438 Biogra/phical Memoir of William C. Redfield. 



of the 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 and force of the wind the plot itself proclaimed 

 to the eye the whirlwind character of the storm : and the compa- 

 rison of dates, and corresponding courses of the winds, and res- 

 pective states of the barometer, showed the dimensions of the 

 storm, its rotary and progressive velocities, its duration at any 

 given place, and its various degrees of violence at different dis- 

 tances from the center. In the character of the researches before 

 us, conducted as they were, not in the shades of philosophic re- 

 tirement and learned leisure, but in hours redeemed from the press- 

 ing avocations of an onerous and responsible business, or borrowed 

 from the season allotted to sleep, we trace qualities of mind that 

 belong only to the true philosopher. 



The benevolent and practical mind of Redfield had no sooner 

 established the laws of storms, that 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 discov- 

 ered the identity of lightning with the electricity of our machines, 

 hastened to the inquiry. How may we so apply our knowledge 

 of the laws of electricity as to disarm the thunderbolt of its ter- 

 rors ? 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 benevolence of Franklin, 

 so every vessel saved from the horrors 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, 

 especially Reid and Piddington, have lent important aid in esta- 

 blishing rules for navigators, until it is now easy for the mariner 

 by the direction in which the gale strikes his ship to determine 

 his position in the storm, and the course he must steer in order to 

 escape from its fury. Nor are testimonies wanting of the success- 

 ful applicating of these rules. The most accomplished navigators 

 (we might instance particularly Commodores Rodgcrs and Perry, 

 and Commander Glynn, of the U. S. Navy) have testified that 

 within their own observation, many ships have owed their deli" 

 verance from the perils of shipwreck to a faithful observance of 

 the rules derived from Redfield's theory of storms. In no depart- 

 ment, perhaps, of the studies of nature have mankind been more 



