Thunder and Lightning

ng other facts which may tend to elucidate the mystery. The terrible ravages caused every year by lightning make it necessary for us to find some means of preventing the recurrence of certain me

we glance back towards past centuries we find that thunder and lightning h

e view regarding the fantastic phenomena resulting from the force of nature and held so mysterious to us moderns. Thunde

ch given to the study of nature, are said to have observed the tendency of lightni

affected them in ways they could not understand. In vain they appealed to their go

r objects of slight weight. The poets attributed it to the tears of Pha?ton's sisters, lamenting over the dreams of Eridan. Certain naturalists regarded it as a kind o

furnish forth material in themselves for a very c

ghtened by the bombardment from on high, at last cried out in his terror: "Let the blow come, then, where it will!" The stroke fell upon the capitol, and upon the temple of the Flavian family,

tricity being released from a roll of amber, noticed a spark and a sudden sharp report, suggestive of a minute flash of lightning, followed by a minute peal of thunder. The analogy was striking. This discovery

onders with which we are now able to make so much play are petty imitations of those great lightning effects which frighten us; that both result from the same mechanism; and if he could make it evident that a cloud produced by the action of the winds, by heat, and by the mingling of exhalations, bears the sa

s, make these conjectures the more probable. Since then electricity has gone ah

o study not thunder alone but the general electrical state of the atmosphere. And ever since meteorological observatories have ma

eave us in doubt upon many points. The

es escaping from them in thunderclaps and causing such tremendous ravages upon

luid. The green leaves you see rustling in the wind are often being traversed by electrical currents, luckily harmless, of precisely the same nature as those of the deadly lightning. On the other hand, the earth itself emits a certain quant

the terrestrial globe is charged with resinous, or negative electricity,

ricity, between which take place continual exchanges which play a r?le in the life

me phenomenon. It also is a striking of a balance, silent but visible, between two opposing tensions of the atmosphere and the earth; thus the apparition of the aurora borealis in Swed

ositive or negative, its essential unity remains the same, these qualities serving only to indicate a point, more or less in common, between the different charges. The height

ve in winter; the minimum comes between five and six in the afternoon in summer, and about three in the afternoon in winter. There is a second maximum at sunset, followed by a diminution during the night until sunrise. This fluctuation is connected with that of the hygrometric conditi

into the atmosphere, where it remains in the form of an invisible gaseous vapour. Soon it becomes cold again, and, in the

of the winds. It often happens that in this case the clouds have lost their positive electricity in thus coming in contact with the mountains, and have derived from them in its place the negative electricity which, instead of holding them, has a tendency to drive them off. A mass of clouds lying between the negative earth and a mass of posit

l the moment when, under the influence of

are that the atmosphere is being constantly agitated by vast currents which

ar beyond the region where they came into existence-subjected to every vicissitude of atmosphere, and blown abou

ements engender great masses of electricity, and presently, when the clouds have

with the negative electricity stored in the surface of the earth, or else with the electricity in other

itory signs. The barometer goes down steadily. The air, calm and heavy, is pervaded by a bitter sulphurous odour. The heat is stifling. An abnormal silence reigns over the land. All this h

e south-west; they are the off-shoots of the cyclones, and are born in the tropics, moving in lines from the sout

in France during our hot summers, when the sun is shining all the d

racted to each other, descend a little, and become grouped together into what look like great masses of cotton-wool. These are termed cumuli. Presently a small grey cloud joins the others. It looks innocent and harmless, but very often this is the beginning of the battle. First there ensues, perhaps, a discharge or two of lightning without casualties, but soo

the rain, give out sweet perfumes. An immense joy takes the place of the sense of melancholy and oppression. It is good to see the sun again! Alas, though, there are grim realities to be faced presently. The hailstones have destroyed the

m-clouds to

s very clearly defined, and they

ere rise huge ragged protuberances like great plumes. Sometimes, on the other

ectrified-the lower one giving out negative electricity, the higher positive electricity. The flashes of lightn

torms are the result of the meeting of two

any other theory, and combated in particular the idea

, and in such cases the flashes have always, of c

and cloudless but for one round speck, there was suddenly a thunderclap and a flash w

a small cloud approaching them little by little. When it was immediately above them a flash of lightning broke out and struck a tree just beside the

inia. This could not be said now, however, perhaps because these lands have grown unworthy of their exemption. It might be said, however, of Peru, who

tions which affect their distribution. Then they are particularly freq

s no thunder in the north beyond the 75th degree of latitude. This is not absolutely so, but it is a fact that storms are very

r after year with remarkable regularity in th

re is never any thunder in Decem

ms in winter; they begin in the spring, and attai

understorms at almost

ome chiefly in s

all latitudes they come m