1892.] VEEDER THUNDERSTORMS. 147 



but makes a fairly constant angle with that direction. Thus 

 the wind vanes are always oblique to the isobars. This so far as is 

 known to the writer has uniformly been ascribed to the deflecting 

 force of the earth's rotation. But when an attempt has been made to 

 secure a numerical value for this deflection the discrepancy between 

 the answers obtained from different sources has been very large. No 

 two have agreed with each other, and not one has given a value 

 corresponding to the angle which the wind arrows make with the 

 isobars. As a matter of fact, this angle on an average corresponds 

 to a departure of about eighty miles for every hundred miles advance 

 in a radial direction. It would seem that if the deflecting force of the 

 earth's rotation were capable of producing a deviation so great as 

 this, to say nothing of the sharper whirl apparent in the tornado, 

 something of the sort should be apparent elsewhere, as for instance 

 in the case of projectiles. But no marksman thinks of making any 

 allowance whatever for the deflecting force of the earth's rotation, 

 not even to the extent of a single foot, to say nothing of any such 

 amount as eighty feet for every hundred that the mark is distant, 

 which is what would be required in order to correspond with the ordi- 

 nary ratio of wind deviation. 



Thus at many points there are serious difficulties in reconciling 

 current ideas in regard to the forces concerned in atmospheric move- 

 ments with observed facts. The question arises as to whether some 

 important factor has not been omitted and whether a better expla- 

 nation is not possible. As has been pointed out there is positive evi- 

 dence that electrical and magnetic impulses of direct solar origin are 

 concerned in atmospheric control. From this point of view the 

 cyclonic and anti-cyclonic wind spirals are referable not to the deflect, 

 ing force of the earth's rotation, but to the passage between the earth 

 and its surroundings of electrical currents, the air particles in conse- 

 quence being arranged in the precise manner that appears in the ordi- 

 nary laboratory experiment in which iron filings are disposed in 

 spirals on a card pierced by a wire through which a current is passing. 

 So too the stratification of masses of air of different temperatures in a 

 manner contrary to gravitation presents no great difficulty, it being 

 due to electrical attractions and repulsions which are competent to 

 antagonize gravitation in the manner actually encountered in these 

 cases. From this point of view also the disproporHon between the 

 horizontal and vertical movements which has been pomted out does 

 not present any difficulty, electrical attractions and repulsions and not 

 the buoyancy of the air being the prime motor. In like manner the 



