Morning journal and courier., 1882-09-14
pecultarfttes of Forest Fires.

A correspondent or Cn0 FCTeUtL3t ; OOU|ItUG, who has lately gone over the territory devas- tated by the great fire in the forests of Mich igan last fall, says his observations are con- elusive that phenomena aside from the ordi- nary conditions of combustion were devel- oped In the first place the fire created at least two veritable storm centers which had the essential feature of storms, and especial ly the spiral winds The evidences are con- frmatory of the belief that this storm cen ter, after it became fully developed, consisted of heated body of air or gas in state of combustion which was constantly fed by the smoke and vapor driven to the center by the whirling winds and the gases generated in the combustion of the pines and other resin ous woods This body of air, or burning gas, if it may be so called, by it's heat ac- quired an ascensive force, but by the rapid forward motion of the fire was sucked for ward and deyoured, actually preceding the fire proper It is evident that this body was of intense heat, possibly as great as four hundred degrees Fahrenheit, at which point oxygen and carbon unite. That such body of luminous vapor existed, detached from the fire, is asserted by many who saw 1t from distance, and by those who were under 1t but who escaped from the fact that it passed above their places. The idea Is further sus- tained by the fact that the fire jumped whole patches of infiammable slashings, and alight ed beyond, lifting and falling in it's forward motion like @ balloon touching the earth. Fences in the center of broad fields burst into blaze as if by explosion, and others nearer the fire escaped. A man ln lighting the fire took off his trousers, fearing they would catch fire and burn hlm up, ana left them in furrow in the middle of field, re- mote from any combustible material. When he went to get them he found them burned, and six quarter dollars that were in the pock- ct melted together. 4 set of spoons were served the same way at another place. Mrs. Il..a.~ h,,evN Nn6 fn oh
 nothing but their bones remaining 1n the middle of the road, one hundred feet from any heavy timber. Green timber was dried and burned and perhaps the most conclusive evidence was the apparently spontaneous ap- pearance of fire in stumps and fences when no sparks were falling. These blazes ap- peared of white light and indicated cheml- cal union of carbon and oxygen. Another general feature is the fact that the fire ap- peared to move forward in parallel lines or varying width, and that in these lines every thing was burned. and frequently to ashes At the edge of the track 8 fence would be burned square off, just as though 1t had been cut or sawed perpendicularly house would be taken and the barn left; wagon and a flaming mill were within five feet Of each other and the wagon was burned to ashes | and the flaming mill not charred. It would | bs impossible. under ordinary clroumstances l to burn a wagon without piling combust1ble material over it, but of this nothing but the l iron was left Finally, the storm and fire disappeared simultaneously that IS to say, l the fire was dependent upon the storm, oi secondary to it-that it was prevented from | lingering in the track or from burning side 1 ways. In from two to three hours the fire 1 was practically out where it had passed, indi | eating that the prime cause of the rapid com 1 bustion was in the storm which had passed l and which passing. perhaps, carried in lt | wake condition of atmosphere opposed tt combustion. This hypothesis explains pret l ty much all the phenomena except the ball l of fire, which exactly correspond with wha is known as "ball lightning" but which IS form of electricity wholly disputed by some but recognized by Professor Loomis. Tn
 statements of Ballentine and Kabocke ar
 confirmatory of this ball lightning idea an
 contradictory of the idea that these light
 arose from the intense heat, or they them
 selves could not have survived It. Othe
 statements are to the effect that this ball o 1 fire fell on the ground and exploded, runnln
 in all directions. This is explained by som
 who were not present, who say that 1t wa
 but the resinous cones of the pine ignltec
 carried by the wind, falling, scattering th
 burning pitch about them but 1t should b
 remembered that those people who saw thi
 phenomenon are men who have lived ami
 forest fires all their lives and have seen a
 the ordinary phenomena, and are not of claes exactly visionary or imaginative. 1t fair to assume the possibility of electric 1 phenomena incidental to this fire storm, bot
 from the fact that it was great commotlo
 in the clements and because 1t differed frol , a storm only in the facts of the absence , rain and presence of fire.