Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-11-11
BROWN MOUNTAIN MYSTERY
Scientists Explain Mysterious Phea
nOmenOn.
SUPPOSED TO BE due TO ELECTRICITY

Same Thing to Be seen IN the Anoes
Mountains, In the Swiss Alps and
Elsewhere-This Particular Phenona-
enon ls Observed In Late Spring and
Fall.
"Tired professors and business men
who sought surcease from their sor-
rows in the mountainous regions OF
western North Carolina, have during
the past few summers given up some
of their much needed hours Of sleep 20
chase what most of them believed to be
nothing more than phantom, or the
witch fires Of some maker Of mountain
dew, but the Brown Mountain Light is
now coming into its own as an accred-
tied electrical phenomenon" says a
bulletin of the National Geographic So
ciety, issued from It's Washington, d.
C. headquarters. -.
Brown Mountain lies seventeen
miles from Blowing Rock In the Blue
Ridge mountains in the western part
of the state, and, though plainly visi-
BILE from the resort, is in an uninbab-
tied and sparsely wooded section. Sud-
denly and without warning light
sometimes blazes out on the creSt OF
the mountain, slowly moves down its
side and then fades out; sometimes 1t
seems to rise from the top OF the noun
tain and hang suspended In the air.
where It fades.
A Wrath of Infinite Variety.
"It has as many whims and moods as
temperamental artist, sometimes ap<
pearing several times during one night
now stationary, now slow, again swift
in Its flight, and sometimes 1t cannot
be seen for a comparatively long pe-
riod of time, but 1t usually Is most act
i've when the sky is clearing after q
rain. Those who have studied it In all
its guises say that 1t often Is not un-
like the star from a bursting, sky
rocket, though much brighter, and that
1t Is sometimes red and sometimes vel
low, due probably to the condition OF
the atmosphere.
cavil at the stories which came out Of
the mountains with the tourists, think
ing perhaps that locomotive head
lights or willy motntaineers were play
ing tricks on active imaginations, but
today DR.. ]. w. Humphreys, physicist
Of the United States Weather bureau.
and other meteorologists OF note, be-
lieve that there occurs around the
mountains crest a brush discharge OF
lightning, similar to the famous Andes
lightning, or the st. Elmois fire, which
gave rise among the Greeks to the
myth of Castor and Pollux. That glow
which accompanied the slow discharge
of electricity to the earth from the at
mosphere, in southern climates, during
thunderstorms, seen on the tops Of
masts, spires, or other pointed objects,
was named st. Elmo's fire by sailors
after one of their patron saints, be-
cause they felt that when the sign ap-
peared they had nothing further to fear
from the storm.
Compared to Andes pisplsy. q
"Perhaps the most remarkable fea-
ture of the electrical discharge which
takes place either from the earth to the
clouds or from the clouds to the earth
around Brown Mountain Is that 1t 10
silent. The same thing is true Of the
electrical displays in the Andes, which
have long been known to scientists and
travellers in the South American con-
tinent as the Andes lightning 1t ap-
pears as silent but very luminous
discharge Of electricity along the crest
of the Cordillera Real in Chile, in I
region where thunderstorms are prac-
tically unknown. -. -
ats visibility is sometimes very
marked, having been noted by the for
mer director of the Meteorological and
Geophysical Institute Of Chile, while he
was out at sea, more than 800 miles
from the head cordillera. The actual
discharge, in which the mountain acts
as a lightning rod between the clouds
and the earth, resembles glimner, but
sometimes the flashes which take place
at the point of origin are strong and
powerful, then gradually diminish In
intensity and finally disappear into the
night. The light flashes over the
mountain from late spring to fall, and
the displays grow less brilliant as one
goes farther south.
1.-THE same phenomenon has also
been noted in the Swiss Alps. One OBJ
server, after long period Of hot and
dry weather, reported that he had seen
succession of semi circular flashes
which shot up from a mountain in the
Bernese Oberland, occasionally light
ing the Jungfrau group. Such displays
are notable for their likeness in ap-
pearance to the aurora, except that
they do not reach such heights"