Morning journal and courier., 1886-09-17
How Lightning is KIndIed.

The observations of meteorologsts show that the vapor which sscends in an invisible state from the ground cal ries with it, in calm and fine weather, into the higher regions of the air very considerable supply of positive electricity. Each minute vapor particle that goes up bears it's own portion ot the load When, however, the invisible vapor has thus mounted into very high regions of the air it loses it's invisibility and is condensed into visible mist, as has already been explained in detail. Numerous particles of the aqueous substance are drawn close together and grouped into the form of little vesicIes or globules. Each one of these is then res ervoir or receptacle of electric force, and as more and more watery vesicles are condensed more and more electricity is collected in the gathering mist; but each of the water glob- ules is still enveloped by space of clear air. In drifting cloud the mist-specks can be discerned floating along with transparent in- tervals between. The clear air which lies around the globules of vapor then acts as an insulating investment; it imprisons it's own part of the acquired electrical force in each separate globule. The cloud is thus not charged a whole, like continuous mss of metal, with it's electricity spread upon it's outer surface. It is interpenetrated every where with the force. It is composed of myriad of electlifed specks, each having it's own particular share of the electric force, and each acting as center of electrical ener- gy on it's own account. The electricity which at any one instant resides in the outer surface of cloud is therefore but compar- atively small portion of that which is pres ent in the entire vaporods mass. That such is the way in which electricity is stored in the clouds has been proved by direct obser- al io placed in the midst of cloud driven along by the wind it is seen that the strips of gold leaf continually diverge and collapse the mass of the cloud passes along. There is an electrical charge acting in all parts. but the charge varies in intensity from place to place accordingly as there is a greater or less con- densation of the particles of vapor in each particular spot. But the influence external 1y exerted by the cloud is nevertheless capa- ble of being raised to a very intense degree, because it is, 90 to speak, the sum total or outcome of the force contained in the innu- merable internal centres of energy.
 It is no uncommon thing for the electrical force emanating from a cloud to make itself felt in attractions and repulsions many miles away. Clouds resting upon the remote hori- zon thus frequently produce perceptible effects at distances from which the clouds themselves cannot be seen. An electrical cloud hanging a mile above the ground acts inductively upon that ground with considerable power. When in summer time the temperature of the earth's surface is very high, the ground moist, the air calm and the sky clear, very copious supplies of vapor are steamed up from the ground under the hot sunshine. Clouds, however, begin at length to gather in elevated regions of the air out of the abundance of the supply. The free electricity which has been carried up with the vapor is at first pretty evenly spread through the clouds; but after time, as the electrical charge becomes more and mere intense, a powerful repulsive force is established between the spherules of the mist, and very high degree of tension is at last produced at the outer surface of the cloud, where it is enveloped by insulating air, until in the end the expansive energy there becomes strong enough to occasion an outburst from the cloud. The escape of the redundant charge then appears to an obser- ver's eye as a flash of lightning issuing from the cloud. Such, in It's simplest form, is the way in which lightning is kindled in the storm cloud.
 The New Era in New Orleans.