362 Memoir of William C Redfield. 



New 



to New Haven. A Strang 



leave to make a few inquiries respecting some observations I had 

 recently published in the American Journal of Science on the 

 subject of Hailstorms. I was soon made sensible that the hum- 

 ble inquirer was himself a proficient in meteorology. In the 



con 



cry of the laws of our Atlantic gales, at the same time stating 

 the leading facts on Avhich his conclusions were founded. This 

 doctrine was quite new to me, but it impressed me so favorably, 

 that I urged him to communicate it to the world through the 

 medium of the American Journal of Science. He manifested 

 much diffidence at appearing as an author before the scientific 

 world, professing only to be a practical man little versed m 

 scientiBc discussions, and unaccustomed to write for the press. 

 At length, however, he said he would commit his thoughts to 

 paper, and send them to me, on condition that I would revise 

 the manuscript and superintend the press. Accordingly, I soon 

 received the first of a long series of articles on the laws of 

 storms, and hastened to procure its insertion in the Journal of 

 Science. Some few of the statements made in this earliest 

 development of his theory, he afterwards found reason for 

 modifying; but the great features of that theory appear there^in 

 bold relief. Three years afterwards he published, in the 25th 

 volume of the same journal, an elaborate article on the Hurri- 

 canes of the West Indies, in the course of ivhich he gives a full 

 synopsis of the leading points of his doctrine, as matured by a 

 more extended analysis of the phenomena of storms than he 

 had made Avhen he published his first essay. 



Possibly some of our readers may not have fully acquainted 

 themselves with Redfield's theory of storms, and would desire 

 to be informed of its leading principles. I understand this the- 

 ory to be substantially as follows : 



That all violent gales or hurricanes are great whirlwind^ in 

 which the wind blows in circuits around an axis either vertical 

 or inclined; that the winds do not move in horizontal circles, as 

 the usual form of his diagrams would seem to indicate, but 

 rather in spirals towards the axis, a descending spiral movement 



<r from 



mat the direction of revolution is always uniform, ben _ 

 right to left, or against the sun, on the north side of the equator 

 and from left to right, or with the sun, on the south side. 



That the vehcity of rotation increases from the margin towards 

 the center of the storm. 



That the whole body of air subjected to this spiral rotation is 

 at the same time, moving forward in a path, at a variable rate 



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