Effect produced hy Cannon. S81 



was the evening of a Jete given by the Austrian ambassador 

 to Napoleon and the Empress Marie-Louise. In the middle 

 of the night an immense ball-room was burned ; and the vast 

 columns of flame, over which the fire-engines had little con- 

 trol, did not ward off a tremendous thunder-storm which visited 

 the immediate neighbourhood. The lightnings followed with 

 frightful rapidity, and illuminated the whole firmament ; the 

 thunder rolled without intermission ; finally, torrents of rain 

 descended, which extinguished the last embers of the fire. 



On the noise of cannon as a means of dissipating thunderstorms. 



Mariners appear very generally persuaded that the noise of 

 artillery dissipates thunder-clouds and even clouds of all kinds, 

 although they cite few authentic facts in support of their opi- 

 nion. The one most worthy of attention I have found on this 

 interesting point is dated 1680, in the memoirs of Comte de 

 Forbin, which were published for the first time in the year 

 1729 : — '' During our sojourn,"''' says this intrepid mariner, 

 " upon these coasts (Carthagena on the Spanish Main), there 

 arose daily, about four p.m., storms attended with lightning, 

 and which, followed by tremendous thunders, always did some 

 injury in the town over which they spent their fury. The 

 Comte d'Estrce, to whom these coasts were not unknown, and 

 who, in his different voyages to South America, had been more 

 than once exposed to these kinds of hurricanes, had discovered 

 tlie secret of dispelling them hy the firing of cannon. He now 

 tried the efficacy of his remedy against those thunder-storms, 

 whereupon, the Spaniards perceiving and remarking that after 

 the second or third discharge of the guns the storm entirely dis- 

 persed, struck with the prodigy, and not knowing to what to 

 attribute it, testified great surprise mingled with fear.*" 



In several countries the agricultural population, encouraged 

 by the opinion of naval and military men, have had recourse to 

 discharges of cannon when they imagined they were threatened 

 by a thunder-storm, and more especially when it was accompa- 

 nied with hail. We may first inquire when this practice took 

 its rise. Without pretending to entire accuracy, I am led to 

 suppose that it is not of very ancient date. In the first 

 Encyclopedie^ which was pubHshed in the year 1760, under 



VOL. XXVI. NO. LII. APRIL 1839. . T 



