The American Journal Of Science And Arts Vol 18

Excerpt from The American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. 18 Article I. Of the Phenomena and Causes of Hail Storms. By Denison Olmsted, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Yale College. Showers of hail present themselves to us under two very different forms. Sometimes they consist merely of frozen drops of rain, unaccompanied by any extraordinary appearances; and are easily accounted for, by supposing that the air happens at that time to be colder than the region of the clouds, and that the drops of rain are congealed in falling through it. But in those storms, whose mysterious causes we are now desirous of penetrating, the hail stones are of great and sometimes enormous size, and are associated with the most impressive and sublime phenomena of nature. To pass over many statements on record of hail stones of a magnitude almost surpassing belief, we have authentic statements of such as exceeded one foot in circumference, f and those larger than a hens egg are of yearly occurrence. To account for these extraordinary hail storms, is considered as one of the most difficult problems in meteorology. There is little to be found on this subject in systematic works; but the accounts of the facts lie scattered up and down in scientific journals, and in the transactions of learned societies. After comparing a great number of these descriptions of hail storms, the following propositions appear to me to embrace the most important facts. It is related, that during the wars of Lewis the XII, in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night; after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell hail stones of one hundred poundi weight. (Encyc. Perth. II, p.14.) tHalley, Phil. Trans. Vol. XVIII. No. I. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.