A CHAPTER IN METEOROLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 793 



straight away from one point of the compass; and one of the 

 theories advanced in opposition to this, held that the winds in 

 these systems blew radially in to a common center. Redfield, 

 however, maintained that they blew neither radially toward the 

 center, nor yet in circles around it, but as water or smoke in a 

 vortex, with a constant inclination to the center. Here, too, he 

 came very close to the most commonly received doctrine of this 

 present time ; and it proved in entire harmony with the law pro- 

 pounded by Ballot a law which may be thus expressed : " The 

 wind which blows around an area of low barometer, blows neither 

 in circles returning on themselves, nor directly toward that point ; 

 but it takes a direction intermediate, approaching, however, more 

 nearly the direction of circular curves than of radii to a center." 

 Redfield's researches also showed that the winds about a low- 

 pressure space blow in a direction contrary to that of the hands 

 of a watch. 



One fact more should be stated in reference to the nature 

 of Redfield's work and its practical value. Few discoveries in 

 science have ever been turned more quickly to the benefit of 

 mankind ; for one of Redfield's first undertakings, after estab- 

 lishing these laws of the great Atlantic storms, was to formu- 

 late certain rules for the management of vessels during these 

 gales, by which the heaviest force of the storm may be avoided. 

 One of the completest answers to the skeptical queries of matter- 

 of-fact people as to the utility of purely scientific studies, is 

 found in the fact that the outcome of Redfield's studies as at- 

 tested by United States naval officers like Commodore Rodgers 

 and Lieutenant Maury, was an immediate service to ship-masters 

 in showing them how to avoid the heaviest parts of a cyclone, 

 and save their vessels the risk and the wear and tear of an en- 

 counter with the violent winds of the storm-center. 



James P. Espy. But we must leave the work of Redfield, 

 important though it was, and move on, in fulfillment of our pur- 

 pose, to note the contributions of those other men who helped 

 to complete our knowledge of great American storms. 



In the year 1850, Prof. James P. Espy, one of the most origi- 

 nal and talented of American meteorologists, published his con- 

 clusions in regard to the character of American storms, which 

 must be regarded as the next step in the enlargement of our 

 knowledge on the subject. His views were presented in a work 

 entitled The Philosophy of Storms, the fruit of earnest and 

 painstaking studies. The great feature of this work was its 

 presentation of a new class of storms. Espy directed attention 

 to those great atmospheric disturbances which no one hitherto 

 had dealt with, which move across the continent from west to 

 east and which do not originate in the West Indies. Redfield's 



