Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-07-01
SECRETS NATURE HIDES.
DISTURBANCES OF EARTH, AIR AND
WATER THAT DEFY SOLUTION.

Earthquakes and Volcanoes n Mystery
Still-Entlless Explanations Offcred hut
None OF Them Accepted rs Finality.
We are prone-possibly OF all times
have been SOTO boast of having
solved the secrets of nature, of harness
ing the elements, of explaining in simple
terms natural phenomena SO clearly
that they cease to bewilder, and yet
Jack Bunsby and Cap'n Cutie are
the professors OF many subjects which,
just because we believe our own
boasts, are generally accepted as hav-
ing been exploited even to the COM
prehension of the kindergarten
classes, writes Z. w. Townsend in
the New York World.
What is thunderstorm? "Why,
an electrical atmospheric disturb.
ance," we say, or something like that,
when child asks tho question; and
the child turns away with puzzled
eyes, wondering why grown folks
can't talk in simple, Understandable
language. If the child is old enough
to 80 to library and consult re-
cent and high authority it will be
comforted by reading:
ut has been suggested by some au-
thorities that the electricity of thun-
derstorm is developed during the for
nation of hail; by others that it is
due to the molecular actions which
accompany the diminution of total
surface when two OF more drops of
water coalesce into single one. 1t
has been ascribed to the friction of
moist against dry air and to the dust
PARTICLES which appear to be necessary
for the condensation of vapor. Again,
it has been suggested that it may Lea
mere phenomenon of contact electric
ity, due to the impact of uncondensed
vapor-particles on particles OF air."
These are few of the almost end
less explanations which have been Of
fered, and the inquiring child might
tire of such reading and turn to an
encyclopaedia for summing up of all
the theories. Such a course would
lead to this confession, which the par
cnt would have been wise to have
made at the first and not have sent
the child to the library to waste time
which otherwise might have been
more prottably employed in spinning
a top; We know absolute nothing
about the cause of thunderstorms.
"The reason for our sinGularly
complete ignorance of the source of
atmospheric electricity" says the En-
cyclopaelia Britannica. "seems to lie
in the fact that it can only be discov-
cred by means of experiments made
on scale much larger than is attain
able with the ordinary resources of a
laboratory"
Whereupon Cap'n Cuttle dis
misses the class and takes all obser-
walton.
Tides? Why, of course, the moon
makes the tides. The dear old moon,
she's accountable for so many things
otherwise inexplicable-the existence
of the problem novelists, perhaps.
Well, in 1857 Newton laid the
foundation for all that has since been
added to the theory of the tides
theory, mark you.
Fifty years later the Academy of
Sciences of Paris offered prize for
essays OH the theory of tides, and
granted prizes to four. Three of these
were Celebrations Of Newton's gravi-
tation theory, and the fourth, we are
gravely told, was San extended devel-
opment of the conception Of the two
ellipsoids," known since as the
Equilibrium theory"
Nearly fifty years later still Laplace
undertook the subject, andif you want
to study simple principle simply
stated take this ON which he based his
discussion OF tides:
1.-The state Of scillation of system
Of bodies in which the primitive con-
ditions Of movement have disappeared
through friction is co -perlodic with the
forces acting on the system"
The forces referred to are, of course,
those oxerted by the moon. Later
Sir John Lubbock (senior), Whewell
and hundreds of others attacked the
subject, and yet the later writer's of
highest authority say there has been
no solution of the subject. One ex-
PLANTATION of the failure is stated thus:
"Observation shows in fact that the
irregular distribution of land and
water aud the variable depth OF the
ocean produce an irregularity in the
oscillation of the sea of such COM
plexity that the rigorous solution of
the problem is altogether beyond the
power of analysis"
The earth has way of shaking its
hide now and then, and promptly
there are published profound explana-
tons of the causes of earthquakes by
specialists who talk about seismic foci
and seismic centre waves with the
certainty of a baseball reporter telling
why the Giants lost their latest game.
This has been u fascinating subject
for writer's of all time. Thucyides,
Aristotle, Seneca, Pliny, described
and explained them-possibly as well
as the chaps who now invent new seis-
mometers and then pray for earth
luakes SO that they may see the pretty
little machines work.
Equally respectable authorities have
variously attributed earthquake to
great surface conclusions, as q land
slide, for instance; the falling in Of
the roof of enormous subterranean
cavities; the snap and jar occasioned
by the sudden and violent rupture of
solid rock masses mot explaining what
causes the rupture); the movement
and crushing Of rock masses by tan
genital pressure produced by cooling
of the earth; steam generated by highly
heated rocks to which water has found
its way through assures, and many
other causes.
Yet after all that has been written
on the subject but little is really known
as to the origin Of earthquakes further
than the generally accepted but some
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