June 13, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



359 



out the iofiowing air? This theory really proves too much; 

 for, if there is this enormous centrifugal effect producing a 

 partial vacuum, how is it possible for moist air to ilow in 

 against the centrifugal effect? The theoretical explanation 

 that there is friction at the earth's surface, which breaks up 

 the centrifugal effect at that point, is exceedingly unsatis- 

 factory. 



It is given as a proof of this vacuum, that "corks fly from 

 empty bottles." I have searched the tornado literature 

 through and through, and have not found a single well- 

 authenticated case of this phenomenon. The questions 

 naturally arise, "Why were corks put in empty bottles?" 

 also "Why did not the corks fly from the full bottles?" It 

 is probable that empty bottles and corks were found in a 

 cellar, and the theory could have very easily arisen that 

 they had met with a separation. It would be very interest- 

 ing to have a confirmation of this fact. It is said that whole 

 houses sometimes burst from the passage of this partial 

 vacuum. We have already advanced an explanation of 

 this. 



It should be noted that nearly all pictures of tornado-fun- 

 nels make them exceedingly circumscribed, perhaps not 

 more than ten feet across at the tip (see Fig. 1). The earli- 

 est representation of a tornado-cloud is very different from 

 this, and it is probable that the imagination has had alto- 

 gether too much to do with all these later pictures. It is to 

 be hoped that wherever possible, in future drawings, there 

 will be giveu some idea of the size of the funnel. If houses 

 are affected, the funnel should be at least from a hundred 

 to two hundred feet across at the earth. A remarkable evi- 

 dence of the desire for showing a gyration in a tornado-cloud 

 is to be found in the quotation regarding the Gentry County 

 tornado, from Professor Ferret's last book, at p. 354. This 

 statement was of an observation in which it was claimed 

 that trees on the north side of the track were thrown to the 

 west and south-west. As shown in Fig. 2, this is exactly 

 the way trees ought to be thrown, if this theory of a gyra- 

 tion is a correct one. This is the only instance, if we grant 

 its authenticity, in which, out of a hundred or a hundred 

 and fifty reports of this phenomenon, trees were ever thrown 

 this way. The evidence of this kind is overwhelmingly in 

 favor of the supposition that there is no gyration. 



6. Origin in the Cloud Region. — There can be no doubt 

 that the tornado originates in the cloud region ; but to say 

 that this must be from an unstable equilibrium at that point, 

 is a violent assumption. The sun, contrary to theory, un- 

 doubtedlj' heats up a cloud so that there is a steady increase 

 of temperature with height, as shown by balloon observa- 

 tions; but there is no unstable equilibrium, though theory 

 indicates that this should be enormous under these condi- 

 tions. The tornado frequently arises after sunset, when 

 there is no abnormal heating of the cloud. This transfer of 

 the primitive impulse from the earth to the cloud is very 

 significant, and seems to have been done to avoid a diffi- 

 culty; which, however, has been increased rather than 

 avoided. The hypothesis that such a disturbance, after 

 starting in the cloud region, is transmitted through friction 

 to the earth's surface, seems a little strained, when we re- 

 flect, that, according to computation, it would require more 

 than twenty years for such transmission through a depth of 

 three hundred feet. 



7. A Progressive Motion in the Drift of the Upper 

 Current. — If the general storm motion is in this drift, it 

 certainly seems impossible to ascribe that of the tornado to 

 the same. The tornado moves with a velocity fully double 

 that of the general storm, and it is probable that the centre 

 of its motion is not more than half the height of the former; 

 and, as it is known that the velocity of the current increases 

 rapidly with the height, it is safe to say that the drift at the 

 " power " of the tornado is not more than half that in the 

 case of the general storm. It is also impossible to account 

 for the motion of the tornado for more than a hundred 

 miles, unless it has its own generating force, through the 

 drift of the upper current. If the cloud is about three 

 thousand feet high (not an underestimate), the motion of 

 the upper part will approximate double that of the lower, 

 and, in spite of the utmost centrifugal action, it would in a 

 few minutes be torn apart. The hypothesis that the upper 

 part breaks off, and re-forms itself in front, and afterward 

 communicates its gyrations to the earth through a friction- 

 less medium, must be regarded as one of the most strained 

 that was ever advanced. This would break up the abso- 

 lutely necessary continuity of the vertical ascending current, 

 and would be fatal to the whole tornado theory. 



8. A Similarity between Thunder-Storms and Torna- 

 does. — This view was advanced prominently in 1884, and in 

 the past few years has become a most important factor in all 

 discussions. It demands a notice by itself, which will be 



' given later. 



It will be asked. Is not the foregoing a too severe setting- 

 forth of the general weakness of tornado theories ? Is not 

 there some good to be gotten out of such theories, even if 

 there are some points not fully settled ? I leave the ques- 

 tions where they stand. I have not tried to overdraw the pic- 

 ture. The essential weakness of such theories is a starting 

 from insufficient data and reasoning regarding most com- 

 plex motions in a region in which we have hardly a dozen 

 reliable records. It may be put down as an undoubted fact 

 that no great advance can be hoped for in such studies, ex- 

 cept the abandonment of these theories, until we investigate 

 carefully the region where all these disturbances are devel- 

 oped. H. A. Hazen. 



ON THE GROUP OF METEOEITES RECENTLY DISCOV- 

 ERED IN BRENHAM TOWNSHIP, KIOWA. COUNTY, 

 KAN. I 



About four years ago the farmers of Brenham Township 

 ploughed up a number of heavy objects, which they used to 

 weight down haystacks and for other such purposes, as they 

 would have used bowlders. It was discovered in March last that 

 these were not common rocks, but an interesting group of mete- 

 orites, numbering over twenty in all, weighing together about 

 2,000 pounds, and individually from 466 pounds down to one ounce 

 each. They were found embedded at a slight depth in the soli, 

 which here, for about one hundred feet in depth, is formed of a 

 pleistocene marl, originally the bottom of an ancient lake, scat- 

 tered over a surface over one mile in length; principally, however, 

 in a square of about sixty acres. 



What is now Kiowa County, Kan., five yeai's ago formed parts 

 of Edwards and Comanche Counties, and was occupied by large 

 ranges and cattle-ranches. Brenham Township, or Township 27 

 as it was then called, is in the north-western part of Kiowa 

 County, is covered by a high prairie with some areas of sand-hills, 

 ' First announced at the New York Academy of Sciences, April 7, 1890. 



