SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 



house is an ample protection, and none other is really needed. 

 Above all, the people of the West should allay their fears at 

 the appearance of every threatening or lurid cloud in the 

 south-vpest horizon. 



Warnings. 

 As the Western States become more thickly populated, it 

 is probable that some means will be resorted to, to warn the 

 villages of the approach of a veritable tornado. Outposts 

 placed at a mile or two to the south-vrest or west would have 

 an excellent opportunity to watch for such outbursts, and 

 give the signal for the inhabitants to watch for the cloud. 

 It would be a great advantage to all concerned if people 

 could realize that the tornado proper is an exceedingly defi- 

 nite and unmistakable phenomenon ; that it does not come 

 upon a house like a stroke of lightning, unseen and unher- 

 alded. Instances are by no means rare where the funnel 

 has been seen advancing directly over a person, and has 

 been easily avoided by running to the north or north-west. 

 On the south side of the path there are indraughts extending 

 to quite a distance; so that it is generally safer, unless the 

 track of the tornado is seen to be quite to the north of the 

 observer, for one to run to the north-west, but never to the 

 north-east or east, as that is in the line of the tornado. Per- 

 sons have stood within one hundred and fifty feet of the tor- 

 nado on the north side, and have felt no unusual disturb- 

 ance. It is admitted, however, that this requires no unusual 

 courage. Let the people of the West look upon this phe- 

 nomenon more in the light of its great peculiarity and won- 

 derful nature, — a nature which has absolutely no parallel, 

 and one the study of which must be for years to come of the 

 highest importance. The wisest philosopher has hardly be- 

 gun to get an inkling of its formation; and those who are 

 so minded can, by a careful observation and record, help in 

 obtaining and formulating the facts regarding this extraor- 

 dinary appearance. 



Can the Tornado Energy be Dissipated? 

 The time is coming when this question will become ex- 

 ceedingly important. It is very unsafe to theorize without 

 some facts to start from. It is probable that often serious 

 damage will be warded oflf from a town which has an exten- 

 sive forest to the south-west and west. If the energy of a 

 tornado is in an electrical action, as it most undoubtedly is, 

 there is no reason why this may not be diminished by a 

 properly arranged network of wires and poles to the south- 

 west. A tornado is exactly the same as a water-spout at 

 sea; and, if ships have broken up such a spout from the 

 concussion produced by the firing of a cannon, there seems 

 no reason why the energy of a tornado may not be largely 

 diminished by the explosion of gunpowder or dynamite. Of 

 course, the great difllculty would be to make the explosion 

 anywhere near the tornado. Further than this, we cannot 

 go without experiments, and, above all, without a better 

 knowledge of the force producing the energy manifested. 



Insurance. 

 Next to the loss of life and destruction of property by a 

 tornado comes the practical question, "Can I and shall I 

 insure my property against this loss?" Undoubtedly both 

 the public and insurance companies have been misled on 

 this subject, and yet it will be distinctly understood that in 



whatever is written here there is no censure implied. I 

 have been in correspondence with these companies, and find 

 that they have been groping in the dark; but they are 

 watching tornado risks very carefully, and are prepared to 

 make a change when such is deemed advisable. It is a 

 remarkable fact, that, out of the thousands who have insured 

 their property against tornadoes during the past six years, 

 only two, so far as published, have received any return, and 

 these for $2,000 each. If we should examine the returns for 

 fire insurance, no such state of affairs as this would be 

 found, and the ^eason for it is not far to seek. Usually tor- 

 nado insurance is placed in the towns where a tornado has 

 just occurred, and, like lightning, the path of a tornado 

 never runs twice in the same line. When we consider the 

 extremely narrow path of a tornado, this is not to be won- 

 dered at. After the recent tornado in Louisville, Ky., we are 

 told that tornado insurance had a most extraordinary boom, 

 and it was being placed at a rate even greater than that for 

 fire insurance in some cases. This is most extraordinary, 

 and can only be explained on the supposition that all classes 

 had had their attention called to incorrect views, and were 

 not cognizant of, or had not studied, the true relations of the 

 subject. We have already seen that in the nine-counties 

 tornado the actual losses of $250,000 were exaggerated to 

 $4,000,000; but what shall be said when we learn that after 

 the returns from all tornadoes were in, and we must con- 

 sider that these returns represented far more than the actual 

 loss,-it was decided to multiply them by 25, that is, increase 

 the losses by 2,500 per cent, on the plea that all the losses 

 were not reported. It is not to be wondered at that under 

 such manipulations every one has been very much mysti- 

 fied. As to the Louisville tornado, we shall find that Ken- 

 tucky is not classed as a tornado State even. It is doubtful 

 if another such tornado ever strikes Kentucky, certainly not 

 in a hundred years. 



Risk. 



This whole matter of insurance depends on the risk. If a 

 company should be organized to insure a house against being 

 knocked down by a meteor, no one would dream of such a 

 thing as noticing it, except in pity. No company was ever 

 organized to place insurance against lightning distinctively; 

 but the risk is so slight, that all or nearly all companies 

 simply add that risk to the regular fire risk. I think it can 

 be shown that the tornado risk is not so vastly different 

 from that of lightning. Suppose a man's life is insured, and 

 he wants to go into a tornado region : not one word is said 

 by the company. But suppose the man goes South during 

 the summer season: he must take his own risk, for the com- 

 pany will not take it. The difference in these cases is very 

 plain : the chance of death in the first instance is perhaps 

 one in a million or less, while in the second it may be one 

 in a thousand or more. These illustrations will suffice to 

 make this subject clear to those who have given no thought 

 to it. If we can find the relative risk between lightning 

 and tornadoes or between fire and the same, or if we can 

 find the chance that any given house will be struck, we shall 

 have a basis upon which to reckon the importance of this 

 insurance. It is an eminently practical question to be 

 solved by the law of chances, and not an undetermined fac- 

 tor, or a subject to be accounted for on the plea that it is the 



