SPOUT. 



fpout, or canal, breaks and difappears ; the boiling up of 

 the water, and even the pillar, continuing to the laft, and 

 for fome time afterwards ; fometimes till the fpout form itfelf 

 again, and appear anew ; which it fometimes does feveral 

 times in a quarter of an hour. See a defcription of feveral 

 water-fpouts by Mr. Gordon, and by Dr. Stuart, in Phil. 

 Tranf. Abr. vol. iv. p. 103, &c. 



M. de la Pryme, from a near obfervation of two or three 

 fpouts in Yorklliire, defcribed in the Philofophical Tranfac- 

 tions, N° 281, or Abr. vol. iv. p. 106, concludes, that the 

 water-fpout is nothing but a gyration of clouds, by con- 

 trary winds meeting in a point, or centre ; and there, where 

 the greatell condenfation and gravitation are, falling down 

 into a pipe, or great tube, fomewhat like Archimedes's 

 fpiral fcrew ; and, in its working and whirling motion, 

 abforbing and raifing the water, in the fame manner as the 

 fpiral icrew does ; and thus dedroying fhips, &c. 



Thus, June the 2 1 It, he obferved the clouds mightily 

 agitated above, and driven together ; upon which they be- 

 came very black, and were hurried round ; whence pro- 

 ceeded a moft audible whirling noife, like that ordinarily 

 heard in a mill. Soon after there iffued a long tube or 

 fpout from the centre of the congregated clouds, in which 

 he obferved a fpiral motion, like that of a fcrew, by which 

 the water was raifed up. 



Again, Auguft 15, 1687, the wind blowing at the fame 

 time out of the feveral quarters, created a great vortex and 

 whirling among the clouds ; the centre of which every now 

 and then dropped down, in (hape of a long, thin, black 

 pipe, in which he could diltinAly behold a motion like that 

 of a fcrew, continually drawing upwards, and fcrewing up, 

 as it were, wherever it touched. In its progrefs it moved 

 flowly over a grove of trees, which bent under it like wands, 

 rn a circular motion. Proceeding, it tore off the thatch 

 from a barn, bent an huge oak-tree, broke one of its 

 greatell branches, and threw it to a great diilance. He 

 adds, that whereas it is commonly faid, the water works and 

 rifes m a column, before the tube comes to touch it ; this is, 

 doubtlefs, a miltake, owing to the finenefs and tranfparency 

 of the tubes, which do moft certainly touch the furface of 

 the fea, before any confiderable motion can be raifed in it ; 

 but which do not become opaque and vifible, till after they 

 have imbibed a confiderable quantity of water. 



The dilTolution of water-fpouts he afcribes to the great 

 quantity of water they have glutted ; which, by its weight, 

 impeding their motion, on which their force, and even ex- 

 iftence, depends, they break, and let go their contents ; 

 which generally prove fatal to whatever is found under- 

 neath. 



A notable inttance of this kind we have in the Philofo- 

 phical Tranfaftions, N° 363, or Abr. vol. iv. p. 108, re- 

 lated by Dr. Richardfon. A fpout, in 17 18, breaking on 

 Emmotmoor, near Coin, in Lancalbire, the country was 

 immediately overflowed ; a brook, in a few minutes, rofe 

 fix feet perpendicularly high ; and the ground on which the 

 fpout fell, which was lixty-fix feet over, was torn up to the 

 very rock, which was no lefs than feven feet deep ; and a 

 deep gulf was made for above half a mile ; the earth being 

 raifed on either fide in va(t heaps. See a defcription and 

 figure of a water-fpout, with an attempt to account for it, 

 in Franklin's Exp. and Obf. p. 226, &c. 



Signior Beccaria has taken pains to (hew that water-fpouts 

 have an eledrical origin. To make this more evident, he 

 firft defcribes the cnxumftances attending their appearance, 

 '.which are the following. 



They generally appear in calm weather. The fea feems 

 to boil, and fend up a fmoke under them, rifing in a hill to- 



wards the fpout. At the fame time, perfons who have been 

 near them have heard a rumbling noife. The form of a 

 water-fpout is that of a fpeaking-trumpet, the wider end 

 being in the clouds, and the narrower end towards the fea. 

 The fize is various, even in the fame fpout. The colour is 

 fometimes inclining to white, and fometimes to black. 

 The pofition is fometimes perpendicular to the fea, fome- 

 times oblique ; and fometimes the fpout itfelf is in the form 

 of a curve. Their continuance is very various, fome difap- 

 pearing as foon as formed, and fome continuing a con- 

 fiderable time. One that he had heard of continued a whole 

 hour. But they often vanifh, and prelently appear again in 

 the fame place. 



The very fame things that water-fpouts are at fea, are fome 

 kinds of whirlwinds and hurricanes by land. They have been 

 known to tear up trees, to throw down buildings, make ca- 

 verns in the earth ; and, in all thefe cafes, to fcatter earth, 

 bricks, ftones, timber, &c. to a great diftance, in every di- 

 reftion. Great quantities of water have been left, or raifed 

 by them, fo as to make a kind of deluge ; and they have 

 always been attended with a prodigious rumbling noife. 



That thefe phenomena depend upon eleftricity, cannot but 

 appear very probable from the nature of feveral of them ; 

 but the conjeAure h made more probable from the following 

 additional circumftances. They generally appear in months 

 peculiarly fubjecl to thunder-ltorms, and are commonly pre- 

 ceded, accompanied, or followed, by lightning, rain, or 

 hail ; the previous ftatc of the air being fimilar. Whitifii or 

 yellowilh flafhes of light have fometimes been feen moving 

 with prodigious fwiftnefs about them. And, laftly, the 

 manner in which they terminate, exactly refembles what 

 might be expefted>.from the prolongation of one of the uni- 

 form protuberances of eleftrified clouds, mentioned before, 

 towards the fea ; the water and the cloud mutually attrafting 

 one another ; for they fuddenly contrafl. themfelves, and dif- 

 perfe almort at once ; the cloud rifing, and the water of the 

 fea under it falling to its level. But the moft remarkable 

 circumltance, and the moft favourable to the fuppofition of 

 their depending upon eledricity, is, that they have been dif- 

 perfed by prefenting to them Iharp-pointed knives or fwords. 

 This, at leatt, is the conllant praftice of mariners, in many 

 parts of the world where thefe water-fpouts abound ; and 

 he was afiiired hy feveral of them, that the method has often 

 been undoubtedly effedual. 



The analogy between the phenomena of water-fpouts and 

 eledricity, he fays, may be made vifible, by hanging a 

 drop of water to a wire communicating with the prime con- 

 duftor, and placing a velfel of water under it. In thefe cir- 

 cumftances, the drop afl^umes all the various appearances of 

 a water-fpout, both in its rife, form, and manner of difap- 

 pearing. Nothing is wanting but the fmoke, which may 

 require a great force of eleftricity to become vifible. 



Mr. Wilcke alfo confiders the water-fpout as a kind of 

 great eleftrical cone, raifed between the cloud ftrongly elec- 

 trified, and the fea or the earth ; and be relates a very re- 

 markable appearance, which occurred to himfelf, and which 

 itrongly confirms his fuppofition. On the 20th of July, 

 1758, at three o'clock in the afternoon, he obierved a great 

 quantity of dult rifing from the ground, and covering afield 

 and part of the town in which he then was. There was no 

 wind, and the duft moved gently towards the eaft, where ap- 

 peared a great black cloud, which, when it was near its zenith, 

 eleftrified his apparatus pofitively, and to as great a degree 

 as ever he had obferved it to be done by natural eleftricity. 

 This cloud palled its zenith, and went gradually towards 

 the weft, the duft then following it, and continuing to rife 

 higher and higher, till it compofed a thick pillar, in the form 



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