St. Landry democrat., 1888-05-19
NO MORE ROMANCE.
Eek PLANTATION of Thunderbolts and the Au.
rOra Borealis.

| IA piahatIOll OF lnunueTDOltS dhu thc Ao'
| rora Borealis.
In the course of a lecture on cleo
tricity, recently delivered in London,
DR.: Marcel spoke especially on 'thun'
derbolts." Most of them are meteor
ties; one is only piece of sandstone
broken off by the flash, and third,
carefully preserved in museum, is q
cannon ball, found in the bottom OF
hole in manure heap after flash
of lightning had struck it. -" Iron
pyrites. speculiarly-shaped piece OF
coal, and The clinker from a kilburn
fire engine have all figured in this ca
pacity, and. from being so carefully
preserved by their owners, are evil
IDENTIFY cherished as specimens quite
as remarkable as they would be were
their history less apocryphal. Full
gurites, or vitrified tubes. formed by
the fusing of sand where a current Of
electricity in the shape of lightning
fash has penetrated the ground, are
also Sin the exhibition. But even
they afford little room for mys-
tery. The fre-ball is only flash
in another form. So is sheet-light-
ming, while the remarkable tales of
escapes from death by atmospheric
electricity prove simply how narrow
is the current and how rapid is its &C.
ton. The bl:d, of saw has been de-
stroyed and the handle burnt. while
the sawyer renamed uninujred.' A
lady had the bracelet struck off her
hand, while she herself felt no more
than a shock; another had her bonnet
entirely burned on account of the wire
its frame was made of. while she her.
self was untouched. Even objects en-
tirely insulated from the ground are
not safe; for two sea-gulls flying over
Witham were killed by lightning. All
these difficulties have to be considered
in erecting advantageous, some OF
which are little better than traps to
catch the electric fluid, when the
householder permits so important
means of protection to fall into the
hands of an ignorant mechanic. Hail
is not usually associated with thunder.
Yet Dr. Marcel teaches the contrary,
and though he is not certain, in spite
OF M. Collation. experiments, that all
the phenomena attending water
spout can be explained by electricity
NJ Peltier afiirms these sudden
liftings-up of water to be the
result of an electric attraction, rather
than of the action of the wind. But,
whatever conflict of opinion may be
permissible on this point, it is clear
that none is allowable in regard to the
aurora borealis australis. Science has
deprived us of all the pleasant con.
ceits anent the ''merry dancers. OF
the scarcely less pagan beliefs about
the spirits fighting in the air, or even
of the winter sun being reflected from
some vast glaciers at the back of the
north wind. The aurora is due to
the positive electricity from the sea
between the tropics being carried into
the upper atmospheric regions, and
thence waited to the poles by the
higher currents of air. Here, Dr..
Marcel assures us. it descends toward
the earth, and meets the terrestrial
negative electricity in rarified at
mosphere. Luminous discharges
now take place. their brightness be.
ing incre ased by the presence OF
masses of foreign particles in the air."
And thus the electrician deprives us
of the last fragrance of romance
which chung to the most pictures que
Of northern atmospheric phenomena
- Chicago Tribune.