Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1894-05-18
ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA.
ELECTRICAL AND OTHER CURIOUS
FREAKS OF NATURE.
The Tornado's Funnel-Shaped Cloud
-Extraordinary Performances of
Lightning-Sand Storms.

traordinary and among the
most destructive of atmos-
pheric phenomena. 1t has
each of them costs one life. That
which struck Louisville in 1890 wiped
out So, $50, 900 worth of property and
1856 lives. The funnel-shaped cloud
which does the damage runs at speed
of from forty to eighty miles an hour.
It looks like an immense balloon,
black as night, sweeping its neck
round and round with terrible fury,
and tearing everything to pieces in its
path. It's track is always from south
west to northeast, the width of it
being rarely over 800 feet Warning
of the storms approach is given by
still and sultry air. with a lurid or
greenish sky. People feel depressed
without knowing why.
This gas that covers the surface of
the earth, by which we live by breath
ing, is wonderful element. The
electricity which pervades it, though
employed for various useful purposes
by man, is mystery yet. Some of
its phases are astonishing and beyond
explaining. For example, there is the
most intense form of it known, termed
globular lightning. 1t takes the form
of spheres of dazzling brilliancy.
Such spheres were seen playing about
during the great Louisville tornado.
People on board of ships have often
observed balls of fire ''as big as bar
rels" rolling along the surface of the
ocean. These sphere are apt to burst
with deafening reports.
Tubes of glass made by lightning
are often found in sand. The elec-
tricity passes into the ground and
melts the silicious material, forming
little pipes, the inside diameter of
which represents the "bore" OF the
thunderbolt. Such tubes measuring
as much as twenty-seven feetin length
have been discovered. No doubt ex-
lists as to the method of their manu-
facture, inasmuch as people have
sought for them and dug them up still
hot from places freshly struck by
lightning.
Lightning does great deal more
damage and is much more fatal to
human life than is generally imag-
ined. 1t kills sixtynine persons every
wear in France. In this country it
has been reckoned to destroy twenty
two lives annually, but this is prob
ably ON underestimate. By single
flash 1000 sheep were wiped out on
one occss1on in Ethiopia. In New
Grenada is place, near the gold mine
of Vega de Supia, where no one VIII
willingly dwell on account of the fire.
quent strokes of lightning. A stroke
at Brescia, August Is, 1859, exploded
a mazazine containing 207, 900 pounds
of gunpowder, wiping out great part
of the town and 5000 lives. A long
list might be given of similar fatall-
ties nearly as disastrous. Before the
invention of lighting conductors
churches and other lofty buildings
. were constantly struck. ~ flj n
One of the most interesting of cleo
trical phenomena is the so-called st.
Elmo's fire. 1t appears in the shape
of brushlike discharges from metal
points in the rigging of ships and else
where. These are termed by sailors
s'corpse candles" If three of them
are seen at sea it signifies that the YES
sci will be lost, while n single one
means continued storm. However,
the superstition varies considerably.
In passage of the Commentaries,
Caesar, says: "About the second
watch there suddenly arose a thick
cloud, followed by shower OF hail;
and the same night the points of the
spears of the fifth legion seemed to
take fire." Columbus on his second
voyage beheld several corpse candles
playing about the mast of his ship.
He sent man aloft to fetch one down,
but it could not be grasped somehow.
The st. Elmos fire is said to give out
a sort of roaring sound like port
fire.
In some of the desert regions of the
West-notably the Painted Desert OF
Arizona-those pranklsh phenomena
called ''sand storms" are frequent.
Sometimes they rise seemingly to the
clouds and obtain a diameter of fifteen
or twenty feet. A spot of ground
becomes excessively heated. caus-
ing the air above it to ascend.
This occasions an influx of the at
mosphere from all sides, but un-
equally, the result being gyratory
motion visible in the sand or dust
raised into the air. In other words,
sort of natural chimney is created,
through which there is a powerful up
draught. Such whirling columns have
a very wierd appearance as they move
hither and thither, sometimes many
of them at once, across the desert.
One might imagine them to be ami
mated by evil spirits, and it is no won
der that people in India call them
"devils."
A peculiar phenomenon observed in
various places, but most perfectly
among the mountains of the Brocken
in Germany, is the so-called
''Brocken spectre" 1t is an enlarged
shadow of the observer cast by the
sun, near sunrise or sunset, upon the
fog which envelopes him. It's en-
ormous size makes the apparition
rather startling. Presumably, it is
due to the fact that the shadow is
thrown upon the particles of moisture
suspended in the air all along to the
limit of vision. Washington Star.