The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31


Omit Or reserve. 1. IL BukD Auctionesr:
heavily charging the air by evaporation from
| warm seas also adds greatly to the general dis
| turbance of the atmospheric equilibrium by
| the rapid expa nsion and condensation, so that
we may find abundant causes, easily under
stood, for the presence of the cyclone OF the
These factors are generally wanting or are
| but feebly manifest in the tornado, like those
| that latterly have become to be recognized as
| the steady company of the North American
Continent.
The word "cyclone' for storms like that
! which played such awful havoc in Northern
Texas is misnomer. Such storms are in no
| sense cyclonic All great storms are cyclonic=
| that is, the winds blow along the line OF q
| great circle hundreds and thousands OF miles
| IN diameter, in the center OF which is calm
| region, the whole storm, spinning like
| gigantic plate. moving across the continent
| The tornado nearly always moves along di-
rect-that is. straight-line, and is generally
| confined within a narrow limit 1t skips from
| point to point with skimming motion like
| that of fiat stone skipping over the surface of
| pond when thrown by skillful thrower.
| The expansive area or the cyclone is wanting.
| The Texas tornado was but 100 yards in width,
but It made up in energy what it lacked in
| breadth.
| Certain peculiarities of the tornado are
| totally absent in other storms. The tornado
| evidences tremendous force. An iron safe
| weighing five tons was picked up and hurled
| through the air over house and driven
| through a stone wall thirty-four inches thick
eighty-seven yards distant. The same tornado
lifted huge freight locomotive from the
track and deposited it forty feet up the side of
| steep embankment. The doors, windows,
| shutters and boards of houses passed over by
| the tornado are always blown outward, never
4 inward. The bark of trees is not Stripped off
OH one side, as by attrition, but the tree is di-
vested OF its ba rk on all sides, as if some power
full explosion had occurred within the tree,
bursting the bark outward. Electrical
phenomena of great intensity accompanies the
tornado.
1t is we'll known that the passage of a eur-
rent of electricity through the atmos phere
communicates powerful disruptive effect to
| the particles of air along the line OF its path
way. II is well-known fact that the highest
| known temperature is produced by the electric
| arc. 1t is well known that air is q non-con-
| ductor of electricity and that moisture and
metals are conductors.
The textbooks of science are undergoing
rapid revision. What yesterday was accepted
as law is to-day set aside in the light of recent
discovery. Astronomers, great in authority in
their day-and they were sincere according TO
their means of knowledge-held that the sun
was huge ball OF blazing hydrogen gas, and
in this hypothesis they found all llexplanation
for the suns heat and light. The thinking
world is rapidly arriving at the conclusion
that the motive power of the universe is elec-
tricity-that heat, light gravitation, attrac-
ton and repulsion are all and each simply diff
ferent manifestations of what, for want of a
better name, we term electricity. The saYant
OF to-day sees in the sun huge dynamo, whose
rapid revolution is generating electric and
magnetic currents which sway and control the
solar system. AS between magnetism and cleo
| tr1clty J6ere can De no separation. one pro-
duces the other. One canno. exist without the
other. When the power sleeps we call it mag
netism, and when it gakens into action we
caIlit electricity. Our crude knowledge of
. | physics has taught US that if we cause cur
rent of electricity to encircle body we shall
produce magnetism in that body, evidenced at
its poles. AS, were we to run a knitting needle
through an orange, and then by wire
wrapped around the orange at right angles to
the knitting needle cause an electric current
to pass over the wire, magnetism would occur
at each point of the orange where the needle
enters 1t. Science calls such an arrangement
| an electromagnetic"
, The earth, as well as every other body of the
| solar system, is an electro-magnet, constantly
! winding upon itself, by its diurnal revolution,
| the stream OF electrical energy coming from
the sun, and which we term sunshine. Every
, planet does the same. Now, magnets possess
those peculiar manifested forces which we
term ATTRACTION" and "repulsion," according
as to the position of their polar inclination,
| and this force is exercised by one magnet upon
the other.
! The earth is very long way from being a
, | finished affair. Changes in her formation are
: constantly going on. We know but very little,
from actual observation, of the geology of the
earth, scarce as much as the thickness of an
eggshell. Most physicists believe that the in
terror OF the earth is fluid, at high tempera-
possession of the plans OF the Creator TO be
able to say that the formative processes of
COAL OF rocks and of metallic ores has ceased.
AS a matter of fact these processes are continu-
ally proceeding. Iron and tin, silver and
gold, and all the metals known and many un-
the earths crust by the occult forces hidden
there.
alliferous deposits. When, by reason of some
law, not at present understood professor Lang
, | ley of the Smithsonian is searching for it) a
current OF electricity OF more than ordinary in
TO find its equilibrium by 8 passage to the
earth's center along the line of greatest con-
ductivity, and that line will be found along
the strata of metalliferous ores.
Every feature of the tornado points with nm.
erring finger to electricity as its producing
cause. The tornado is vacuum produced bY
the passage through the air of current of en-.
ormousiy high tensloned electricity. 1t is the
: outrushing air from the building which forces
the doors and windows outward. 1t is the pas
. sage of the powerful current of electricity into
! ! the earth through the conducting sap of the
1 tree, converting the sap into steam by the
t enormous heat developed, that bursts outward
e the bark from the tree.
! Coming generations will find the greatest
| the tornado.
Shall we be able to predict the tornado? tits
Q doubtful. When we shall have learned more
!. about the sun, the central dynamo of ouI
S system, we may perhaps be able to understand
:, something OF what now appears as Yagaries
4 But present indications are not favorable to q
y very speedy solution of the problem. 1t may be
: possible that each planet, as a magnet, not
! only e1erts an influence upon its .neighboring
. member, but also upon the sun itself Such an
opinlon Is py no means visionary.
: curious thing is that tornadoes have no
Hell-oefined season, but when they do occur
we nno tne newspapers recording the occur
renee OF earthquakes and floods. Last year
4 she writer collected the record of twelve lorna
). does, nine floods, eleven earthquakes three
t volcanic eruptions and two extraordinary
g brillian MT meteors, all reported in the columns
q OF the San Francisco newspapers between
r April II and %.
q This year the reports of the:awful tornado in
Texas and the scarcely lesser ones in Kansas.
Q Nebraska Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and elsewhere
e are accompanied with reports OF ofearthquakes IN
Q Central America, Italy and Austria, with great
o floods in Massachusetts and Connecticut.