Again, a place which is struck by lightning is recognized by a peculiar smell, which has been compared to that of sulphur, phosphorus, or nitrousacid gas. Wafen observed this peculiar smell on the Isthmus of Darien; during showers, it took away the respiration. In 1771, Gentil passed a place in the Isle of France, four hours after it was struck, and recognized the strange smell, although it had rained much. When the ship Montague was struck, in 1749, it seemed to be filled with sulphur. Also when the New York was struck, in 1827, there were clouds of sulphurous smoke, but no fire. When a building was struck in 1778, the smell lasted a day and night. In 1770, a church which was struck was filled with this sulphurous odor almost to suffocation. Some have supposed the smell in these cases to come from nitrous-acid gas which has been formed by the decomposition and recomposition of the atmosphere. Cavendish produced nitric acid by sending a charge of electricity through a tube full of atmospheric air. In 1827, Liebig, in illustration of this point, examined seventy-seven samples of rain-water. In seventeen cases, when thunder had occurred, the acid was found. In fifty-eight of the other cases, the acid was not detected. So it has been thought that lightning, so frequent in tropical countries, explains the presence of nitrates where animal substances are not found. How wonderful if one element of gunpowder (nitre) should be elaborated by the lightning, which is heaven's artillery! Is the acidity alleged to be produced in milk by thunder the effect of nitrous-acid gas? Lardner thinks that the testimony of brewers, cooks, and butchers in favor of the effects of lightning in curdling milk, souring beer and wine, and in changing meat, is not to be lightly esteemed. In 1840, Professor Schönbein of Basle discovered a substance to which he gave the name of ozone, and which is supposed to be a tritoxide of hydrogen. This he considers as the origin of that peculiar smell which all familiar with electrical experiments have observed when sparks are emitted from an electrical machine, or when water is decomposed by voltaic electricity; and which Weekes particularly noticed in the working of his apparatus for studying atmospherical electricity. that Volta supposed that the formation of hail was an electrical phenomenon, the moisture collecting and congealing upon the nucleus of the stone, while it danced up and down between two strata of clouds, like the little images of pith between the positive and negative plates in the familiar electrical experiment. However this may be, the fall of hail is an exhibition which often attends a violent thunderstorm. In some parts of Europe, as France, Switzerland, and Italy, hailstones are so frequent and so destructive, that insurance companies have been formed to equalize the losses and protect the suffering individual. In 1764, it was written by the French envoy, there never was a year in which the hail did not ravage half, and sometimes three quarters, of the diocese. The storm of July 13, 1788, struck a thousand and thirty-nine communes, causing, according to an official statement, a damage equal to five millions of dollars. During a thunderstorm, pieces of ice five or six inches in diameter have been found in Derbyshire. On November 1, 1826, a violent storm of thunder and hail laid waste Wolverhampton, and one gentleman suffered to the amount of seven hundred and fifty dollars by the breaking of glass in his hot-house. On May 2, 1811, great havoc was caused by the bursting of a cloud against a hill in Shrewsbury. The hail stood one foot in depth, and most of the stones were two inches in diameter. On June 21, 1828, in Hanover, the hail was a foot deep and as large as ducks' eggs; it did not melt away for six hours. Murray adds, that he has seen fields of corn near Verona taken down by the hail as smoothly as if a scythe had passed over it. I will make no comment upon the recipe against hail which ignorance once recommended; namely, to carry round in the right hand a tortoise, belly upward! In 1788, Pinnanzi proposed lightning-rods as a preventive of hail, by silently discharging the electricity of the clouds and anticipating the formation of hail. The French Academy reported favorably. Such rods were at one time extensively used in France, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1829 they were attempted in America. These rods were made thirtyfive feet high and placed a hundred and forty feet apart. It was urged in favor of these paragrêles, that those who used them were saved from the losses which afflicted their neighbors. Murray says, that in 1825 he could not find in Switzerland a single case of failure. According to Babinet, the experiment was made successfully in Switzerland and Italy, under the advice of the Linnæan Society of Paris. But there were not wanting those who considered paragrêles as insulting to Providence. They met with frequent attacks. As some one pithily remarked, "La grêle seule les épargne." Notwithstanding all which has been said in their favor, the great meteorologist Kaemtz does not seem to trust their efficacy in reducing the electricity of the clouds. He asks, "Are not the houses at Zurich studded with rods, and yet thunder-storms are just as frequent as before?" Romas and Charles in France, and Dr. Lining in Charleston, S. C., noticed, in their experiments, that whenever the clouds had been drained of electricity by kites, the thunder and lightning ceased. Arago, therefore, recommends kites as a defence against hailstones. Perhaps captive balloons would answer the same purpose and protect the vineyards. Gay-Lussac, in his report on lightning-rods made to the French Academy in 1823, renews the claim of rods, and intimates that, if they were placed on very high steeples, as that of Strasbourg, which is four hundred and thirty-seven feet above the ground, and were sufficiently multiplied, hail might be prevented.* An apparatus for hail-clouds has been more recently described.t Not only does lightning figure on its own special arena, the thunderstorm, but it acts a conspicuous part in every grand elemental display of nature; as in the tornado and the volcano. Sometimes no thunder is heard, but perhaps other noises distract the attention of the observer. Pliny the Younger alludes to the lightning which attended the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. The smoke which spread at the eruptions in 1182, 1631, and 1707 emitted lightning, by which sometimes men and other animals were killed. The same was true of the eruptions of 1767, 1779, and 1794. On the last occasion, a cloud of ashes was taken to Tarentum, three hundred miles away, the lightning from which struck a building and destroyed it. Seneca records similar electrical exploits of Mount Etna, which were repeated in 1755. The smoke which appeared at the uprising of the new Azore (now departed) in 1811 was resplendent with lightning. The strange volcanic island which started up near Sicily in 1831 had the same electrical celebrity. If the lightning is generated in these convulsions by the sudden formation of aqueous vapor, what can be said of the example of 1794? For a great vapor must be soon condensed. Is friction, therefore, the electro-motive force? Finally, I may notice the light enjoyed in cloudy nights, which cannot, Arago supposes, come from the stars, but from the phosphorescent clouds. It is never so dark out of doors as in a subterranean apartment, or in a room without windows. During the dry mist of 1783, the sky was as bright as during a full moon when overclouded. Is this light the glow-discharge of electricity? If so, has the solar light the same electrical origin, more intensely developed? And is the colored light which Nicholson saw in the clouds on the 30th of July, 1797, the result of processes similar to those which give a color to certain of the stars which differs from the white sunlight? Sir William Snow Harris asks whether earthquakes are electrical phenomena. *An. Ch. Ph., XXVI. 258. ↑ C. R., XXXV. 141. I. METEOROLOGICAL TABLES FOR CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Summary of the Meteorological Observations made at the Observatory of Harvard College during the Year commencing January 1st, 1854, and ending December 31st, 1854. By Wm. Cranch Bond. Lat. 42° 22' 48".6 N., Long. 71° 7' 40" W. 1. MEAN BAROMETRIC PRESSURE AND EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE. (Barometer corrected for capillary action, and reduced to the temperature of 320 Fahr.) Mean Height of the Barometer.* External Thermometer. 1854. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, Inch. Inch. In. Inch. Inch. Inch. O 30.040 30.023 .030 29.993 30.001 30.014 19.93 22.88 29.07 23.77 23.91 30.008 30.013 .051 29.962 30.021 30.001 19.64 22.24 28.11 23.87 23.46 29.888 29.890 .086 29.804 29.924 29.876 27.16 31.37 38.14 31.81 32.12 29.952 29.987 .082 29.905 29.905 29.937 36.26 43.96 49.48 40.60 42 57 29.917 29.918 .076 29.842 29.903 29.895 51.90 60.55 65.22 56.59 58.56 29.873 29.885 .063 29.822 29.853 29.858 59.56 68.42 72.04 62.38 65.60 29.970 29.969 .043 29.926 29.953 29.954 66.51 78.26 81.12 71.54 74.35 29.962 29.994 .052 29.942 29.970 29.967 60.41 70.92 76.96 65.26 68.38 September, 30.045 30.053 .049 30.004 30.047 30.037 56.79 62.47 68.85 57.80 61.47 October, 30.034 30.061 .060 30.001 30.032 30.034 46.16 53.08 59.27 51.44 52.48 November, 29.811 29.821 .041 29.780 29.793 29.801 37.23 42.26 45.80 39.46 41.18 December, 29.884 29.855 .036 29.819 29.885 29.861 21.11 23.20 30.62 22.50 24.35 Ann. Mean, 29.949 29.956.056 29.900 29.941 | 29.936 41.89 48.30 53.7245.5947.37 2. RAIN, WINDS, AND CLOUDS, Monthly Means of Observations. II. METEOROLOGICAL TABLES FOR PROVIDENCE, R. I. Summary of Meteorological Observations made at Brown University. Lat 41° 49′ 22′′ N., Long. 71° 24' 48" W. from Greenwich. Barometer reduced to the Sea-level, and to 32° Fahr., and corrected for Capillary Action. By Prof. A. Caswell. 1. MEAN BAROMETRIC PRESSURE AND EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE. Barometer. Means of three daily Observations. External Thermometer. Means of three daily Observations, with Maximum and Minimum. 1854. inch. January, February, 30.034 March, April, May, inch. inch. inch. 28.1 33.0 68 +22 June, 29.907 July, 30.001 29.878 29.890 August, 29.992 29.961 September, 30.062 30.031 October, 29.909 29.930 29.924 53.0 80+31 61.0 67.8 57.4 47.6 36.9 23.0 29.932 29.958 29.952 43.4 55.2 45.1 2. WINDS, CLOUDS, AND RAIN. Number of Days in which the prevailing Winds came from any Point between Quantity of Clouds, from 0-10. No. of Days on which Rain or Snow fell. Quantity of Rain and CAREERAN Snow in Inches of Water. Total for the Year, 71 118 46.25 REMARKS. The greatest height of the barometer (reduced as above) was 30.65 inches, December 23d. The least, 29.04 inches, March 17th. Extreme range for the year, 1.61 inches. The maximum temperature was 940, on the 4th of July, with the Thermometer in the shade, exposed to a brisk current of air. Minimum-60, or 60 below zero, on the 29th of January, which was 20 lower than it has fallen since January 24th, 1839, when it stood at 80 below. Range for the year, 1000. The greatest fall of rain at any one time occurred on the 12th and 13th of November; quantity, 6.00 inches. On the 9th and 10th of September 3.45 inches fell. The total quantity for the year was 46.25 inches, being over six inches above the average quantity, which for a period of twenty-three years is 40.03 inches. * Seven days were not observed. Minim. III. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE FOR WORCESTER, MASS. Lat. 42° 16' 17" N.; Long. 71° 48' 13" W.; elevation 536 feet. Hours of Observation, 7 A. M., 2 and 9 P. M. Barometer. 7 2 inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. inch. 29.35 29.53 29.44 29.54 29.59 29.42 29.39 29.48 29.47 29.51 29.40 29.33 Mean at 29.31 29.62 29.40 29.31 29.37 29.36 29.35 29.45 29.57 29.52 29.48 29.33 9 29.70 29.47 29.55 29.32 29.45 29.42 29.37 29.47 29.48 29.50 29.58 29.30 Thermometer. O о о о о о о O 723.0 19.0 19.0 28.0 38.0 55.0 61.0 67.0 64.0 57.0 47.0 36.0 -0.6 Mean at 2 32.0 27.0 27.0 37.0 50.0 66.0 73.0 80.0 76.0 68.0 60.0 44.0 9 26.0 23.0 22.0 32.0 41.0 57.0 64.0 73.0 68.0 63.0 49.0 38.0 Psychrometer. 93.5 IV. AMOUNT OF RAIN AND SNOW REGISTERED AT THE STATE LUNATIC HOSPITAL, WORCESTER, MASS., FOR THIRTEEN YEARS. Year. Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Inches Rain. Snow. Rain. Snow. Rain. Snow. Rain. Snow. Rain. Snow. Rain. 1850-51 4.19 23.5 2.07 2.5 4.01 1.5 1.40 20.0 5.53 13.0 7.50 Sums, 50.21 182.5 43.49 107.5 46.53 193.0 47.51 135.0 51.06 |