Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-27

Is judged from the fact that physical laws
would not permit the water to be sucked
up to a greater height than thirty-three
feet.
Tornadoes are the most extraordinary
and among the most destructive Of atmos-
pheric ,lomena. 1t has been reckoned
that on al: average each Of them costs one
life. That which struck Louisville in 1880
wiped out s, 600 worth of property and
1875 lives. The funnel-shaped cloud which
does the damage runs at a 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. Its track is always
from southwest to northeast, the width of
1t being rarely over 300 feet. Warning of
the storms APPROACH is given by a still and
sultry air, with a lurid or greenish sky.
People feel depressed without knowing
why.
Electric Phenomena.
This gas that covers the surface Of the
EARTH by which we live by breathing, is a
wonderful element. The electricity which
pervades it, though employed for various
useful purposes by man, is a mystery yet
Some Of it's phases are astonishing and be-
yond 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 barrels" rolling along the surface of
the ocean. These spheres are apt to burst
with deafening reports.
Tubes of glass made by lightning are Of
ten found in sand. The electricity passes
into the ground and melts the silicious ma
terlal forming little pipes, the inside diam
eter of which represents the bore" of the
thunderbolt. Such tubes measuring as
much as twenty-seven feet in length have
been discovered. No doubt exists as to the
method mi N Irf "a oft1ra fr,oc no,
people have sought for them and dug them
up still hot from places freshly struck by
nghtning. Attempts have been made to re-
produce them artifcially, by passing a
powerful current of electricity through
hnely powdered glass. In this way pipes
nearly an inch long and as big as darn
ing needle have been obtained. From the
comparative size one gets a notion of the
enormous energy developed by lightning.
1t is understood that several tubes are
made by single stroke.
Damage by Lightning.
Lightning does great deal more damage
and is much more fatal to human life than
Is generally imagined. 1t kills sixty-nine
persons every year in France. In this
country it has been reckoned to destroy
twenty-five lives annually, but this is prob
ably an underestimate. By a single flash
1000 sheep were wiped out on one occasion
in Ethiopia. In New Grenada is a place,
no one will willingly dwell on account of
the frequent strokes of lightning A stroke
at Brescia, August is, 1869, exploded a
magazine containing 100000 pounds of gun
town and 5000 lives. A long list might be
given of similar fatalities nearly as disas-
trous. Before the invention of lightning
conductors churches and other lofty build
ings were constantly struck
One of the most interesting of electrical
phenomena is the so-called st. Elmos fire.
1t appears in the shape of brush-like dis
charges from metal. points in the rigging
of ships and elsewhere. These are termed
by sailors corpse candles" II three of
them are seen at sea 1t signifies that the
vessel will be lost. while a single one means
a continued storm. However, the supersti-
ton varies considerably. In a passage of
his "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" CO.
lumbus on his second voyage beheld several
corpse candles playing about the mast of
his ship. He sent a man aloft to fetch one
down, but 1t could not be grasped some
how. The st. Elmo's fire is said to give
out sort Of roaring sound like a port fire
Sand Storms in the West.
In some of the desert regions of the
west-notably the Painted Desert Of Ari-
zor a-those prankish phenomena called
sand storms are frequent Sometimes
they rise seemingly to the clouds and OBJ
tain a diameter of fifteen or twenty feet
A spot of ground becomes excessively heat
ed, causing the air above 1t to ascend
This occasions an influx of the atmosphere
from all sides, but unequally, the result be-
ing a 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 I'D
draught. Such whirling columns have a
very weird appearance as they move hither
and thither, sometimes many of them at
once, across the desert. One might i'm
agine them to be animated by evil spirits
and 1t is no wonder that people in India
call them devils"
A peculiar phenomenon observed in va
rious places, but most perfectly among the
mountains Of the Broken in Germany, is
the so-called Broken spectre" 1t is an
enlarged shadow of the observer cast by
the sun. near sunrise or sunset. upon the
fog wlGfh enveiops him. Its enormous size
makes the apparition rather startling. Pre-
sumably ii is due to the fact that the shad-
ow is thrown upon the particles of moist
ure suspended in the air all along to the
limit of vision.
One of the most wonderful of atmospheric
freaks at this wintry season is the silver
thaw," which clothes the trees in shining
coats of ice, every twig sparkling in the
sunlight. Yet few take the trouble to in
simple. At the beginning of a thaw the
air, laden with water, passes over the
boughs and twigs, and the moisture 1t con-
tains is frozen upon them. Every year
stories of great hail stones are circulated
in the newspapers. Some as big ele-
they have been fairly well authenticated.
Unfortunately, however, these were doubt
less aggregatons of hail stones partly
melted together. RENE BACHE.