The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-30
SOME SECRETS NATURE HIDES.
Familiar Disturbances of Earth, Air
and water That Battle the Inves-
tigntOrs.

l
ana water That Battle the Inves-
tigntOrs.
From the New York World.
We are prone-possibly people of all
times have been soto boast of having
solved the secrets Of nature. of Harvesting
the elements, of explaining ia simple terms
natural phenohena so clearly that they
cease to bewilder, and yet Jack Bunsby
and Capn Cutie are the professors of
many subjects which, just because we
believe our own boasts, are generally ac-
cepted as having been exploited even to
the comprehension OF the kindergarten
classes
What is q thunderstorm? why, an
electrical atmospheric disturbance" we
say or something like that when a child
asks the question; and the child turns
away with puzzled eyes, wondering why
grown folks can't talk in simple, under
standable language. If the child is old
enough to go 10 a library and consult
recent and high authority 1t win be COM
forted by reading:
"It has been suggested by some authori-
Ties that the electricity Of thunderstorm
is developed during the formation OF hail;
by others that II Is due to the molecular
actions which accompany the diminution
OF total surface when two or 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 con-
densation Of vapor. Again, 1t has been
suggested that 1t may be mere phenom-
enon of contact electricity. due 20 the inn
pact of uncondensed yaDor particles on
particles OF air.
nv. fat of he endless
explanations which have been offered, and
the inquiring child might tire of such
reading and turn to an encyclopedia for
a summing up of all the theories Such
a course would lead to this confession,
which The parent would have been wise
to have made at the first, and not have
sent the child 10 the library 10 waste time
which otherwise might have been more
proitably employed in spinning top: We
know absolutely nothing about the cause
Of thunderstorms
.',Phe reason for our singuarly complete
Ignorance OF the source Of atmospheric
electricity" says the Encyclopaedia Bril-
tannica. seems 20 lie IN the fact that II
can only be discovered by means of ex-
periments made on scale much larger
than Is attainable with the ordinary re-
sources of a laboratory"
Whereupon Cap'n Cutie dismisses the
class and takes an observation.
Tides? Why, Of course, the moon makes
The tides The dear old moon, she's ac-
countable for so many things otherwise in
exp.cable-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 Sci
ences of Paris offered prize for essays on
the theory Of tides, and granted prizes 90
four Three of these were Celebrations of
Newton's gravitation theory, and the
fourth, we are grayely told, was IAN ex-
tended development Of the conception of
the two ellpsoids7 known since as the
equilibrium theory"
Nearly fifty years later still Laplace un-
dertools the subject, and If you want 10
study a simple principle simply stated take
this on which he based his discussion OF
tides:
1.-The state OF oscillation Of a system OF
bodies in which the primitive conditions of
movements have disappeared through fric-
ton is co-periodic with The forces acting
on the system"
The forces referred to are of course.
those exerted by the moon. Later Sic
John Lubbock (senior) Whewei and hun
dreds OF others attacked he subject, and
yet the later writer's Of highest authority
say there has been no solution OF the sub
ject One explanation Of the failure is
stated thus:
Observation shows. in fact. that the ir-