364 Memoir of William C. Redfield, 



wiucl; the state of the barometer; and, finallyj every additional 

 particular that was deemed of the least importance in determin- 

 ing the pecuhar characteristics of tlie storm. With these data 

 before him, he spread out a marine chart, and having noted on 

 it the position of each vessel and place with the direction aiid 

 force of the wind, the plot itself proclaimed to the eye the whirl- 

 wind character of the storm ; and the comparison of dates, and 

 corresponding courses of the winds, and respective states of the 

 barometer, showed the dimensions of the storm, its rotary and 

 progressive velocities, its duration at any given place, and its va- 

 rious degrees of violence at different distances from the center. 

 In the character of the researches before us, conducted as they 

 were, not in the shades of philosophic retirement and learned 

 leisure, but in hours redeemed from the pressing avocations of 

 an onerous and responsible -business, or borrowed from the sea- 

 son allotted to sleep, we trace qualities of mind that belong only 

 to the true philosopher. 



The benevolent and practical mind of Eedfield had no sooner 

 established the laws of storms, than it commenced the inquiry, 

 ■what rules may be derived from it, to promote the safety of the 

 immense amount of human life and of property that are afloat 

 on the ocean, and exposed continually to the dangers of ship- 

 wreck; in this imitating our Franklin, who as soon as he had 

 discovered the identity of lightning with the electricity of our 

 machines, hastened to the inquiry, How may we so apply onr 

 knowledge of the laws of electricity as to disarm the thunder- 

 bolt of its terrors? We might pursue the comparison and say, 

 that as every building saved from the ravages of lightning by 

 the conducting rod, is a token both of the sagacity and the. be- 

 nevolence of Franklin, so everj vessel saved from the horroi^ 

 of shipwreck by rules derived from these laws of storms, is a 

 witness to the sagacity and benevolence of Redfield. _ Other 

 writers on the laws of storms, especiallv Reid and Piddington 



have lent important aid in establishing rules for navigators, until 

 it is now easy for the mariner bj the direction in which the gale 

 strikes his ship, to determine his position in the storm, and the j 



course he must steer in order to escape from its fury. Nor are 

 testimonies wanting of the successful application of these rules. ^ 



The most accomplished navigators (we miglit instance particu- 

 larly Commodores Kodgers and Perry, and Commander Gljnu, ot 

 the U. S. Navy) have testified that within their knowledge and in 

 some cases within their own observation, many ships have owea 

 their deliverance from the perils of shipwreck to a faithful ob- 

 servance of the rules derived from Kedfield's theory of storms. 

 In no department perhaps of the studies of nature have man- 

 kind been more surprised to find things governed by fixed laws 

 than in the case of the winds. It is now rendered in the higaes^ 



