Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1921-11-18
IN THE DAYS NEWS
The Brown Mountain Light.


Tired professors and business men |
who sought surcease from their sorrows
in the mountainous regions Of western /
North Carolina have during the past
few summers given up some Of their
much-needed hours of sleep TO chase
what most of them believed to be moth
ing more than a phantom, or the witch
fires Of some maker Of mountain dew.
but the brown mountain light IS now
coming into it's own as an accredited
electrical phenomenon, says bulletin
of the National Geographic Society, is
sued from its Washington, D. c., head
quarters
Brown Mountain lies seventeen
miles from Blowing R9cI in the Blue
Ridge Mountains in the western part Of
the state. and, though plainly visible
from the resort, is IN an uninhabited
and sparsely wooded section. Suddenly
and without warning II light sometimes
blazeS out on the crest Of the mountain,
slowly moves down its side and then
fades out; sometimes II seems to rise
from the top of the mountain and hang
suspended in the air where it fades
ut has as many whirns and moods as
a temperamental artist, sometimes ap-
| pearing several times during one night,
| now stationary now slow, again swift n
| It's flight, and sometimes il cannot be
| Eeen for a comparatively long period of
| time. but it usually is most active when
| the sky Is clearing after 4 rain. Those
who have studied it in al its guises say
| that it often is not unlike the star from
| a bursting sky-rocket, though much
| brighter, and that it is sometimes red
and sometimes yellow, due probably to
the condition of the atmosphere.
Scientists were at first prone to cavil
| a he cjOriaS ubioh out If
mountains with the tourists. thinking
perhaps that locomotive headlights or
willy mountaineers were playing tricks
on active imaginations, bit today DR..
| w. J. Humphreys, physicist of The Unit
ed States Weather Bureau, and other
meteoroIogists of note believe that there
occurs around the mountains crest a
brush discharge of lightning, similar to
the famous Andes lightning, or the St.
Elmo's fire, which gave rise among the
ancient Greeks TO the myth Of Castor
and Pollux. That gov which accom-
panied the slow discharge of electricity
to the earth from the atmosphere, in
southern climates, during thunder
storms, seen on the TOPS of masts,
spires. or other po}ted objects was
named st. Elmo's fire by sailors after
one Of their patron saints. because they
felt that when the sign appeared they
had nothing further to fear from the
storm.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature
Of the electrical discharge which takes
place either from the earth TO the cloud;
or from the clouds to the earth around
Brown Mountain IS that it is silent. The
same thing is true of the electrical DIS
pays in the Andes, which have long
been known to scientists and traveller;
, in the South American continent as TIT
Andes lightning. 1t appears as a silen
| but very luminous discharge CT electric
ity along the crest of the Cordillera Rea
in Chile, in. a region where thunder
storms are practically unknowl.
Its visibility is sometimes very mari
| ed having been noted by the forme
director Of the meteorological and geo
: physical institute of Chile, while he wa
out at sea, more than 900 miles froI
d the head cordillera. The actual Gis
e charge, in which the mountain acts q
lightning rod between the clouds ar
the earth, resembles q glimmer, bu
g sometimes the flashes which take rlac
e at the point Of origin are strong an
powerful, then gradually diminish in II
tensity and finally disar ear into til
night The light fias,.-s over the mour
y tain from late sprihs to fall, and til
displays grow less brilliant as one got
- farther south.
o 1.-THE same phenomenon has also bee
noted in the Swiss Alps. One observe
k after a long period OF hot and dry we;
y Their. reported that he had seen a su
session of semi-cTcular flashes whic
6, shot UP from a mountain in the Berne!
IF Overland, occasionally lighting the Juni