Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-22
one time appeared so near that some Of his
men unconsciously lodged to avoid It.
Thunder Heads Explored by Balloonist.

Thunder Heads Explored by Balloonist.
The thunder head is the giant of the
cloud family. In the governments official
cloud atlas this monster Is described as "a
heavy mass rising In the form of noun
tains, turrets or anvils, generally having a
sheet or screen of fibrous appearance
above 1t, and underneath q mass similar
to a rain cloud The front of thunder
clouds of wide extent frequently presents
the form of large bow spread over a
portion of the sky which is uniformly
bright in color" The weather bureau,
with the aid of surveying instruments, has
measured thunder heads. and estimated
several of them to have been seven and
Oue-half miles in height. from base to sum
nit, the apexes touching points ten miles
above earth, Such snow capped mountains
of vapor are higher than any actual noun
tans, Deodhunga, the tallest peak of the
Himalayas, and, therefore, Of the world,
Boosting of but five and one-halt miles
from base to summit.
Balloons capable of flying to the apex
of the highest thunder heads VIII be part
of the equipment of the new mountain sta
ton. These will carry automatic weather
gauges, and not men, although history tells
OF one daring balloonist who did explore
several thunder heads from base to sum-
NIT. This was John Wise OF Lancaster,
Pa. and his exploit occurred fifty years
ago. When viewed from above. he s1io
that the top of a large thunder Cloud ap-
peared to be rounded and resembled vast
sea of snow, boiling and upheaVlng from
commissions within. Viewed from one side,
it appeared Ike Il giant hour-G.aSs. lie
described the air as rushing IN at the top
and tie Whole mass as twisting about Ike
a waterspout He noted many ZigZag eX-
blossoms in the lower cloud, while occasion
ally a wave of still lightning would roll
from one to the other. The rain Toured
from the upper to the lower. W hen direct
ly in the vortex he noted the whole at
n n he of milky hue.
the air became SO cold that his Wnlskers
were frozen and his balloon spun al ouEd
like a top. There was a constant howins
noise about him, and altogether he must
have had u most Strenuous experience
Automatic Thunderstorm Prophet.
An automatic thunderstorm predictor
was recently invented by II. +. Alciatore,
the weather bureaus observer at New Or
leans 1t is based upon the effect which
electric waves in the air have upon metal
filings arranged in a glass between two
metal electrodes. When such disturbance
of the air occurs the filings jump up, stick
together and bridge the gap between the
two electrodes, as in wireless telegraph in
struments. This action closes the current
of battery and starts ticker going. 1t
the ticker is heard frequently on clear
summer morning when there are no visible
signs of an impending thunderstorm, 1t Is
shown that the atmosphere is unstable ana
that some time during the day thunder
storm will occur. Thus by Its own wire
less telegraph does a thunderhead cast Its
shadows before. Each tick represents an
electric discharge in the air anywhere from
a mile to fifty miles distant.
That flash of lightning extending from a
cloud to earth must have an electromotive
force of many millions of volts is estimated
by the weather bureau. For an electric
spark to jump across space of halt
inch requires about 10000 volts. Since many
fl,,rr,I n1n lie nrn OF a
are two or three miles above earth, the
tremendous energy involved can only make
us marvel. Mr.. Meade tells the writer
that by aid of photography he measured
one bolt, and found it to be foot in d.
ameter. Its cross-section would have ap-
peared as round iron bar heated to white
ness The particles of the atmosphere are
raised to a white heat wherever they come
Into contact with the electric fluid.
About Two Fatal Strokes Per Day.
From seven to eight hundred lives are
lost each year from lightning, in this coun-
try. according to statistics collected by
Prof. Alfred J. Henry of the weather bu-
reau. He finds that our thunderstorms &C.
cur with frequency over all of the territory
east of the Tooth meridian, which line BIZ
sects the Dakotas and Nebraska and passes
through Kansas and Texas. West of this
meridian, except in the Rocky mountain
region, thunderstorm frequency steadily di-
| minishes. Along the immediate Pacific
| coast there are practically no thunder
| storms at ALL
| The most thunder ridden region of the
] country includes all of Florida except the
southernmost tip, also the lower edge of
| Georgia and the southeast corner of Ala
bama. Here average of forty-five
! thunder storms per year are suffered. The
| region experiencing the next greatest
| frequency takes in parts of Georgia and
| Alabama from some miles more to the
northward, and here forty visitattons a
year are the rule. Thirty-five a year is
| the boast of somewhat irregular zone
| north Of this and including more north
| ern portions of the two states last named.
also the whole of Mississippi and Louisi-
ana, nearly all of Tennessee, the adjacent
/ corners Of Illinois and Kentucky, the
| southern part of Arkansas and the east
! ern-ceiatral part of Texas. The same fire.
! quenc3. obtains throughout central I'LL
/ nois and adjacent sections of Indiana,
J Iowa and Missouri. The region from the