Man and WeatherHarvard University Press, 1926 - 99 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
aërial aerography anticyclonic approximately Atlantic atmosphere auroral average battle cruisers battleships Blue Hill Boston British California centimeters cirrus cloud Coast condensation cooling cubic cumulo-nimbus cumulus cyclone damage discharge drop of rain drought earth east electrical electrified electrometer fall fell flashes flood floor forecast Franklin free air freezing FROST German Grand Fleet green line ground heat heavy rain height High Seas Fleet hour humidity hyperbar infrabar Jared Eliot kilobars kilograds kilometers kite land Leyden jar lightning London mass meters miles minute moist air motion move Napier Shaw nearly ning nitrogen normal northeast winds northward northwest Observatory October Pacific perature potential temperature pressure radiation rainfall records region severe thunder-storm ship solid nitrogen sounding balloon southwest spectrum square kilometers storm Störmer strategy of weather stratosphere stratus surface thermometer tion troposphere unit velocity warm water vapor waves Wüst zero
Popular passages
Page 74 - With this apparatus, on the appearance of a thunder-gust approaching, he went out into the commons, accompanied by his son, to whom alone he communicated his intentions, well knowing the ridicule, which, too generally for the interest of science, awaits unsuccessful experiments in philosophy. He placed himself under a shade, to avoid the rain — his kite was raised — a thunder-cloud passed over it — no sign of electricity appeared.
Page 8 - Had it not rained on the night of the 17th of June, 1815, the future of Europe would have been changed. A few drops of water more or less prostrated Napoleon. That Waterloo should be the end of Austerlitz, Providence needed only a little rain, and an unseasonable cloud crossing the sky sufficed for the overthrow of a world.
Page 70 - ... of those edifices upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle, and gilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into the ground, or down round one of the shrouds of a ship, and down her side till it reaches the water? Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief?
Page 70 - The greatest known effects of common lightning may, I think, without much difficulty, be exceeded in this way, which a few years since could not have been believed, and even now may seem to many a little extravagant to suppose. So we are got beyond the skill of Rabelais's devils of two years old, who, he humorously says, had only learnt to thunder and lighten a little round the head of a cabbage.
Page 74 - As soon as any of the thunderclouds come over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and the kite, with all the twine, will be...
Page 74 - He placed himself under a shed, to avoid the rain : his kite was raised, a thunder-cloud passed over it, no sign of electricity appeared. He almost despaired of success, when suddenly he observed the loose fibres of his string to move towards an erect position.
Page 74 - Franklin was waiting for the erection of a spire, it occurred to him that he might have more ready access to the region of clouds by means of a common kite.
Page 69 - I say, if these things are so, may not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, &c. from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle, and gilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into the ground, or...
Page 24 - ... next day ; the sky thick-clouded, dark, and rainy, so that neither moon nor stars could be seen. The storm did a great deal of damage all along the coast, for we had accounts of it in the newspapers from Boston, Newport, New York, Maryland, and Virginia; but what surprised me was, to find in the...
Page 53 - Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind...