Sharp County record., 1880-06-03

pulled it off by pleceIleal "li T.har %iUtn
one tree and down to the roots Further
search resulted in finding a hickory
trco-snecies, carya Sulcatd, the thick
sbeIled and thick-barked hickory,-that
also had its bark detached by an eXplo..
sion from the stem, not one particle OF
If cone. however, but most of it hang
mo go loose that it can be shaken. NOT
a Testioe can be seen on the bark Of any
living missile having struck the tree
1t is one of the most wonderful I'M
nortans 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 ol
one of the most fatal tornadoes on
record, But it will be of inestimaole
value for study and information to 1rl-
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
windy the electric attraction OF the
intense vortex, was prevented from
breaking down by forming brace OF
strip two inches thick, split OF the
trunk bv a simultaneous explosion. The
strip is not separated from the trunk al
its ends. The brace makes an angle OF
about one hundred and thirty-tive de,
orees. 1t is evidently owing to the
simultaneousness of the pull and eX'
nIosion 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,
brought away specimens OF limos,
stems from Usage orange hedges and
tops of brush that were in the track OF
the tornado. They are not only diyest'
ed of their bark, but the ends OF the
limbs and the smallest twigs even are
rifted into fine fibers so that they looR
like paint-brushes or little brooms
There is a significant fact accompanying
this rifting which gives clew that un
ravels the whole mystery. This tact IS
that only green branches and twlgs are
rifted into fibers, the twigs to the very
stems to which they are attached. Inc
drv and dead branches and twigs are
intact.
What explanation can be given o
these phenomena, and what cause car
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 Il
that they all are the eflNct of electric
action, and consequently that electricl
ty is the cause of them.
That electricity is the cause OF then
is evident from well-established elec
trio laws and from well-known modes
of electric action. Beccaria, one hun
dred and fifteen years ago, perforated
solid glass ball two inches in diameter
In one end of the perforation he put
wire and drop of water on the enc
of it; in the other end he put another
wire in contact with the water. Botf
wires were part of a circuit in connec
ton with Leyden jar. In passing
discharge through the circuit, the glas'
ball was dispersed into dust. Wha
was the cause of this explosion ant
consequent dispersion?
One pound of water measures 22.73:
cubic inches. If the water be gasitlet
it will make 1882 cubic inches of gas
that is 14,934 cubic inches of oxyger
GAS and 29,SS8 cubic inches of hydro
gen. The water, therefore, in being
gasifed, dilates about two thousanc
times in volume. The passage OF the
electric current electrolyses, that il
CASTLES, as instantaneously the water a.
fire explodes gunpowder. The drop o1
water hence was instantaneously eX
panded to two thousand times its 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 gasifed by the bursting uT
from the earth of negative electro
current to meet the positive electrici
ty descending on the cloud-spout All
explosion was the consequence; the sap
or rather the water in it, was expanded
by Justification two thousand times III
volume, throwing off the bark, shatter
inc the trunk and rifting the greer
twies into minute fibers. 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 fol
bodies of water, for railroads, for me.
tallc roofs, for anything made Of meta
Or containing it, is explained upon the
same principle. Metals are the best
conductors of electricity known. They
hence, respond with the greatest alac'
aritv to the inductive action of the elec'
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,
L