning candle surrounded
by haze with a phosphorescent glow.
These aspects are constantly changing,
and endure but for moment.
At some points after this last most
wonderful meteor had passed fire balls
hrnuphf n tho n~x,,1rJ;~o.