Evening star., 1940-08-04
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Fifty years ago man who became
widely known as Prof. Virgins" under
took to establish a long
range system of weather
Iornoooes forecasting which aroused
owen great national interest.
The Star of July 29 1890 reproduces the
substance of an interview with him by
New York Sun correspondent in Ottawa,
Canada, concerning his claim that he
had discovered the source of tornadoes
and waterspouts, which had been caus-
ing great destruction. The Professor"
said
The sheaf OF telegraph and telephone
wires stretching over the roof of a build
ing will certainly protect 1t from any
thundeybolt, bst the network of wires in
cities suddenly exhausts the electricity
from thunderbolts and as result causes
tornadoes and waterspouts over and in
the vicinity of cities. This I stated on
April g. 1882 and in justice to myself
must quote that letter, which is as
follows:
"A disastrous drought has prevailed
in Ontario since the spring of 1887, and
while probably continuing during the
summer Of 1889 the question propose to
ask and answer is: What is the cause?
Two conditions are necessary to produce
rain-frSt moisture in the atmosphere
and, second. a condenser to precipitate it.
Evaporation, which supplies humidity to
the atmosphere. being constant, there
can be no defect as to the first condition.
What are the condensers? There are two
planetary conjunctions which cause q
sudden fall of temperature. and. second
electricity. The former acts in periods of
weeks or months, the latter two or three
times a week Electricity is therefore
our chief agent in producing rain.
"'What causes thunderstorm?
answer that it is electricity isolated in
cloud which moves over the earths sur
face. Electricity is cold substance and
so long as it is unable to disperse by
conduction so long will its coldness con-
tinue to act as a condenser and precipi-
tate the moisture as rain. The dry
ground beneath being non-conductor,
a single electric cloud, if not dispersed by
conductors artificially stretched across
its path, may travel from Toronto to
Belleville. or from Kingston to Ottawa,
and water a vast tract of country be-
meath it's grateful path. Place a net
work of wires before it and the cloud will
break with the first clap of thunder.
Such a cloud, unless of a great area and
electric power, could not pass Toronto.
for it's electric force would be dispersed
by sea of telephone and telegraph
wires, not only over Canada but to New
Orleans and San Francisco and wherever
connection happened to be at that mo-
ment.
"'These telegraph and telephone wires
like modern Mercurys, are stealing the
thunderbolts of Jupiter and in few
years, If the strong arm Of the law does
not interfere, the Canadian farmer will
look upon his premises as worthless
fields that once budded and bloomed as
the rose. But it will not be the hus-
bandman only who will suffer. When an
eectrie cloud is suddenly burst by run
ming upon conductors its collapse pro-
duces cyclone and these almost invari-
ably occur over and in the vicinity of
cities and spread desolation and death in
their trail Ohio, Pennsylvania and the
Mississippi States were strangers to
these messengers of death until the iron
web was woven over their territory and
now they are the home of drought and
cyclones, and the same wire which
brought the destroyer out of the brain of
Jupiter tells of his carnival of death in
demolishing buildings and scattering de-
bris and human beings through the air.
"'The prevailing winds in Ontario are
from southwest to west. This is the great
eastbound current, running at first up
the Mississippi Valley to the Great Lakes,
there joining the current which is max
ing it's way down the st. Lawrence Valley
and over the maritime provinces. For
merly this supplied almost continued rain
to this province, being loaded with mois-
ture and charged with electricity, which
it carried along as its condenser. The
great metal sea now exhausts it of its
electric energy, so that it refuses to part
with the aqueous burden until it strikes
the cold currents which move down the
eastern shores of North America. Hence
the floods and the continued rains in
Quebec and the maritime provinces