184 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



icily. Gradually the gas was forced out, and the lower part 

 of the bag doubled up into the upper part, forming a sort of 

 parachute. He landed just twelve miles from his starting- 

 place, having evidently retraced a portion of his track. 



ATM< >SPUERIC ELECTRICITY. 



An important work of Edlund on the Origin of Atmospher- 

 ic Electricity is published by the Swedish Academy, and also 

 in the London, Dublin, and Edinburgh Philosophical Maga- 

 zine, and in Hann's Zeitschrift. He shows that the rotating 

 magnetic earth, being a good electric conductor, must, by 

 unipolar induction, give rise to a nearly uniform charge of 

 negative electricity throughout its own whole mass, but to 

 a variable charge of positive electricity throughout the at- 

 mosphere. The discharges, of course, give rise to aurora 

 and lightning. He deduces, with comparative accuracy and 

 simplicity, the diurnal and annual periods, and the geograph- 

 ical distribution of these phenomena. 



Important papers by Angot in the Annuaire of the Mete- 

 orological Society of France, and by Everett in the report of 

 the Permanent Committee of the Vienna Congress, present 

 the best connected accounts of modern methods and theories 

 that are at present accessible to ordinary readers. 



In a note on the Origin of Thunder-storms, Professor Tait 

 explains how a pair of vertical rotating columns revolving in 

 opposite directions can be produced out of one column in the 

 upper regions of the atmosphere revolving about a horizontal 

 axis. He also suggests that the source of the electricity spe- 

 cially developed in thunder-storms may probably be found 

 in the contact of air with the surface of the warm drops of 

 water. 



A general review of the subject of Atmospheric Electricity 

 is given by Dr. Margules in the Vienna Zeitschrift, wherein 

 lie expounds the electrical principles that occur, and enumer- 

 ates some of the questions that first demand investigation. 



The phenomena of Globular Lightning are described by 

 M. Fitzgerald, of Donegal County, Ireland, who saw a globe 

 of fire in the air descend gradually along the crown of a ridge, 

 and down into the valley, where it drifted along a boggy sur- 

 face, occasionally disappearing in the soil, but reappearing 

 farther on. It finally flew across the stream, and buried it- 





