Atmospheric electricity has much to do with the distribution of rain,
the precipitation of vapor, the condition of our nervous system, and,
according to Humboldt, with the circulation of the organic juices.
Atmospheric electricity has heretofore been a great obstacle to the
success of the Magnetic Telegraph, and curiously disturbs its
operation; but there has recently been invented an instrument called a
Mutator, which is connected with the wires, and carries off all the
disturbing influences of the atmosphere without interfering with the
working current. On the other hand, artificially created electricity
has led to important advances in many of the arts and sciences.
Ice is water frozen under a very curious and peculiar law. Hail is the
congelation of drops of rain in irregular forms, always sudden,--by
some attributed to electricity and currents of air violently rarefied
by it, and by others to rain-drops falling through a cold stratum of
air and suddenly congealed. Snow, the ermine of the earth, is the
crystallized moisture of the air, and is in subjection to unchanging
laws.
Water contracts as it grows colder, until it falls in temperature to
42 deg.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49