304 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



considers that the minute particles of watery 

 vapour are each, even in their most condensed 

 state, completely enveloped in a coating of 

 electricity, and are thus rendered sufficiently 

 buoyant to be carried away by the wind. 

 When expanded by heat, their specific gravity 

 being reduced, and their capacity for electricity 

 being increased by the increase of surface, they 

 are then buoyed up into the air by their elec- 

 trical coatings. When these particles are con- 

 densed, they are supposed to become surcharged 

 with electricity by the contraction of their sur- 

 face ; and if this takes place near the earth, the 

 surcharge escapes, and the particle falls as dew ; 

 but if the particles are condensed when they are 

 above the influence of the electrical attraction 

 of the earth, they are still buoyed up by elec- 

 tricity, and on the escape of the surcharge the 

 particles attract each other and produce clouds 

 and rain. 



Connected with the theory of the influence 

 of electric changes upon and in the production 

 of rain, hail, &c., is the proposition which 

 has been seriously entertained of sending up 

 copper balloons in the vine districts of France, 

 by which means the electricity of the atmo- 

 sphere might be conducted harmlessly to the 

 earth, and the formation of the terrific hail- 

 stones which devastate those districts be avoided. 



