Pi EUas Loom is. 4-i.S 



tute. aided by an appropriation from the State of Pennsylvania, 



had united in an effort to learn the facts and the true theory of 

 storms. 



Under such circumstances the thorough discussion of a 



single violent storm was likely to add materially to our 



knowledge. The treatment of this storm by Professor Loomis 

 was probably more complete than that of any previous one, 

 and the methods which lie employed were better fitted to elicit 

 the truth than any earlier methods. But the storm was a very 

 large one, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to an unknown 

 distance north, and having its center apparently to the north 

 of all the observers. The results which he was able to secure 

 did not sustain either of the two rival theories, but rather 

 tended to prove some features in each of them. Professor 

 Loomis was not himself satisfied with them, and he therefore 

 waited for another storm that should be better fitted for 

 examination. 



In the month of February, 1S42, a second tornado passed 

 over northeastern Ohio, and Professor Loomis with one of his 

 colleagues again started out for the examination of the track. 

 The tornado passed over a piece of woods, and hence the 

 positions of the prostrate trees showed clearly the motion of 

 the wind in the passing tornado, and threw much light upon 

 the character of this kind of storm. But the tornado was a 

 >ingle feature of a large storm that covered the whole country, 

 and a second storm of great intensity was also experienced in 

 the same month. 



The discussion of these two storms was now undertaken 

 by him. The paper giving the results of that discussion 

 was sent to Professor Bache, and read by him at the 

 centennial meeting of the American Philosophical Society, 

 in May, 1843, and created, as Professor Bache wrote, a great 

 sensation. It was at the time important for the light which 

 it threw upon the rival contending theories of Espy and of 

 Redfield, but it was more important by far by reason of the 

 new method of investigation then for the first time employed. 



In the paper upon the storm of 1836 Professor Loomis had 



made some advance upon previous methods of representing the 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Third Series, Vol. XXXIX, No. 234.— June, 1890. 

 29 



