Mexico weekly ledger., 1891-05-28

Regarding Cyclones and lorna
does, None Accorded With
the Facts-No Reliance
in the Barometer.

does, None Accorded With
the Facts-No Reliance
in the Barometer.
Written for the Ledger by j. F. Llewellyn,
close student of electrical phenomena
We had a tornado, which is ar
event of serious interest. We
never had a cyclone, in the general
use of the term. In a technical
sense We have a cyclone about
every five days. A tornado is 8
twister. The centre destroys; its
area OF action is narrow. Cyclones
belong to warmer ATTITUDES. West
Indies are their home and breed.
ing place. From there they swing
up the Gulf Stream and generally
follow its course. Brownsville and
Indianola, Texas, were wrecked by
cyclones. Brownsville, Mo-, was
wrecked by a tornado. The centre
of a cyclone Is a dead calm; for
hundreds of miles on. every side OF
centre destructive winds blow. A
few miles from a tornado there
may be calm; in some instances
two hundred feet from where build.
ings are crushed there is not
enough wind to disturb shrubbery.
You can build to resist a cyclone;
it is doubtful If anything on the
surface of the earth can resist the
full fury of a tornado.
Among a host of theories there
are none that accord with all the
facts. With a new theory there
comes a new fact to upset it; the
tornado is as destructive of thee.
ries as of property. The vacuum
theory held a good place but lost
it when in Georgia the doors and
windows were pushed IN, and Prot.
Nipher demonstrated that at Col
linsville, ILL.,, the force could not
have been that of a vacuum. Then
came a theory the reverse of the
vacuum, that the air was COM
pressed into houses by the storm;
when the storm went by the house
exploded by the release of pres
sure. But bridges received the
same treatment as houses and that
theory was twisted out of shape.
Then came a theory of heat and
cold. Hot air ascends, cold air
rushes in, a whirl results and a
tornado forms. But Kansas City
had a tornado on a chilly day.
Reading, Pa, had one in January.
Dakota had one when the frost was
hardly out of the ground. Ours
was preceded by no warm weather
and the day was not seasonably
hot. For the Louisville tornado,
temperature fell south and rose
north, giving this theory a bad
twist. Electricity is supposed
to be a potent feature In the
earlier reports of signal ser.
vice, electricity sparkled in
the air, ran on the ground and
showed itself in all possibilities,
but little by little they ceased to
find it and now doubt its presence
At Marshfeld one expert found
electric action everywhere; an.
other could not find any evidence.
Prof. Loomis says that in violent
tornadoes we uniformly observe
electricity of great intensity
Lieut.. Finley, who has made g
special study of tornadoes, and
probably knows more of them thar
any one, could never find evidence
of electric action. The courts have
decided that a tornado is not ar
electric phenomena. Faith hal
been placed in the barometer as az
indicator. At Erie, Pa, the OBJ.
server was examining his barom
eter when a tornado passed within
a few blocks. No marked change
was observed. Here within fivi
miles of an active tornado the ba
rometer made no sign. Tornadoel
have occurred at signal service sta
tions aud the barometer had n.
new thing to tell, 1t ia hopet
that some day a meteorologist,
barometer and q tornado will al
meet together and that the forme
will live to tell his story. Per con
ira, a signal service report says
ain tornadoes the barometer al
most always sinks much and rap
idly and the b%aEonaetric pressure il
q tornado has been observed to b
nearly three inches below the gen
eral pressure. The unquestione'
connection between the formation
of a tornado and the passage of
low area will continue the hope q
solving the problem on that line G
study. Lieut.. Finley's theory ha
q large endorsement and abundan
facts back of it. eft is in general
warm, moist air from south, cold
dry air from northwest. Laten
heat of moisture furnishes force
contrasts of temperature produc
unstable equilibrium of air, a Will
'ensues, moist air rushes in, addin