148 Water-Spout. 
1. That the phenomenon called a water-spout is a mere col- 
lection of clouds, of the same rarity as the mass whence they are 
drawn. 
2. That the descent is a mechanical effect of a whirlwind, 
which creating a vacuum, or high degree of rarefaction, extend- 
ing between the clouds and earth, the clouds descend in it by 
their gravity, or by the pressure of the surrounding clouds or air. 
3. That the convolutions of the descending mass, and the 
sensible whirlwind felt at the earth, as well as the appearance of 
the commencement, increase, and decrease of the mass, all de- 
monstrate the whirl of the air to be the mechanical cause. 
4, That the same vortex, whirl, or eddy, of the air, which 
occasions the clouds to descend, occasions the loose bodies on 
the earth te ascend. 
5. That if in this case the lower surface had been water, the 
same mechanical power would have raised a body of foam, va- 
pour, and water, towards the clouds. 
6. That as soon as the vortex or whirl exhausts or dissipates 
itself, the phenomena terminate by the fall to the lower surface 
of the light bodies or water, and by the ascent of the cloud. 
hz That when water constitutes the light body of the lower 
surface, it is probable that the aqueous vapour of the cloud, by 
coalescing with it, may occasion the clouds to condense, and fall 
at that point, as through a syphen. 
8. That if the descending cloud be highly electrified, and the 
vortex pass over a conducting body, as a church-stceple, it is 
probable it may be condensed by an electrical concussion, and 
fall at that spot—discharging whatever has been taken up fromthe 
lower surface, and producing the strange phenomena of showers 
of frogs, fish, &c. &c. 
9. It appears certain, that the action of the air on the mass of 
clouds, pressing towards the mouth of the vortex as to a funnel 
(which in this case it exactly represented), occasioned such a 
condensation as to augment the simultancous fall of rain to a 
prodigy. 
A water-spout appears, therefore, to be produced by me- 
chanism easily understood. But the writer would ask, whether 
for important ceconomical purposes it may not be possible: to 
imitate this mechanism by erecting hollow cylinders of wood or 
iron, and exhausting them of air by vessels in communication 
with them, or by heat, so as to produce the vacuum of a whirl- 
wind, and, by consequence, the condensation and fall of clouds, 
whenever rain might be urgently wanted for purposes of agricul- 
ture? 
STEAM- 
