The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-06-27
WHAT rs WIND?
Ancients Thought It Demon Residing
In a Cave.

!, After many thousands of years of study |
the ancients finally decided that the wind |
was an irresponsible demon residing in |
| a cave, who divided his time between
sleeping and displays of uncomfortable |
| violence. In the last hundred years, how
ever, modern scientific observation and
scientific instruments have carried knowi-
edge of the wind a trife further ahead.
!. The first ray of hope was announced
in the year 1901, when Col Capper of the
East India service put forward the theory
that storms were really great wind svs-
TENS having a gyratory movement. The
| idea seemed too good to be true. and the
subject dropped
In the year 1921 American Naval Ar
chitect RedGeld noted how the trees
which had been blown down during the
passage of a storm formed regular curve
IN the direction III which they lay, and
he became convinced that the storm was
Of u rotary character JFearing if he an
nounced his belief that his only efeyard
would be ridicnle, he bided his time I'M
I'll another storm supplied him with con-
t lrmatory evidence, and in Siliman's
! journal for April 1881, The published a
G paper demonstrating the whirling and
! progressing character of storms. Keen
discussion arose out Of the discovery, some
] holding that the wind blew along a
0 straight course, others that it made a
:. / true circle.
oil The controversy was maintained
through many years, but in 1913 Pudding
: ton proposed to describe a storm wind as
4 cyclone, from a Greek word signifyina
d incurving. like the coil Of snake, 50
that it wonld mean neither a straight line
&c nor a perfect circle. For years after this
/ investigators concentrated their energies
i on stormfelds, not suspecting that there
lie was anything worthy Of attention beyond
Is the limits Of the gale. In the Northern
IS Hemisphere not singR instance had
o seen met with Of storm wind revolving
n other than against clock hands, a fac
rel which was Of enormous benefit, especially
e. to seamen.
n "Ahout 1860 the late Sir Francis Caltol
it extended the investigation to all winds
ID whether gales or not, and to everybody
e. surprise it was discovered that beyon,
the stormfeds there were extensive re
b. gions over which the quieter winds re
of volved in a direction with clock hands
IL On the face of it this was a fat contra
tv diction Of the cyclonic view, hut the mys
# tory was soon solved when it was see
tv that the cyclone formed an area in whic
ed the barometer readings were lower, ofte
or very much lower, than those in the n
versed wind system lying outside ST
of Francis Cation, finding hat the baron,
he ter, the wind, the weather and other eli
as ments were the opposite Of those in
ar- cyclone. adopted for the new system th
name anticyclone
ad 'Whon the whole question was sui
> mitted 20 examination il was evident tia
1s- there were numbers Of both cyclones an
IL anticyclones moving hither and tiithc
over the earth's surface every day. an
that the one type cannot exist withoI
the other The anticyclone. being T
gion Of the heaviest atmosphere, we ma
n regard as the reservoir which supplies Il
sh eycloae. where the air rs at its Hghte
al and the energy of the cyclone depend
ed upon tic steepness Of the pressure grad
cnt between the high and low areas.
although the wind crculates in OF
direction in the cyclone and in the OPP
site direction in the anticyclone the Ia
Use which regulates the relation of the wiz
no to the pressure is the same in both case
!. The knowledge of this law has served
save fleets of shins and their crews
ba- is very simple: Face the wind and Il
lowest barometer is away to the rig