258 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



candles " in fireworks. Occasionally there would be a zig-zag explosion in 

 the cloud immediately below, and the thunder therefrom sounded like a 

 "feu do joie" of a rifle corps. Once an orange-colored wave of light 

 seemed to fall from the upper to the lower cloud, and right over the balloon, 

 but no sensible effect was produced by its contact. This was " still light- 

 ning." There appeared all the time while in the storm electrical action going 

 on in the balloon, such as expansion, tremulous tension, attraction by lift- 

 ing papers out of the car ten feet below the balloon, and hugging them to its 

 body for a moment and then letting them drop off again ; but as I had 

 no instruments I can only relate the manifestations of electricity in this 

 case. While, as stated above, a distant view of storms is imposing and 

 grand, a closer view of a great storm such as this Ohio meteor, is truly sub- 

 lime ; although the rushing noise below and in its midst, is almost appal- 

 ling. 



The Quantity and Quality of Thunder seem to be in proportion to the mag- 

 nitude of the storm. A storm may be so limited in size as that there will 

 be no electrical explosions. In this case the developed electricity can be 

 dissipated and taken up by the immediately surrounding cloud formation. 

 April and May showers are an exemplification of this fact. When the storm 

 is of great magnitude the central portion of its top becomes surcharged with 

 electricity, because the surrounding cloud-formed vapor cannot conduct 

 away silently as fast as it is developed, and hence explosions must ensue, 

 such as noticed in the Ohio meteor, with terrific and rapid discharges of 

 thunder ; and moreover, the drops of rain that are formed from this sur- 

 charged vapor of the upper cloud also become redundantly electrified, and 

 although they fall quietly down through the intervening clear air which is a 

 non-conductor, as soon as they reach the lower cloud, which is negatively 

 electrified, they give up their surplus silently if the capacity of this cloud 

 is sufficient to take it up, but explosively if the cloud is insufficient ; and it 

 may fly off laterally until dissipated, or it may glance downward to the 

 earth, rending whatever it encounters before its diffusion in the earth. The 

 physical facts here stated are as I saw them ; the rationale of explosion is 

 confirmed from the known play of electricity as divulged by the common 

 electrical machine experiments. 



A Storm Viewed from within its Caldron that is, from within its vortex, 

 where the cloud-vapor is driving upward to where it spreads out is rather 

 a terrible thing, and the very fact that you are caught up in the midst of one 

 of nature's laboratory furnaces makes you feel resigned, and determined to 

 look to the end thereof. It may be only terrible because we are not used to 

 it ; nevertheless, I would not like to enter one again for observation until 

 science dictates, without a doubt, that we arc not liable to annihilation or 

 serious harm. The one now to be described is the result of a trip in the 

 midst of a local storm of so limited dimensions as to have no electrical ex- 

 plosions during my passage of nineteen minutes within its bosom. This 

 storm originated nearly over the town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 17th 

 of June, 1843. I entered it just as it was forming. The nucleus cloud 

 above was just spreading out as I entered the vortex unsuspectingly. I was 



