Sharp County record., 1885-08-13
STORMS.
Something About Their Actions As Le"rneo
from Balloon InVsstigstions'

from bdltOOh
The form of the cloud-mass as we see
# from the ground is not well SHOWN;
but As described by Wise, the eronauF'
from his balloon voyage made thirty or
forty wears ago, it has somewhat the
shape of a great hour. glass, the dark
sbadowed clouds entering it as they
form at the base, and presumably rising
THROUGH the central construction to sup
n1v the white. sun-lit mass that IS roll
mo out at the top with tue appearance
of q vast sea of snow, boiling ana up
beavinc from internal CONFUSION. Llg-
zags of lightning dart from one cloud
mass to another, or blaze out IN lne
Gloom between the clouds and earth'
or even flash from the clouds into the
omen. empty sky; but the origin OF
these violent electrical manifestations Is
almost Is much a mystery as ever II
was. The conditions under which elec-
tric sparks, large or small are as
CHARGED is fairly well determined. but
the ultimate origin of atmospheric
electricity is a question on which phy-
sicians are not yet agreed. When
Iiobtninr-Aash is viewed at nlghs
! THROUGH a narrow radial slit IN rap
idly-revolving disk it is found to consist
Of several discharges separated by IN
tarvals TOO short to be noticed by tHe
unaided eve, but discoyerable IN TINS
oxnar;menf bv the fact that the slit
is commonly seen in several amer
ent attitudes when Illuminated by
an apparently single, instantane'
GUS flash. The apparatus may oe
easily constructed and used by any hlgn
school boy or girl, and the fact that II
discovers is a remarkable one IN the
nbvsics of thunder-storms that needs
more explanation than it has vet re-
ceived. PhOtographing lightning
flashes at night is another interesting
experiment that may be tried to adYan-
taGe in these modern days OF amateur
photography and instantaneous plates.
Some yerv successful views have been
taken. showing a composite Hash 10
consist Of several separate lines OF lgnt,
every one very irregular, but all closely
parallel to one another; tine, thread
| ike branches are given off at different
pOints and disappear as they divide INTO
fainter and fainter tibers in the dark
skv. Returning to the high cloud mass,
if anv venturesOme ballOOnist ever as
cends through the raging vortex to It's
massive summit he would have oppor-
tunitv to prove or disprOve the suppo,l-
tions that have been made as to the
| mechanism of the storm. SuppoSng
him bold enough to begin his ascent un-
der the center of the storm, 1t Is prooa-
BILE that he would rise slowly at fr,t,
for it is thought that the falling ram
drops cause a downward current OF AR
here which would retard his upward
fight: this current, chilled by the rain,
is most likely the origin of the cool gust
of wind that precedes and accompanies
thia haauy rainfall al the storm
center. Mounting well into the
clouds, further ascent would there
be aided by the upward current, to
which the formal on Of the cloud and
storm is thought to be due. Only the
larger drops of rain can fall through
such an ascending current; the finer
water particles may be carried higher
until they are frozen into minute nall
stones. most Of which melt before reach
inc the ground as they fall to one side
of the up-draft; but if it happens that
they grow to considerable size by ac-
cretion they may fall fast enough to
reach us unmelted. Going higher still,
the vapor that is condensed at these
greater latitudes, where the tempera-
ture even in midsummer is below freez-
! inc, forms SnOW-nakes, and Of these the
boiling summit masses of the storm are
! supposed to consist. The height to
which these superb clouds ascend is
not well determined, but it is very
probably over five miles, and may be
over ten; a little observation will settle
the matter, for 10 take practical case,
| if a thunder storm passes centrally over
Arlington, Medford and Maiden, as
would be known by the drenching rain
recorded by Observers there, the angular
altitude of its white cloud-tops could be
estimated by observers in other towns
to the north and south at certain hours
as is provided for in the plan pro-
posed by the Meteorological Society
and then it would be easy enough
to calculate the height But it must be
borne in mind that the explanation
of the storms action here given might
not be generally accepted, aud it is with
the object of learning more precisely
what the facts of the case are that the
observations above referred to are to be
undertaken. The essential points of the
method at first are the selection Of
number of simple phenomena, such as
the time when the rain begins, the direc-
ton of the wind and so on, which can
be observed by any intelligent person,
even without meteorological instru-
| mems. the undertaking is thus brought