WINDS.
Entertained theories Erroneous.
The mere mechanical theory which regards the atmosphere as a loose mixture of gaseous materials, and the winds as mere mechanical disturbances within it, misses its real intimate nature and is insufficient. But once conceive the atmosphere as arranged like a perfectly adjusted instrument for the meeting-place and co-operation of sun-force, and earth-force, where are elaborated all the benefits designed for our mundane creation, and we begin to look for better explanations.
Their true Character.
What we call the wind is mediately the air moving but causatively, and immediately, and more profoundly, it is the action of the vito-magnetic fluid. It is therefore a purely magnetic phenomenon. In the interplay of that subtle, all-pervasive fluid, is found the key to the theory of the winds. Hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, zephyrs, etc., are manifestations of its operations. These phenomena imply the existence of a force at times stupendous, and at times so gentle as simply to move a leaflet.
This power in full magnitude may spring instantaneously into action; and it may, too, as instantaneously cease. It may suddenly drive a body of air at the rate of one hundred miles per hour, and as suddenly arrest its progress. The air having no inherent propulsive powers, that originate and control its directions, velocities, and varied forms of movement, is yet subject to definite laws. What these laws are has never been divulged.—"The wind bloweth where it listeth." Yet in viewing earth and atmosphere as vast reservoirs of vito-magnetic fluid, shifting back and forth to maintain an equilibrium, we believe we see the workings of the very force which moves and sways the atmosphere; which causes its currents, both general and special; and which gives rise to all its more extraordinary and unaccountable phenomena.
What gives rise to the Currents.
The changes in the magnetism of the earth and atmosphere give rise to these currents. They are developed in various forms. The following may be mentioned as the most important.
1st. The general and widespread perturbations, occurring within the body of the earth, and implicating immense areas, even whole continents.
2d. The interruptions of continuity of the solar currents as in the phenomena called sun-spots. These changes, to whatever cause due, are capable of disturbing the terrestrial magnetic equilibrium over varying areas, and of working instantaneously.
3d. The effects of the interruptions of the sun's rays through the medium of clouds.
4th. Purely local vito-magnetic, or electrical, actions occupying smaller or larger areas.[13]
That the origination, suspension, and continuation of these movements, in all their forms are due to purely vito-magnetic force, we think demonstrable. Thus, no other can act so instantaneously, none with such varied exhibitions of power, and none so widespread in their development.
In the movement of a body of air, the space previously occupied by that body must be resupplied by another of equal volume. This resupply may not necessarily be derived from the circumambient atmosphere as heretofore supposed. In some instances the resupply is derived in but slight degree from that source, but rather from that great reservoir, the earth; as in the instances of whirlwinds and tornadoes.
Philosophical Considerations drawn from Observation.
Flammarian says:—"We know that a whirlwind is a column of air which turns upon its own axis, and which advances comparatively slowly, for, as a rule, a person can keep up with it at a walking pace. This whirling column of air is both caused and set in motion by electricity."
If whirlwinds are caused and set in motion by electricity, why may not all other forms of wind be productions of the same force? Peltier has established both by numerous facts and by a series of ingenious experiments, that the waterspouts of the land and sea are electrical phenomena.
This had been suspected by Beccaria a hundred years before.
The hurricane which occurred in the Barbadoes in 1831, was the most remarkable on record. In the actions of the hurricane and the electrical displays, there was abundant evidence of cause and effect.
The lightning for hours played in flashes and forked darts, and moved frightfully between the clouds and the earth, with a most surprising action, and the earth was felt to tremble. The moment this singular alternation of the lightning passing to and fro ceased, the hurricane burst forth with a violence which exceeded all that had yet been experienced. The winds blowing with appalling velocity, changed their course frequently and almost instantaneously, occasionally abating but only to return in gusts from S. W.-W. and N. W. with accumulated fury.
These alternations of wind and violent electrical phenomena, were something more than coincident, more than a casual connection. Here we observe a manifest inter-dependence.
In another hurricane, "the wind blew about twelve hours with the utmost fury from the N. E. and then, in an instant, perfect calm ensued for an hour, then, quick as thought, the hurricane sprang up with tremendous force from the S. W." No other power known can suspend and put in motion, in opposite directions, such marvellous velocities and so instantaneously.
A remarkable phenomenon was exhibited by a hurricane in 1837, and described by Capt. Seymour of Cork. "For nearly an hour we could not see each other nor anything else, but merely the light, and most astonishing, every one of our finger-nails turned quite black and remained so nearly five weeks afterwards. This fact may be classed among other proofs of the agency of electricity in the production of hurricanes."
The following facts are entirely inconsistent with usual methods of explanation of the cause of winds: "The entire atmosphere, to the altitude of many thousand feet, is constantly traversed by numerous horizontal currents of air, flowing in different directions and at different heights."
The course of a balloonist was altered no less than five times in the space of fourteen hours. "The aëronaut Green, at the height of 14,000 feet, encountered a current that bore him along at the rate of five miles per hour, but upon descending to the altitude of 12,000 feet he met a contrary wind blowing with a velocity of eighty miles an hour."
The vito-magnetic fluid is capable of becoming amassed, condensed and rarefied. In the tornado that happened at Natchez, in 1840, the houses exploded whenever the doors and windows were shut, the roofs shooting up into the air, and the walls even of the strongest buildings bursting outward with great force.
On the 18th of June, 1839, a whirlwind fell upon the village of Chatenay, near Paris. In the room of a house over which it passed, several articles of needle-work were lying upon a table. The next day some of them were found in a field at a distance from the house, together with a pillow-case taken from another room. They must have been carried up the chimney by the rush of air outwards, as every other means of exit was closed.
It is a fact well-known to miners that during and before violent tempests, strong ascending currents are observed.
Pl. IV. MANUFACTURED WIND.
If a metallic rod terminating in a point be attached to the conductor of an electrical machine, electricity escapes in large quantities from the point. A continuous current is thus kept up and the flame of a taper, if placed in front of the current, is blown in a horizontal direction. Wind is thus manufactured on a small scale. Pl. IV.
At a recent meeting of a Meteorological Society in England, a paper was read by the Rev. Joseph Crompton, M.A., F.M.S. "The author, when walking close to the Cathedral of Norwich, was struck with the unusual fluttering of the flags on the top of the spire, which was 300 feet high. They were streaming with a strained, quivering motion perpendicularly upwards. A heavy cloud was passing overhead at the moment and as it passed, the flags followed the cloud and then gradually dropped into comparative quietness. The same phenomenon was noticed several times. As the cloud approached, the upper banner began to feel its influence and streamed towards it, against the direction of the wind, which still blew as before, steadily on all below. As the cloud came nearer, the vehement quivering and streaming motion of the flags increased; they began to take an upward perpendicular direction into the cloud and seemed almost tearing themselves from the staves to which they were fastened. Again as the cloud passed, they followed it as they had previously streamed to meet its approach, and then dropped away as before, one or two actually folding over their staves. All the other flags at the lower elevation did not show the least symptom of disturbance." In this phenomenon we observe the operation of two of the wind-producing causes just mentioned, viz.:—a wind arising from purely local causes, and of limited extent, occurring within the boundaries of a wind produced by the action of more general, and widespread causes—A wind within a wind.
The above instances plainly carry a suggestion of magnetic origin and power.
Winds may not arise from Presumed Causes.
If winds are due to such a simple mechanical causation as the production by the sun, of a rarefied atmosphere, the colder air rushing in from all sides into the empty spaces, we should hardly expect to find any definite currents bounded by well-defined limits; much less should we look for transverse and opposite currents going like messengers at varying rates of speed, some slow, and others exceedingly swift. Nor may stronger gales suddenly cease, as though stopped by some mighty invisible wall. And in no wise can they, from mere calorific agencies, leap out of perfect calmness into hurricane velocity, or subside into silence as by magic. On no such principle can they shift back upon their own track, going either way with terrific velocity.
A Great Cosmical System.
We have seen the marks of electrical action in the cases cited, and since we know something of the subtlety of the agent; that it may be "amassed, condensed and rarefied," that it is not loose and wandering, and the mere plaything of fortuitous forces, as the atmosphere is supposed to be; but, on the contrary, has close and most sympathetic adjustment with the earth-force; and that it is the invisible hand that holds and manages the grosser atmospheric matter; since we know this, we are now brought to the study of a great cosmical system.