Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-24
ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES.
A New Theory to Account for WOndrOus
Winds and Phenomenal Floods.

Beyond doubt the winds and the rains
have each formed combination on us
until we have come to be the most deluged
and cyclOned country of the age, and at
such short intervals as to have the dis
play become mOnotOnOus, says a St. Jo-
seph, La, letter to the New Orleans
Times Democrat.
Time was when old folks talked about
the waters of 1923, IA, 80, '62, IA, the
''Natchez tornado and the Last Island
hurricane" But 'S2, 'S3, and 'S4, all in
one procession, and the "Wesson cy-
Clone" the Western tOrnadoes, and the
last little breeze tearing around prOmis-
cuously over the country, form such a
climatic carnival as to suggest that two
or three screws must be loose some
where in the Ohio Valley, and several
more somewhere in the Windmill.
And now it is quite in order for some
prOtOplastic scientist with an idea
scratching around him to rise up and find
the screw-hOles and proceed to put the
machine in order again, while some of us
are lett to enjoy it. Or for some hypOstOl-
ical outlet man to open a vent at the other
end and nip the thing in the bud while it
is young and tender, and before it gets too
big for him to see all arOInd it.
We know that rings and combinations
are the legitimate results of civilization.
and hold the same relative value in pro-
ductiOn OF power, as the ''division oflabOr''
IN political economy does in the prOduc-
tiOn of wealth.
May not the modern wind and rain
storms also be the result of civilization?
The product of electrical combinations,
acting on atmospheric conditions faYOra-
bic to sudden burst of wind-mOtiOn. or
continuous fall of rain-masses? The
network of wires and steel rails crossing
and radiating from an hundred centres to
every portion of this vast country, form
ing connected chain of perfect cOnduc-
tors, of many thousand miles, would seem
to be most appropriate vehicle for per-
tecting these electrical combinations and
uniting currents from the Atlantic to the
Pacl1c, from the lakes to the Gulf. The
"hshDar' connection, for splicing and
uniting the ends of the rails, has come
INTO universal use, and makes a solid
and perfect conductor of the rails from
New to San Francisco, from Chicago
to the Gulf coast. Winds are produced
by heat, both equatorial and electrical;
the latter are the most violent and sud-
den. Rain clouds gather over certain
centres for days and weeks, by a sue
cessiOn of winds. If we could break up
the combination we might scatter the
cloudy forces and stop the floods by OPEN
my JHe circuit.
1t is well ascertained fact in our own
history that barren and waste plains, as
we'll as other lands bare of trees, are sell
dom visited by rains, but that since the
railroads have crossed these countries
rains have become more frequent and
crops more certain in such localities.
Another fact seems to be also established,
that the atmospheric conditions or
changes are of late more pronounced than
formerly; when it is dry it is dryer, and
when it is wet it is wetter, and more of
it. In other words, there appears to be a
combination or concentration OF atmOs-
pheric forces unusually strong in which
ever way the tendency lies at certain To-
calities.
Rainfall being due to evaporation, con-
centration and condensation, it follows
that the average rainfall is necessarily
the same. But too much average at
one place is what the weather bureau
must draw focus on.
If it is due to the rails and the "fish barr
connection, perhaps a nOn-conductOr like
paper board or rubber betting, placed be-
tween the connecting "bar'' and the rails
might do the work. The attention of the
"sciel tist" and the 'outlet" man is re-
spectfully called to this suggestion. and
1t is hoped they will concentrate on this
problem.