Meteorological observations and essays / By John Dalton.

  • John Dalton
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Meteorological observations and essays / By John Dalton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    miles west of Manchester, between three and four o’clock P.M., a few drops of rain fell from the west end of a narrow stratum of clouds visibly ex- tending little farther than Stockport, or about ten miles to the east. On a sudden a vivid and unex- pected flash of lightning took place, and almost instantly a loud peal of thunder commenced, which eradually died away in the direction of Stockport, in the space of half a minute. No more thunder was heard that afternoon, and the clouds soon dis- persed. On conversing with a neighbour, a few days after, who had been at Stockport the same af- ternoon, he incidentally mentioned a very loud peal of thunder that had taken place at Stockport that afternoon, which, from its suddenness after the lightning, and loudness, had caused unusual alarm in that place. On further inquiry, I learned it had occurred between three and four o’clock, and that no more than that one peal had been heard. Those loud reports like thunder, which are mostly heard a few minutes after the appearance of large meteors, or fire balls, moving with great rapidity through the high regions of the atmosphere, are, I conceive, only to be accounted for in the same manner as the peals of thunder. These reports have hitherto been mostly, if not always, ascribed to the bursting of the meteors ; but it would be difficult to assign a reason why this should cause a ereater concussion, in such highly rarefied air, than the prodigious velocity of the meteors themselves. The great meteor of 1783, which moved from N.