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On the Causes of the Tornado^ or Water Spout. 157 



I believe that the electrical excitement which gives rise to atmos- 

 pberic discharges of electricity, in whatever form they may occur, is 

 usually ascribed to the chemical changes taking place in the atmos- 

 phere ; especially the formation or condensation of vapor. 



Another view of this subject has suggested itself to my mind. It 

 is known that the atmosphere acts generally as an electric, while the 

 earth acts as a conductor of electricity; and since the electric fluid 

 passes through an exhausted receiver with great facility, it results 

 that the rare medium which exists at a great elevation, is equivalent 

 to another conductor. Hence it is evident that there are three enor- 

 mous concentric spaces, of which that which is intermediate contains 

 an electric, to which the others may act as coatings. When the ten- 

 dency of the electric fluid to preserve an equilibrium is taken into 

 view, I believe myself justified in the inference, that not only the 

 space occupied by the globe, but the region beyond our atmosphere, 

 or where the air is sufficiently rare to act as a conductor, must abound 

 with electricity. Thus the atmosphere is situated between two oceans 

 of electricity, of which the tension may often be different. Between 

 these electric oceans, the clouds, floating in the non-conducting air, 

 must act as movable insulated conductors ; and from the excitement 

 consequent upon induction, chemical changes, or ibeir proximity to 

 the celestial electric ocean, must be liable to be electrified differently 

 from each other, and from the terrestrial electric ocean. 



The phenomena of thunder storms may arise, from the passage of 

 electricity from one electric ocean to the other being facilitated by an 

 intervening accumulation of the clouds, or in consequence of dischar= 

 ges from one insulated congeries of clouds to another through the earth. 



The aurora borealis may arise from discharges from one ocean to 

 the other of electricity, which, not being concentrated by its attraction 

 for intervening clouds within air sufficiently dense to act as an elec- 

 tric, assumes the diffuse form which characterizes that phenomenon. 



Falling stars may consist of electric matter, in transitu between one 

 portion of the celestial electric ocean and another, tending to restore 

 the equilibrium when disturbed. They may, in fact, consist of elec- 

 tric matter, passing from one mass of moisture to another ; as it may 

 be imagined that in an expanse so vast, in which the tension is so 

 low, there may be a great diversity as respects the quantity of mois- 

 ture existing in different parts. Indeed, it may be conceived that at 

 times the clouds, insulated from each other, may make their recipro- 

 cal discharges through the region occupied by the celestial ocean ^ 



