Curiosities of science past and present : a book for old and young / by John Timbs.

  • John Timbs
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of science past and present : a book for old and young / by John Timbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1 — : — I I A THUKDERSTORM SEEN FROM A BALLOON. Mr. John West, the American aeronaut, in his ohseiTations jmade during his numerous ascents, describes a storm viewed Ifrom above the clouds to have the appearance of ebullition ' The bulging upper surface of the cloud resembles a vast sea of I boiling and upheaving snow; the noise of the falling rain is : like that of a waterfall over a precipice; the thunder above the cloud is not loud, and the flashes of lightning appear like i streaks of intensely white fire on a surface of white vapour- He thus describes a side view of a storm which he witnessed June 3,1852, in his balloon excursion from Portsmouth, Ohio : Although the sun was shining on me, the rain and small hail were rattling on the balloon. A rainbow, or prismatically-coloured arch or horse-shoe, was reflected against the sun ; and as the point of observa- tion changed laterally and perpendicularly, the perspective of this golden grotto changed its hues and fonns. Above and behind this arch was going on the most terrific thunder; but no zigzag lightning was per- ceptible, only bright flashes, like explosions of Roman candles in fireworks. Occasionally there was a zigzag explosion in the cloud im- mediately below, the thunder sounding like a feu-de-joie of a rifle-corps. Then an orange-coloured wave of light seemed to fall from the upper to the lower cloud; this was still-lightning. Meanwhile intense elec- trical action was going on in the balloon, such as expansion, tremulous ) tension, lifting papers ten feet out of the car below the balloon and then dropping them, &c. The close view of this Ohio storm was truly ' sublime ; its rushing noise almost appalling. Ascending from the earth with a balloon, in the rear of a storm, and mounted up a thousand feet above it, the balloon wiU soon override the storm, and may descend in advance of it. Mr. West has experienced this several times. IREMARKABLE AERONAUTIC VOYAGE. Mr. Sadler, the celebrated aeronaut, ascended on one occa- ! eion in a balloon from Dublin, and was wafted across the Irish I Channel; when, on his approach to the Welsh coast, the balloon descended nearly to the surface of the sea. By this time the 6un was set, and the shades of evening began to close in. He threw out nearly all his ballast, and suddenly sprang upward I to a great height; and by so doing brought his horizon to dip below the sun, producing the whole phenomenon of a weeterr. sunrise. Subsequently descending in Wales, he of course 3 witnessed a second sunset on the same evening.—Sir John !'J3ersckel's Outlines of Astronomy/.
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