 Chapter 17 of Science in Short Chapters This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jennifer Painter Science in Short Chapters by W. Matto Williams Chapter 17 The Barometer and the Weather The barometer was invented by Torricelli, an Italian philosopher of the 17th century. It consists essentially of a long tube open at one end and closed at the other and partly filled with mercury. But instead of being filled like ordinary vessels with the open end or mouth upwards and the closed end or bottom downwards, the barometer tube is inverted and has its open mouth downwards. This open mouth is either dipped into a little cup of mercury or bent a little upwards. Why does not the mercury run out of this lower open end and overflow the little cup when it is inverted after being filled? The answer to this question includes the whole mystery and principle of the barometer. The mercury does not fall down because something pushes it up and supports it with a certain degree of pressure. And that something is the atmosphere which extends all around the world and presses downwards and sideways and upwards in every direction in fact with a force equal to its weight i.e. with a pressure equal to about 15 pounds on every square inch. A column or perpendicular square stick of air one inch thick each way and extending from the surface of the sea up to the top of the atmosphere weighs about 15 pounds. Other columns or sticks next to it on all sides weigh the same and so on with every portion and all these are forever squeezing down and against each other and being fluid transmit their pressure in every direction and against the earth and everything upon it and therefore upon the mercury of the barometer tube. We have supposed the air to be made up of columns or sticks of air one inch each way but might have taken any other size and the weight and pressure would be proportionate. Now mercury bulk for bulk is so much heavier than air that a stick or column of this liquid metal about 30 inches high weighs as much as a stick or column of air of same thickness reaching from the surface of the earth to the top of the atmosphere. Therefore the 30 inch stick of mercury balances the pressure of the many miles of atmosphere and is supported by it. Thus the column of mercury may be used to counterbalance the atmosphere and show us its weight and such a column of mercury is a barometer or weight measure. The word barometer is compounded of the two Greek words Baros weight and Metron a measure. If you take a glass tube a yard long stopped at one end and open at the other fill it with mercury stop the open end with your thumb then invert the tube and just dip the open end into a little cup of mercury. Some of the mercury in the tube will fall into the cup but not all only six inches will fall the other 30 inches will remain with an empty space between it and the stopped end of the tube. When you have done this you will have made a rude barometer. If you prop up the tube and watch it carefully from day to day you will find that the height of the column of mercury will continually vary. If you live at the sea level or thereabouts it will sometimes rise more than 30 inches above the level of the mercury in the cup and frequently fall below that height. If you live on the top of a high mountain or on any high ground it will never reach 30 inches will still be variable its average height less than if you lived on lower ground and the higher you go the less will be this average height of the mercury. The reason of this is easily understood when we ascend a mountain we leave some portion of the atmosphere below us and of course less remains above. This smaller quantity must have less weight and press the mercury less forcibly. If the barometer tells the truth it must show this difference and it does so with such accuracy that by means of a barometer or rather of two barometers one at the foot of the mountain and one at its summit we may by their difference measure the height of the mountain provided we know the rules for making the requisite calculations. The old fashioned barometer with a large dial face and hands like a clock is called the wheel barometer because the mercury in rising and falling moves a little glass float resting upon the mercury of the open bent end of the tube. To this float and its counterpoise a fine cord is attached and this cord goes round a little grooved wheel to which the hands are attached. Thus the rising and falling of the mercury moves the float the float cord turns the wheel and the wheel moves the hand that points to the words and figures on the dial. When this hand moves towards the right or in the direction of an advancing clock hand the barometer is rising when it goes backwards or opposite to the clock hand movement the mercury is falling. By opening the little door at the back of such a barometer the above described mechanism is seen. In doing this or otherwise moving your barometer be careful always to keep it upright. It sometimes happens to these wheel barometers that they suddenly cease to act and in most cases the owner of the barometer may save the trouble and expense of sending it to the optician by observing whether the cord has slipped from the little wheel and if so simply replacing it in the groove upon its edge. If however the mischief is caused by the tube being broken which is seen at once by the mercury having run out the case is serious and demands professional aid. The upright barometer which shows the surface of the mercury itself is the most accurate instrument provided it is carefully read. This form of instrument is always used in meteorological observatories where minute corrections are made for the expansion and contraction which variations of temperature produce upon the length of the mercury without altering its weight and for the small fluctuations in the level of the mercury system. With such instruments fitted with an apparatus called a vernier the height of the mercury may be read to hundreds of an inch. The necessity for the 30 inches of mercury renders the mercurial barometer a rather cumbersome instrument. It must be more than 30 inches long and is liable to derangement from the spilling of the mercury. On this account portable barometers of totally different construction have been invented. The aneroid barometer is one of these the only one that is practically used to any extent. It contains a metal box partly filled with air. One face of the box is corrugated and so thin that it can rise and fall like a stretched covering of India rubber. As the pressure of the outside air varies it does rise and fall and by a beautifully delicate apparatus this rising and falling is magnified and represented upon the dial. Such barometers are made small enough to be carried in the pocket and are very useful for measuring the heights of mountains. But they are not quite so accurate as the mercurial barometer and are therefore not used for rigidly scientific measurements. But for all ordinary purposes they are accurate enough provided they are occasionally compared with a standard mercurial barometer and adjusted by means of a watch key axis provided for that purpose and seen on the back of the instrument. They are sufficiently delicate to tell the traveler in a railway whether he is ascending or descending an incline and will indicate the difference of height between the upper and lower rooms of a three-story house. With due allowance for variations of level the traveler may use them as weather indicators especially as it is the direction in which the barometer is moving whether rising or falling rather than its absolute height that indicates changes of weather. Thus by placing the aneroid in his room on reaching his hotel at night carefully marking its height then and there and comparing this with another observation made on the following morning he may use it as a weather glass in spite of hill and dale. Water barometers have been made on the same principle as the mercury barometer but as water is 13 and a half times lighter bulk for bulk than mercury the height of the column must be 13 and a half times 30 inches or allowing for variations not less than 34 feet. This of course is very cumbersome the evaporation of the water presents another considerable difficulty. Still such a barometer is a very interesting instrument as it shows the atmospheric fluctuations on 13 and a half times the scale of the ordinary barometer. A range of about five feet is thus obtained and not only the great waves but even the comparatively small ripples of the atmospheric ocean are displayed by it. In stormy weather it may be seen to rise and fall and pulsate like a living creature so sensitively does it respond to every atmospheric fluctuation. But why should the height of the barometer vary while it remains in the same place? If the quantity of air surrounding the earth remains the same and if the barometer measures its weight correctly why should the barometer vary? Does the atmosphere grow bigger and smaller, lighter and heavier from time to time? These are fair questions and they bring us at once to some of the chief uses of the barometer. The atmosphere is a great gaseous ocean surrounding the earth and we are creeping about on the bottom of this ocean. It has its tides and billows and whirling eddies but all these are vastly greater than those of the watery ocean. At one time we are under the crest or rounded portion of a mighty atmospheric wave. At another the hollow between two such waves is over our heads and thus the depth of atmosphere or quantity of air above us is variable. This variation is the combined result of many cooperating causes. In the first place there are great atmospheric tides caused like those of the sea by the attraction of the sun and moon. But these do not directly affect the barometer because the attracting body supports whatever it lifts. Variations of temperature also produce important fluctuations in the height and density of the atmosphere. Some of which are indicated by the barometer others are not. Thus a mere expansion or contraction of dry air increasing the depth or the density of the atmospheric ocean would not affect the barometer as mere expansion and contraction only alter the bulk without affecting the weight of the air. But our atmosphere consists not only of the permanent gases nitrogen and oxygen. It contains beside these and carbonic acid a considerable quantity of gaseous matter which is not permanent but which may be a gas at one moment contributing its whole weight to that of the general atmosphere and at another moment some of it may be condensed into liquid particles that fall through it more or less rapidly and thus contribute nothing to its weight. What then is this variable constituent that sometimes adds to the weight of the atmosphere and the consequent height of the barometer and that others may suddenly cease to afford its full contribution to atmospheric pressure. It is simply water which as we all know exists as solid, liquid or gas according to the temperature and pressure to which it is exposed. We all know that steam when it first issues from the spout of a tea kettle is a transparent gas or true vapor but that presently by contact with the cool air it becomes white cloudy matter or minute particles of water and that if these are still further cooled they will become wharf frost or snow or solid ice. Artificial wharf frost and snow may be formed by throwing a jet of steam into very cold frosty air. If you take a tin canister or other metal vessel fill it with a mixture of salt with pounded ice or snow and then hold the outside of the canister against a jet of steam such as issues from the spout of a tea kettle a snowy deposit of wharf frost will coat the outside of the tin. Now let us consider what takes place when a warm south westerly wind that has swept over the tropical regions of the Atlantic Ocean reaches the comparatively cold shores of Britain. It is cooled thereby and some of its gaseous water is condensed forming mists, clouds, rain, wharf frost or snow. The greater part of this forms and falls on the western coasts on Cornwall, Ireland, the western highlands of Scotland. Ireland gets the lion's share of this humidity and hence her emerald verdure. The western slope of a mountain in light manner receives more rain than the side facing the east. How does this condensation affect the barometer? It must evidently cause it to fall in as much as the air must be lightened to the exact extent of all that is taken out of it and precipitated. But the precipitation is not completed immediately the condensation occurs. It takes some time for the minute cloudy particles to gather into raindrops and fall to the earth while the effect of the condensation upon the barometer is instantaneous. The air begins to grow lighter immediately the gas is converted into cloud or mist and the barometer falls just at the same time and same rate as this is produced. But the rain comes some time afterwards hence the use of the barometer as a weather glass. When intelligently and properly used it is very valuable in this capacity but like most things it may easily be misunderstood and misused. The most common error in the use of the barometer is that to which people are naturally led by the words engraved upon it. Stormy, much rain, rain, change, fair, set fair etc. A direct and absolute blunder or falsehood is usually short lived and deceives but few people. But a false statement with a certain amount of superficial truth may survive for ages and deceive whole generations. Now this latter is just the character of the weather signs that are engraved on our popular barometers. They are unsound and deceptive but not utterly baseless. Stormy, much rain and rain are marked against the low readings of the barometer and very dry set fair and fair against the higher readings. A low barometer is not a reliable sign of wet or stormy weather. Neither is a high barometer to be depended upon for expecting fine weather. And yet it is true that we are more likely to have fine weather with a high than with a low barometer and also the liability to rain and storms is greater with a low than with a high barometer. The best indications of the weather are those derived from the direction in which the barometer is moving, whether rising or falling, rather than its mere absolute height. A sudden and considerable fall is an almost certain indication of strong winds and stormy weather. This is the most reliable of the prophetic warnings of the barometer and the most useful in as much as it affords the mariner just the warning he requires when lying off a dangerous coast or otherwise in peril by a coming gale. Many a good ship has been saved by intelligent attention to the barometer and by running into Haven or away from a rocky shore when the barometer has fallen with unusual rapidity. The next in order of reliability is the indication afforded by a steady and continuous fall after a long period of fine weather. This is usually followed by a decided change of weather and the greater the fall, the more violent the change. If the fall is slow and continues steadily for a long time, the change is likely to be less sudden but more permanent. i.e. the rain will probably arrive after some time and then continue steadily for a long period. In like manner, a steady regular rise going on for some days in the midst of wet weather may be regarded as a hopeful indication of coming continuous fine weather. The more gradual and steady the rise, the longer is the fine weather likely to last. The least reliable of all the barometric changes is a sudden rise. In winter it may be followed by hard and sudden frost. In summer by sultry weather and thunderstorms. All that may be safely said of such a sudden rise is that it indicates a change of some sort. The barometer is usually high with northeasterly winds and low with southwesterly winds. The preceding explanations show the reason of this. In a given place the extreme range of variation is from 2 to 2.5 inches. It has been proposed that the following rules should be engraved on barometer plates instead of the usual words. First, generally the rising of the mercury indicates the approach of fair weather. The falling of it shows the approach of foul weather. Second, in sultry weather the fall of the barometer indicates coming thunder. In winter the rise of the mercury indicates frost. In frost its fall indicates thaw and its rise indicates snow. Third, whatever change in the weather suddenly follows a change in the barometer, may be expected to last but a short time. Fourth, if fair weather continues for several days during which the mercury continually falls a long succession of foul weather will probably ensue. And again, if foul weather continues for several days while the mercury continually rises a long succession of fair weather will probably follow. Fifth, a fluctuating and unsettled state of the mercurial column indicates changeable weather. As the barometer is subject to slight diurnal variations, irrespective of those atmospheric changes which affect the weather it is desirable in making comparative observations to do so at fixed hours of the day. Nine or ten in the morning and same hour in the evening are good times for observations that are to be recorded. These are about the hours of daily maxima or highest readings due to regular diurnal variation. The true reading of the barometer is the height at which it would stand if placed at the level of the sea at high tide. But as barometers are always placed more or less above this level a correction for elevation is necessary. When the height of the place is known this correction may be made by adding 1 tenth of an inch to the actual reading for every 85 feet of elevation up to 510 feet. The same for every 90 feet between 510 and 1140 feet for every 95 feet between 1140 and 1900 feet and for every 100 feet above this and within our mountain limits. This simple and easy rule is sufficiently accurate for practical purposes. Thus a barometer on bray head or at any place 800 feet above the sea would require a correction of 6 tenths for the first 510 feet and a little more than 3 tenths more for the remaining 290 feet. Therefore if such a barometer registered the pressure at 29 and 1 tenth of a sea level reading would be a little above 30 inches. The most important prognostications of the barometer are those afforded by what is called the barometric gradient or incline showing the uphill and downhill direction of the atmospheric inequalities but this can only be ascertained by comparing the state of the barometer at different stations at the same time. Thus if the barometer is 1 fourth of an inch higher at Dublin than at Galway and the intermediate stations show intermediate heights there must be an atmospheric downhill gradient from Dublin to Galway. Dublin must be under the upper and Galway under the lower portion of a great atmospheric wave or current. It is evident that when there is thus more air over Dublin than over Galway there must follow if nothing else interferes a flow of air from Dublin towards Galway. It is also evident that in order to tell what else may interfere we must know the atmospheric gradients beyond and around both Dublin and Galway and for considerable distances. We are now beginning to obtain such information by organising meteorological stations and observatories and transmitting the results of simultaneous observations by means of the electric telegraph to certain headquarters. The subject is occupying much attention and the managers of those splendid monuments of British energy our daily newspapers are publishing daily weather charts and therefore a few simple explanations of the origin, nature and significance of such charts will doubtless be appreciated by our readers. End of Chapter 17 Part 1 Chapter 18 of Science in Short Chapters This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jennifer Painter Science in Short Chapters by W. Matto Williams Chapter 18 The grand modern improvement of the barometer, the thermometer, the anemometer, the pluviumeter, etc. is that of making them self-registering. We are told that Cadmus invented the art of writing and we honour his memory accordingly but he ventured no further than teaching human beings to write. Modern meteorologists have gone much further. They have taught the winds and the rains and the subtle heavings of the invisible air to keep their own diaries, to write their own histories on paper that is laid before them with pencils that are placed in their fleshless, boneless and shapeless fingers. This achievement is wrought by comparatively simple means. The paper is wound upon an upright drum or cylinder and this cylinder is made to revolve by clockwork in such a manner that a certain breadth travels on during the 24 hours. This breadth of paper is divided by vertical lines into 24 parts, each of which passes onward in one hour. Connected with the barometer is a pencil which, by means of a spring, presses lightly upon the revolving sheet and this pencil, while thus pressing, rises and falls with the mercury. It is obvious that in this manner a line will be drawn as the paper moves. If the mercury is stationary, the line will be horizontal, only indicating the movement of the drum. If the mercury falls, the line will slope downwards. If it rises, it will incline upwards. By ruling horizontal lines upon the paper, representing inches, tenths and smaller fractions, if desired, the whole history of the barometrical movements will be graphically recorded by the waving or zigzag lines, thus drawn by the atmosphere itself. The sub-joined copy of the Daily Telegraph barometer charts represents on a small scale a four days history of barometrical movements. The large figures at the side, 29 and 30, represents inches, the smaller figures, tenths of inches. The pressure of the wind is similarly pictured by means of a large vein which turns with the wind and to the windward face of which a flat oar or plate of metal, one foot square, is attached perpendicularly. As the wind strikes this, it presses against it with a force corresponding to a certain number of pounds, ounces and fractions of an ounce. A spring like that of an ordinary spring letter balance is compressed in proportion to this pressure. This movement of the spring is transmitted mechanically to another pencil, likely above described, working against the same drum. Thus another history is written on the same paper. The horizontal lines now representing fractions of pounds of pressure, instead of fractions of inches of mercury. It has been found that if a semi globular cup of thin metal is exposed to the wind, the pressure upon the round or convex side of the hemisphere is equal to two thirds of that upon the hollow or concave side. By placing four such cups upon cross arms and the arms on a pivot, the wind, from whatever quarter it may come, will always blow them round with their convex faces foremost, and they will move with one third of the actual velocity of the wind. By a simple clockwork arrangement, these arms move another pencil in such a manner that it strikes the paper hammer fashion every time the wind has completed a journey of one mile or other given distance. And thus a series of dots upon the revolving paper recalls the velocity of the wind, according to their distances apart. As the pressure of the wind is governed by two factors, viz, the density and velocity of the moving air. The relations between the barometer curve, the pressure curve, and the velocity dots are very interesting. The direction of the wind is written by a pencil fixed to a quick worm, a screw thread upon the axis of the vein. As the vein turns round, northeast, south or west, it screws the pencil up or down, and thus the horizontal lines first described as registering tenths of inches of barometric pressure do duty as showing the points of the compass from which the wind is blowing. And by reference to the zigzag line drawn by this pencil the wind, its direction at any particular time of day, may be ascertained as certified by its own sign manual. The wind gauge is called an anemometer. Connected with this is the pluviumeter, or rain gauge, an upright vessel with an open mouth of measured area, say 100 square inches. This receives the rain that falls. By means of a pipe, the water is conveyed to a vessel on the surface of, say, one square inch. By this arrangement, when sufficient rain has fallen to cover the surface of the earth to the depth of one hundredth of an inch, the little vessel below will contain water one inch in depth. By balancing this vessel at the end of a long arm it is made to preponderate gradually as the weight of water it receives increases. And finally, when filled, it tips over altogether, empties itself and then rises to its starting place in equilibrium. To the other end of this arm, a pencil is attached which inscribes all these movements on the revolving paper and thus tells the history of the rainfall. The line is zigzag while the rain is falling and horizontal while the weather is fair. The amount of inclination of the zigzag line measures the depths of rain by means of the same ruled lines on the paper as measure the height of the barometer, etc. Every time the measuring vessel tips over a perpendicular line is drawn and the pencil resumes its starting level. The papers containing these autographs of the elements may, of course, be kept as permanent records for reference whenever needed or the results may be tabulated in other forms. There are many modifications in the details of these self-registering instruments. In some of them, photography is made to do a part of the work. The above description indicates the main principles of their construction without attempting to enter upon minute details. Meteorological observatories are provided with these instruments and all nations worthy of the name of civilised cooperate with more or less efficiency in providing and endowing such establishments. They are placed in suitable localities and communicate with each other and with certain headquarters by means of the electric telegraph. One of these headquarters is the meteorological office at No. 116 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW which daily receives the results of the observations taken at about 50 stations on the British islands and the continent. The chief observations are made simultaneously at 8am and telegraphed in Cypher to London where they usually arrive before 10am. As they come in, they are marked down in their proper places upon a large chart and when this chart is sufficiently completed a condensed or abstract copy is made containing as much information as may be included in the small newspaper charts. This is copied mechanically on a reduced scale on a slab on which the outline chart has been already engraved. This engraving completed casts are made in fusible metal with the black lines in relief for printing with ordinary type and the casts are set up with the ordinary newspaper types and printed with the letterpress matter. The engravings over leaf are taken from two of the newspaper weather charts for the dates of October 5th and 6th. They are enlarged and printed more clearly than the originals with an explanation of signs at foot of the charts. It will be observed that in the chart for October 5th an isobar of 29.2 runs up in a northeasterly direction from between the Orkney and Shetland Islands crosses the North Sea strikes the coast of Norway near Bergen and then proceeds onwards towards Trondheim an isobar of 29.5 crosses Scotland following very nearly the line of the Grampians enters the North Sea about Aberdeen and crosses to Kristansund then runs up the Skagerrack and Christiana Fjord towards Christiana another isobar of 29.8 crosses Ireland through Conult to Dublin onward across England by Liverpool and the Humber over the North Sea and through Slesby to the Baltic. These three are nearly parallel but now we find another isobar that of 30.2 taking quite a different course by starting from the Bay of Biscay about Nantes running on towards Paris and Strasbourg and then bending sharp round as though frightened by the Germans and retreating to the Gulf of Lyon by an opposite course to that on which it started on the following day all has changed the northern isobars are running down south eastwards instead of northeast and are remarkably parallel in the left-hand upper corner of this chart is a note that our west, north and eastern coasts were warned yesterday why was this? It was mainly because the barometric gradient or incline was so steep on the fifth there was one inch of difference between the Orkneys and the Bay of Biscay or between Bergen and Paris while the barometer was still falling in Norway and at the same moment rising in Ireland and France on the following day these movements culminated in a gradient of 1.4 nearly 1.5 inches between Cornwall and the ancient capital of Norway explanation of weather chart in these charts the state of the sea weather rough, smooth, moderate, slight, etc is marked in capital letters and the state of the weather as clear, dull, cloudy, showery, etc in small letters the direction of the wind is indicated by the arrows unlike the arrows of a vein these do not point towards the direction from which the wind is coming but our flying arrows represented as moving with the wind and consequently pointing to where the wind is going the force of the wind is represented in five degrees of strength first, a calm by a horizontal line and zero second, a light wind by an arrow with one barb and no feathers third, a fresh to strong breeze by an arrow with two barbs and no feathers fourth, a gale by an arrow with two feathers and fifth, a violent gale by an arrow with four feathers the temperature in the shade is marked in figures with a small circle to the right indicating degrees as 60 degrees these figures stand in the places where the observations are made the other figures, usually with decimals and placed at the end of the dotted lines give the height of the barometer the dotted line showing where this particular height remained the same at the time of observation these dotted lines are called isobars or equal weights the weight or overhead pressure of the atmosphere being the same all along the line what must follow from this condition of the atmosphere? clearly a great flow or rush of air from the south towards the comparatively vacuous regions of the north the gasses of our atmosphere like the waters of the ocean are always struggling to find their level and thereby the winds are produced the air flows from all sides towards the lowest isobar but what then must be the course of the wind? will it be in straight lines towards this point? if so, a strange conflict must result when all these currents meet from opposite directions what will follow from this conflict? a skillful physicist can work out this problem mathematically but we are not all mathematicians some of us are not able to follow his formulae and therefore will do better by resorting to simple observation of other analogous and familiar phenomena a funnel or any vessel with a hole in the bottom will answer our purpose let us fill such a vessel with water then open the hole and see what will be the course of the water when it is struggling to flow from all sides to the one point of vacuity it will very soon establish a vortex or whirlpool i.e. the water instead of flowing directly by straight lines from the sides to the centre of the funnel will take a roundabout spiral course and thus screw its way down the outlet of the funnel this is just what occurs when the air is rushing to fill a comparatively vacuous atmospheric space it moves in a spiral and in the northern hemisphere this spiral always turns in the same way this in the opposite direction to the hands of a clock when flowing inwards and vice versa or with the clock hands when the air is overflowing from a centre of high pressure in the chart for October the 5th both these cases are illustrated north of Dublin there is a curvature of isobars and an inrush of winds towards a northward low pressure or vacuous region while south of Dublin the isobar tends sharply around a high pressure focus and the overflowing wind is correspondingly reversed in direction as shown by the arrows the next chart for October the 6th shows that the overflow has spread northwards as far as Dublin and the high pressure focus has also moved northwards it follows from this that if you know the barometric gradient and stand with your left hand to the region of low barometer and your right hand to that of the high barometer the wind will blow against your back i.e. you will face the direction of the wind or of those flying arrows on the chart this interesting and important generalization is called Bayes Ballet's Law in spite of the proverbial fickleness of the winds this simple law is rarely infringed though it may require a slight modification of statement in as much as the wind does not move in circles around the vacuous space but in spirals and thus it blows not quite square to the back but rather obliquely or a little on the right side this is shown by the arrows in the charts and is most strikingly displayed in the chart for October the 6th between the isobars of 30.3 and 30.5 to take in Ireland the position required by Bayes Ballet's Law one must have stood facing the east and accordingly the westerly wind would then blow upon one's back in Paris at the same moment the position would be facing southeast and the wind was curving round accordingly further south at Bordeaux or the Pyrenees the position becomes almost reversed i.e. facing southwest and the wind is reversed in equal degree here then on these days we had the chief conditions of wind and rain a steep and increasing barometric gradient and a flow over our islands of humid air from the south and west regions of the great Atlantic strong winds and heavy rains did follow accordingly and the prophetic warnings of the meteorological office which conveyed by means of signals displayed on prominent parts of the coast were fulfilled Mr Scott the director of the meteorological office tells us that the degree of success that has attended our warnings in these islands on the average of the last two years has been that over 45% have been followed by severe gales and over 33% in addition have been followed by wind too strong for fishing boats and yachts though in themselves not severe gales this gives a total percentage of success of nearly 80% in winter the movements of the air are more decided and the changes are often so rapid that the warning sometimes comes too late with increased means i.e. more money to cover additional work and more stations better results might be obtained the United States expend 50,000 pounds a year in weather telegraphy exclusive of salaries while the United Kingdom only devotes 3,000 pounds a year to the same purpose the difficulties on our side of the Atlantic are greater than on the American coasts on account of the greater change of illness of our weather mainly due to the more irregular distribution of land and water on this side this however, instead of discouraging national effort should be regarded as a reason for increasing it the greater the changes the greater is the need for warnings and the greater the difficulty the greater should be the effort with our multitude of Coast Guard stations and naval men without employment we ought to surpass all the world in such a work as this those among our readers who are sufficiently interested in this subject to devote a little time to it may make a very interesting weather scrapbook by cutting out the newspaper chart for each day pasting it in a suitable album and appending their own remarks on the weather at the date of publication i.e. the date after the chart observations are made such an album would be far more interesting than the postage stamp and monogram albums that are so abundant parents who desire their children to acquire habits of systematic observation and to cultivate an intelligent interest in natural phenomena will do well to supply such albums to their sons or daughters and to hand over to them the daily paper for this purpose the meteorological office supplies by post copies of daily weather reports to any subscriber who pays five shillings per quarter in advance such subscriptions paid to Robert H. Scott Esquire director meteorological office 116 Victoria Street Westminster SW these daily reports are printed on a large double sheet on one half of which are four charts representing separately the four records which are included in the one smaller newspaper chart viz. those of the barometer, the thermometer the rain gauge and the anemometer on the other half of the sheet is a detailed separate tabular statement of the results of observations made at the following stations Haparanda Hörnösand Stockholm Wisby Kristiansund Skudisnes Oxo Kristiansund Skagen The Score Farnow Cuxhaven Sumburg Head Storn Away Thurso Wick Nan Aberdeen Leith Shields York Scarborough Nottingham Androssen Greencastle Donagari Kingston Holyhead Liverpool Valencia Roche's Point Pembroke Porteshead Silly Plymouth Hearst Castle Dover London Oxford Cambridge Yarmouth The Helder Cape Trinaise Brest Lorient Rochefort Beiritz Korana Brussels Charleville Paris Lyon Toulon On Winds and Currents from the Admiralty Physical Atlas In the Northern Hemisphere the effect of the veering of the wind on the barometer is according to the following law With East, South East and South Winds the barometer falls With South West Winds the barometer ceases to fall and begins to rise With West, North West and North Winds the barometer rises With North East Winds the barometer ceases to rise and begins to fall In the Northern Hemisphere the thermometer rises with East South East and South Winds With the South West Wind it ceases to rise and begins to fall It falls with West, North West and North Winds and with the North East Wind it ceases to fall and begins to rise End of Section 18 Chapter 19 of Science in Short Chapters This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Melanie Young Science in Short Chapters by W. Mathew Williams Chapter 19 The Chemistry of Bog Reclamation The mode of proceeding for the Reclamation of Bog Land at Kylemore is first to remove the excess of water by the big drain which must be cut deep and up to go right down to the gravel below These are supplemented by the sheep drains or surface drains which are about 20 inches wide at top and narrow downwards to 6 inches at bottom They run parallel to each other with a space of about 10 yards between and cost 1 penny per 6 yards This first step having been made the bog is left for 2 years during which drains consolidates and sinks somewhat If the bog is deep the turf which has now become valuable by consolidation should be cut After this it is left about 2 years longer with the drains still open Then the drains are cleared and deepened and a wedge shaped saw to reach the bottom is rammed in so as to leave below it a permanent tubular covered drain which is thus made without the aid of any tiles or other outside material The drainage is now completed and the surface prepared for the important operation of dressing with lime which as the people expressly say boils the bog and converts it into a soil suitable for direct agricultural operations Potatoes and turnips may now be set in lazy bed ridges Mr. Mitchell Henry says good herbage will grow on the bog thus treated but as much as possible should at once be put into root crops with farm yard manure for potatoes and turnips The more lime you give the better will be your crop and treated thus there is no doubt that even during the first year land so reclaimed will yield crops and further that after being broken up a second time the land materially improves and becomes doubly valuable also that he has no doubt that all bog lands may be thus reclaimed but it is a pill work and not remunerative to attempt the reclamation of bogs that are more than four feet in depth there is another and a simpler method of dealing with bogs that is setting them narrow ridges cutting broad trenches between the ridges piling the turf cut out from these trenches into little heaps a few feet apart burning them and spreading the ashes over the ridges this is rather largely practiced on the coast of Donagall in conjunction with seaweed manuring and is prohibited in other parts of Ireland as prejudicial to the interests of the landlord we shall now proceed to the philosophy of these processes first the drainage everybody in Ireland knows that the bog holds water like a sponge and in such quantities that ordinary vegetation is rotted by the excess of moisture there is good reason to believe that the ancient forest which once occupied the sites of most of the Irish bogs were in some cases destroyed by the rotting of their stems and roots and the excess of vegetable soil formed by generations upon generations of fallen leaves which in a humid climate like that of Ireland could never become drained or air dried but this is not all there is rotting and rotting when the rotting of vegetable matter goes on under certain conditions it is highly favorable to the growth of other vegetation even of the vegetation of the same kind of plants that grows supplying the rotting material thus rotten and rotting straw is a good manure for wheat and the modern scientific vine grower carefully places the dressing of his vines about their roots in order that they may rot and supply the necessary salts for future growth the same applies generally rotting cabbage leaves supply the best of manure for cabbages rotting rhubarb leaves for rhubarb rose leaves for rose trees and so on throughout the vegetable kingdom why then should the bog rotting be so exceptionally malignant as I am not aware that any answer has been given to this question I will venture upon one of my own it appears to be mainly due to the excess of moisture preventing that slow combustion of vegetable carbon which occurs wherever vegetable matter is heaped together and slightly moistened we see this going on in steaming dung hills in hay ricks that have been stacked when imperfectly dried in the spontaneous combustion of damp cotton in the holds of ships and in factories where cotton waste has been carelessly heaped and in cucumber frames and the other hotbeds of the gardener in ordinary soils this combustion goes on more slowly but no less effectively than in these cases in doing so it maintains a certain degree of warmth about the roots of the plants that grow there and gradually sets free the soluble salts which the rotting vegetables contain and supplies them to the growing plants as manure at the same time forming the humus so essential to vegetation a great excess of water such as soddens the bog prevents this and also carries away any small quantity of soluble nutritious salts the soil may contain thus instead of being warmed and nourished by slight humidity and consequent oxidation the bog soil is chilled and starved by excess of water the absolute necessity of the first operation that of drainage is thus rendered obvious and I suspect that the need of four years rest upon which Mr. McAllister insists is somehow connected with a certain degree of slow combustion that accompanies and partially causes the consolidation of the bog I have not yet had an opportunity of testing this by inserting thermometers and bogs under different conditions but hope to do so the liming next demands explanation Mr. Henry says that it leaves the soil sweetened by the neutralization of its acids in order to test this theory I have digested i.e. soaked various samples of turf cut from Irish bogs and distilled water filtered off the water and examined it I find that when this soaking has gone far enough to give the water a coloring similar to that which stands in ordinary bogs the acidity is very decided quite sufficiently so to justify this neutralization theory as a partial explanation there is little reason to doubt that the lime is further effective in enriching the soil or in the case of pure bogs that it forms the soil by disintegrating and decomposing the fibrous vegetable matter and thus rendering it capable of assimilation by the crops another effect which the lime must produce is the liberation of free ammonia from any fixed salts that may exist in the bog the bog burning method of reclamation is easily explained in the first place the excessive vegetable encumbrance is reduced in quantity and the remaining ashes supply the surface of the bog on which they rest with the non-volatile salts that originally existed in the burnt portions of the bog in other words they concentrate in a small space the salts that were formally distributed to sparsely through the hole of the turf which was burnt as there are great differences in the composition of different bogs especially in this matter of mineral ash it is evident that the success of this method must be very variable according to the locality on discussing this method with Mr. McAllister Mr. Henry's steward under whose superintendence these reclamation works are carried out he informed me that the bogs on the Calmore estate yield a very small amount of ash a mere impalpable powder that a light breath might blow away that it was practically valueless accepting from the turf taken at nearly the base of the bog the ash I examined where the bog burning is extensively practiced in Donegal was quite different from this the quantity was far greater and its substance more granular and gritty it in fact formed an important stratum when spread over the surface of the ridges these differences of composition may account for the differences of opinion and practice which prevail in different districts it affords a far more rational explanation than the assumption that all such contradictions arise from local stupidities there is one evil however which is common to all bog burning as compared with liming it must waste the aminiacal salts as they are volatile and are driven away into the air by the heat of combustion somebody may get them when the rain washes them down to the earth's surface again but the burner himself obtains a very small share in this way we may therefore conclude that where lime is near at hand bog burning is a rude and wasteful a viciously indolent mode of reclamation it is only desirable where limestone is so distant that the expensive carriage renders lime practically unattainable and where the bog itself is rich and mineral matter and so deep and distant from a fuel demand that it may be burned to waste without any practical sacrifice under such conditions it may be better to burn the bog than leave it in a hopeless and worthless desolation I cannot conclude without again adverting to the importance of this subject and affirming with the utmost emphasis that the true Irish patriot is not the political orator but he who by practical efforts either as capitalist laborer or teacher promotes the reclamation of the soil of Ireland or otherwise develops the sadly neglected natural resources of the country with Mr. Mitchell Henry's permission I append to the above his own description at the results of his experiment I originally communicated in a letter to the Times at the same time thanking him for his kind reception of a stranger at Calmore Castle and the facilities he afforded me for studying the subject on the spot the interesting account you lately published of the extensive reclamations of his grace the Duke of Sutherland under the title of an agricultural experiment has been copied into very many newspapers and must have afforded a firm relief to thousands of readers glad to turn for a time from the terrible narratives that come to us from the east if you will allow me I should like to supplement your narrative by a rapid sketch of what has been done here during the last few years on a much humbler scale in the case of land similar and some of it almost identical with that in Sutherland share the 12 core Darmie under the Duke's command in the shape of the 12 steam engines and their plows engaged in subduing the stubborn resistance of the unreclaimed wilds of Sutherland share suggest to the mind the triumphs of great warriors and fill us with admiration not always excited by the details of great battle but as great battles can be fought seldom and only by gigantic armies and at prodigious expense so reclamation on such a scale is far beyond the opportunities or the means of most of us while many may perhaps be encouraged to attempt work similar to that which has been successfully carried out here and first of all a word as to the all important matter of cost does it pay including farm buildings and roads the reclamations here have cost on an average 13 pounds an acre which at 5% means an annual rent charge of 13 shelling to which is to be added a sum of from one shelling to three shelling the full annual value of the unreclaimed land it is obvious that if we start with an outlay of 30 pounds plus the one shelling to three shelling of original rent such an amount would usually be found prohibitory but on the other hand excellent profits may be made if the expenditure is so kept down that the annual rent is not more than from 15 shelling to 18 shelling per acre before entering into further details let me say that I claim no credit for originality in what has been done the like has been affected on numerous properties in Ireland in bygone days and is daily being carried out by the patient husband man who year by year with his spade reclaims a little bit from the mountainside and you must allow me emphatically to say that what has been done here economically and well would not have been done except for the prudence, patience and thoughtful mind of my steward Archibald McAllister a county antrum man descended from one of the race of Highland Catholic Scotch settlers who have peopled the north of Ireland and added so much to its prosperity the pass of Calmore in which I live is undoubtedly favourably situated for reclamation for there is but little very deep bog and there is abundance of limestone in former ages it must have been an estuary of the sea with the river flowing through it, now represented by a chain of lakes and the small rapid river Douris the subsoil is sand, gravel and schist rock with peat of various depths grown upon it as by the elevation of the land ages ago was driven back the mossy growth of peat commenced followed by pine and yew trees of which the trunks and roots are abundantly found but except over a space of about 400 acres every tree that formerly clothed the hillsides has been cut down or has totally disappeared the general result is that we have a pass several miles long bounded on the north and south of a chain of rugged mountains of some 1500 or 1800 feet in height while the east is blocked up by a picturesque chain running north and south and separating the Joyce country from Connemara proper the west being open to the Atlantic the well-known killery bay or fjord would I doubt not present an exact resemblance to Calamore if the sea which now flows up to its head were driven out there are miles of similar country in Ireland waiting only for the industry of man where as here there exist extensive stretches of undulating escars covered with heather growing on the light clay with a basis of gravel or sand a considerable difference exists between the reclamation of the flat parts where the bog is pretty deep and the hillsides where there is little or no bog yet it is to be remembered that bog is nothing more than vegetable matter in a state of partial decomposition and holding water like a sponge the first thing is to remove the water by drains some of which that is the big drain and the secondary drains must go right down to the gravel below but the other drains called sheep drains need not and indeed must not be cut so deep the drains are cut wedge shape by what are called scotch tools which employ three men two to cut and one to hook out the saws and all that is requisite to form a permanent drain is to replace the wedge shaped saw and ram it down between the walls of the drain where it consolidates and forms a tube which will remain open for an indefinite number of years we have them here as good as new made 25 years ago and at chat Moss and Lancashire they are much older after land has been thus drained but not too much drained or it will become dry turf the surface begins to sink what was tumid settles down and in the course of a few months the land itself becomes depressed on the surface and much consolidated next it is to be dug by spade labor or plow we use oxen largely for this purpose and strange to say the best workers we find to be across with the algeny the result being a light wiry little animal which goes gaily over the ground is easy to feed and is very tractable the oxen are trained by the old wooden neck yoke but when well broken work in collars which seem more easy to them horses on very soft land work well in wooden patents after the land has been broken up a good dressing of lime is to be applied to it and this in the expressive language of the people here boils the bog that is the lime causes the vegetable matter formerly half decomposed to become converted into excellent manure this leaves the soil sweetened by the neutralization of its assets and in a condition pretty easily broken up by the chain harrow or what is better still by Randall's American revolving harrow good herbage will grow on bog thus treated but as much as possible should at once be put into root crops with farm yard manure for potatoes and turnips the more lime you give the better will be your crop and treated thus there is no doubt that even during the first year land so reclaimed will yield remunerative crops people ask but will not the whole thing go back to bog of course it will if not kept under proper rotation which we find to be one of five years roots followed by oats laid down with clover and grass seed which remains for two years after being broken up a second time the land materially improves and becomes doubly valuable I have no doubt that all bog lands may be thus reclaimed but it is uphill work and not remunerative to attempt the reclamation of bogs that are more than four feet in depth and here I will make a remark as to the effects of drainage in a wet country by no means does the whole effect result from raising the temperature of the soil there is something else as important and that is the supply of ammonia brought down from the skies in the rain which with other fertilizing matter is caught, detained and absorbed in the soil a well-drained field becomes in fact just like a water meadow over which a river flows for a part of a year and thus the very wetness of the climate may be made to reduce the supply of ammoniical manures so expensive to buy the porous well-drained soil carries quickly off the superfluous moisture while the ammonia is absorbed by the roots and leaves of the plants an excessive bill for ammoniical manures has been the ruin of many a farmer and our aim in Ireland should be to secure good crops by thorough drainage and constant stirring of the soil without much outlay for concentrated manures at the same time I ought to remark that we have grown excellent potatoes by using five pounds work per acre of super phosphate and nitrate of soda in cases in which our farm yard manure has fallen short the reclamation of mountain land as distinguished from bog land can best be illustrated by a record of what has been accomplished on two farms here three years ago the leases of two upland farms fell in and I took them into my own hands the first consist of 600 acres one half a nearly level flat of deepish bog running alongside the river the other half more heath which with difficulty supported a few sheep and cattle there had never been any buildings on this land nor had a spade ever been put into it and the tenant being unable to pay his rent of 15 pounds per year for these 600 acres I'm glad to give it up for a moderate consideration the first thing accomplished was to fence and drain thoroughly as before described and the best half of the land was then divided into 40 acre fields exactly now two years ago on September 15th a little cottage and a stable for a pair of horses and a pair of bullocks was completed and tenanted by two men and a boy they plowed all the week on Saturdays to draw their supply of food and fodder for the ensuing seven days thus approximating very nearly to the position of settlers and a new country we limed all the land we could manure part of it with seaweed and part with the farm manure made by the horses and oxen which were at work and cropped with roots such as turnips and potatoes a good portion we sewed with oats out of the leaf but the most satisfactory crop we found to be rape grass is mixed for on the best of the land they form at once an excellent permanent pasture we have now had two crops from this land and I venture to say that the 13 stacks of oats and hay gathered in good condition and the turnips and roots now growing which are not excelled in the county Galway except those of Lord Clankarty at Balanislow who has grown 110 tons of turnips to the Irish acre equal to upwards of 68 tons of the acre here present a picture most gratifying and cheering in every way the second farm of 240 acres which adjoins this had a good building on it but having been let on lease at about 10 shillings an acre to a large grazier whose stock in trade was a horse a saddle and a pair of shears had not been cultivated or improved similar proceedings on this farm have produced similar results and if now let in the market I have no doubt that after two years of good treatment these farms would be let at 20 shillings an acre and I do not despair of doubling this figure in the course of time the exact weight of the turnip crop this season is on raw bog drained limed and cropped this year for the first time 24 tons per acre manure seaweed on land plowed but not cropped last year 23 and a half tons mixed mineral manure on land from which a crop of oats had previously been taken 29 tons manure farm yard with 300 weight per acre mineral manure last year my excellent steward Mr. McAllister visited the Duke of Sutherland's reclamations in Scotland and was kindly and hospitably received he found the land and the procedure adopted almost identical with the conviction that oxen and horses will suit us better at the present time than steam culture chiefly on the score of economy he also visited the bridge water estate at Chatmoss near Manchester where so much has been done to bring the deep peat into cultivation and he found the system that has been followed there for so many years to be like that described above moral however being used in the place of line at the time of my visit to Calamore the hay crops were down and partly carried on the reclaimed bog land above described the contrast of its luxuriance with the dark and dreary desolation of the many estates I had seen during three summers wanderings through Ireland added further proof of the infamy of the majority of Irish landlords by showing what Ireland would have been had they done their duty and of chapter 19 recording by Melanie Young 20 of science in short chapters this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Blaine Aiden McCoy Riverside California October 2019 science in short chapters by W. Mathew Williams section 20 aerial exploration of the arctic regions on our own hemisphere and separated from our own coasts by only a few days journey on our own element there remains a blank circle of unexplored country above 800 miles in diameter we have tried to cross it and have not succeeded nothing further need be said in reply to those who ask why should we start another arctic expedition the records of previous attempts to penetrate this area of geographical mystery prove the existence of a formidable barrier of mountainous land fringed by fjords or inlets like those of Norway some of which may be open though much contracted northward like the vest fjord that lies between the Lofoden islands and the mainland of Scandinavia the majority evidently run inland like the ordinary Norwegian fjords or the Scotch Firths and terminate in land valleys that continue upwards to fjeld regions or elevated humpy land as a condenser to the vapor laden air continually flowing towards the pole from the warmer regions of the earth and returning in lower streams when cooled the vast quantities of water thus condensed fall upon these hills and table lands as snow crystals what becomes of this everlasting deposit unlike the water that rains on temperate hillsides it cannot all flow down to the sea as torrents and liquid rivers but it does come down nevertheless or long air this it would have reached the highest clouds it descends mainly as glaciers which creep down slowly but steadily and irresistibly filling up the valleys on their way and stretching outwards into the fjords and channels which they block up with their cleft and chasmed crystalline angular masses that still creep outward to the sea until they float and break off or cave as mountainous icebergs and smaller masses of ice these accumulations of ice thus formed on land constitute the chief obstructions that bar the channels and inlets fringing the unknown polar region the glacier fragments above described are cemented together in the wintertime by the freezing of the water between them an open frozen sea pure and simple instead of forming a barrier to arctic exploration would supply a most desirable highway it must not be supposed that because the liquid ocean is ruffled by ripples, waves and billows and sea would have a similar surface the freezing of such a surface could only start at the calmest intervals and the ice would shield the water from the action of the wave making wind and such a sea would become a charming skating rink like the Gulf of Bothnia the Swedish and Norwegian lakes and certain fjords which in the wintertime become natural ice paved highways offering incomparable facilities for rapid locomotion in spite of the darkness and the cold winter is the travelling season in Sweden and Lapland the distance that can be made in a given time in summer with a wheeled vehicle on well made post roads can be covered in half the time in a pulp or reindeer sledge drawn over the frozen lakes and its bergen to the pole would be an easy run of five or six days if nothing but a simply frozen sea stood between them this primary physical fact that arctic navigators have not been stopped by a merely frozen sea but by a combination of glacier fragments with the frozen water of bays and creeks and fjords should be better understood than it is at present for when it is understood the popular and fallacious notion that the difficulties of arctic progress are merely dependent on latitude and must therefore increase with latitude explodes it is the physical configuration of the fringing zone of the arctic regions not its mere latitude that bars the way to the pole I put this in italics because so much depends on it I may say that all depends on it for if this barrier can be scaled at any part we may come upon a region as easily traversed as that part of the arctic ocean lying between the North Cape and Spitzbergen which is regularly navigated every summer by Hardy Norseman in little sailing sloops of 30 to 40 tons burden six or eight pair of hands on board or by overland travelling as easily as the arctic winter journey between Tornia and Alton this trip over the snow covered mountains is done in five or six days at the latter end of every November by streams of visitors to the fair at Alton in latitude 70 degrees 3.5 degrees north of the arctic circle its distance 430 miles is just about equal to that which stands between the North Pole and the northernmost reach of our previous arctic expeditions one or the other of the above named conditions or an enclosed frozen polar ocean is what probably exists beyond the broken fjord barrier hitherto explored a continuation of such a barrier is in fact almost a physical impossibility and therefore the pole will be ultimately reached not by a repetition of such weary struggles as those which ended in the very hasty retreat of our last expedition but by a bound across about 400 miles of open or frozen polar ocean or a rapid sledge run over snow paved fields like those so merrily traversed in arctic norway by festive bonders and their families on the way to yule time dancing parties reference to a map of the circumpolar regions or better to a globe will show that the continents of Europe, Asia and America surround the pole and hang as it were downwards or southwards from a latitude of 70 degrees and upwards there is but one wide outlet for the accumulations of polar ice and that is between norway and greenland with iceland standing nearly midway davises and bearings straights are the narrower openings the first may be only a fjord rather than an outlet the ice block or crowding together and heaping up of the glacier fragments and bay ice is thus explained attempts of two kinds have been made to scale this icy barrier ships have sailed northwards threading a dangerous course between the floating icebergs in the summer and becoming fast bound in winter when the narrow spaces of brackish water lying between these masses of land ice become frozen and the ice foot clinging to the shore which is out seaward to meet that on the opposite side of the fjord or channel the second method usually adopted as supplementary to the first is that of dragging sledges over these glacial accumulations the pitiful rate of progress thus attainable is shown by the record of the last attempt when commander markham achieved about one mile per day and the labor of doing this nearly fatal to his men any tourist who has crossed or ascended an alpine glacier with only a knapsack to carry can understand the difficulty of dragging a cartload of provisions etc over such accumulations of iceberg fragments and of sea ice squeezed and crumbled up between them it is evident that we must either find a natural breach in this arctic barrier or devise some other means of scaling it the first of these efforts has been largely discussed by the advocates of rival routes I will not go into this question at present but only consider the alternative to all land routes and all water routes namely that by the other available element an aerial route as proposed to be attempted in the arctic expedition projected by commander chain and which he is determined to practically carry out provided his own countrymen or failing them others more worthy will assist him with the necessary means of doing so to reach the pole from the northernmost point already attained by our ships demands a journey of about 400 miles and Edinburgh with a favourable wind a balloon will do this in a few hours on November 27th, 1870 captain Roherd descended near Leistus in Hitterdahl Norway in the balloon V. de Orleans having made the journey from Paris in 15 hours the distance covered was about 900 miles more than double the distance between the pole and the accessible shores of Greenland on November 7th, 1836 Messers Holland Mason and Green ascended from Vauxhall Gardens at 1.30 pm with a moderate breeze and descended 18 hours afterwards in the Duchy of Nassau about two leagues from the town of Wildberg the distance in a direct line being about 500 miles a similar journey to this would carry Commander Chain from his ship to the North Pole or their abouts while a fresh breeze like that enjoyed by captain Roherd would in the same time carry him clear across the whole of the circumpolar area to the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and two or three hours more of similar proceeding would land him in Siberia or Finland or even on the shores of Arctic Norway where he could take the Vodso or Hammerfest Packet to meet one of Wilson's liners at Trondheim or Bergen and thus get from the North Pole to London in ten days lest any of my readers should think that I am writing this at random I will supply the particulars I have before me the Norge's communicationer for the present summer season of 1880 twice every week a passenger excursion steam packet sails round the North Cape each way calling at no less than twenty stations on this Arctic face of Europe to land and embark passengers and goods by taking that which stops at Gjeswer an island near the foot of the North Cape on Saturday or that which starts from Hammerfest on Sunday morning Trondheim is reached on Thursday and Wilson's liner the Tassau starts on the same day for hull average passage seventy hours thus Hammerfest the northernmost town in the world is now but eight days from London including a day's stop at Tromso the capital of Lapland which is about three degrees north of the Arctic Circle and within a week of London at Captain Rohr's rate of travelling Tromso would be but twenty three hours from the Pole these figures are of course only stated as possibilities on the supposition that all the conditions should be favourable no means as probable what then are the probabilities and the amount of risk that will attend an attempt to reach the Pole by an aerial route I have considered the subject carefully and discussed it with many people the result of such reflection and conversation is a conviction that the prevalent popular estimate of the dangers of Commander Chain's project extravagantly exaggerates them on almost all contingencies I do not affirm that there is no risk or that the attempt should be made with only our present practical knowledge of the subject but I do venture to maintain that after making proper preliminary practical investigations at home a judiciously conducted aerostatic dash for the Pole will be far less dangerous than the explorations of Livingstone, Stanley and others that have been accomplished and are proposed and further that a long balloon journey starting in summertime from Smith's Sound or other suitable Arctic station would be less dangerous than a corresponding one starting from London that it would involve less risk than was incurred by Messers Haaland Mason and Green when they travelled from Vauxhall Gardens to Nassau The three principal dangers attending such a balloon journey are first the variability of the wind second the risk of being blown out about the open ocean beyond the reach of land third the utter helplessness of the aeronaut during all the hours of darkness I will consider these seriatim in reference to Arctic ballooning versus Vauxhall or Crystal Palace ballooning as regards the first danger Vauxhall and Sydenham are in a position of special disadvantage and all the areas we Englishmen may derive from our home ballooning experience must tend to exaggerate our common estimate of this danger in as much as we are in the midst of the region of variable winds and have a notoriously uncertain climate due to this logical exaggeration of the variability of atmospheric movements if instead of lying between the latitudes of 50 degrees and 60 degrees where the northeast polar winds just come in collision with the southwest tropical currents and thereby affect our national atmospheric stir about we were located between 10 degrees and 30 degrees where the canary islands are for example our notions on the subject of balloon traveling would be curiously different the steadily blowing trade wind would long air this have led us to establish balloon males to Central and South America and balloon passenger expresses for the benefit of fast going people or luxurious victims of seasickness to cross the Atlantic 3000 miles in 48 hours would be attended with no other difficulty than the cost of the gas and that of the return carriage of the empty balloon it is our exceptional meteorological position that has generated the popular expression as uncertain as the wind we are in the very center of the region of meteorological uncertainties and cannot go far either northward or southward without entering a zone of greater atmospheric regularity where the direction of the wind at a given season may be predicted with more reliability than at home the atmospheric movements in the Arctic regions appear to be remarkably regular and gentle during the summer and winter months and irregular and boisterous in spring and autumn a warm upper current flows from the tropics towards the pole and a cold lower one from the Arctic circle towards the equator commander chain who has practical experience of these Arctic expeditions and has kept an elaborate log of the wind etc. which he has shown me believes that by the aid of pilot balloons to indicate the currents at this height and by availing himself of these currents he may reach the pole and return to his ship or so near as to be able to reach it by traveling over the ice in light sledges that will be carried for that purpose in making any estimate of the risk of Arctic aerostation we must banish from our minds the preconceptions induced by our British experience of the wind and only consider the atmospheric actualities of the polar regions so far as we know them let us now consider the second danger that of being blown out to sea and there remaining until the leakage of gas has destroyed the ascending power of the balloon or till the stock of food is consumed a glance at a map of the world will show how much smaller is the danger to the aeronaut who starts from the head of Baffins Bay than that which was incurred by those who started from Vauxhall in the Nassau balloon or by Captain Rohr who started from Paris both of these had the whole breadth of the Atlantic on the west and southwest and the North Sea and Arctic Ocean north and northeast the Arctic balloon starting Smith's sound or thereabouts with a wind from the south and without such a wind the start would not of course be made would if the wind continued in the same direction reach the pole in a few hours in seven or eight hours at Rohr's speed in 14 or 15 hours at the average rate made by the Nassau balloon in a moderate breeze now look again at the map and see what surrounds them simply the continents of Europe, Asia and America by which the circumpolar area is nearly landlocked with only two outlets that being between Norway and Greenland on one side and the narrow channel of bearing straits on the other the wider of these is broken by Spitzbergen and Iceland both inhabited islands where a balloon may descend and the aeronauts be hospitably received taking the 360 degrees of the zone between the 70th parallel of latitude and the Arctic circle 320 are landlocked and only 40 open to the sea therefore the chances of coming upon land at any one part of this zone is as 320 to 40 but with a choice of points for descent such as the aeronauts would have unless the wind blew precisely down the axis of the opening the chances would be far greater if the wind continued as at starting they would be blown to Finland a westerly deflection would land them in Siberia easterly in Norway a strong east wind at the later stage of the trip would blow them back to Greenland in all of the above I have supposed the aeronauts to be quite helpless merely drifting at random with that portion of the atmosphere in which they happened to be immersed this however need not be the case within certain limits they have a choice of winds owing to the prevalence of upper and lower currents blowing in different and even in opposite directions suppose for example they find themselves north of Spitsbergen where Perry's furthest is marked on some of our maps and that the wind is from the northeast blowing them towards the Atlantic opening they would then ascend or descend in search of a do-north or north by west wind that would blow them to Norway or west northwest to Finland or northwest to Siberia or do east back to Greenland from whence they might rejoin their ships one or other of these would almost certainly be found a little may be done in steering a balloon but so very little that small reliance should be placed upon it only in a very light wind would it have a sensible effect though in a case of a near-shave between landing say at Lefoudens or Iceland and being blown out to sea it might just save them as already stated Commander Chain believes in the possibility of returning to the ship and bases his belief on the experiments he made from winter quarters in Northumberland sound where he inflated four balloons attached them to proportionately different weights and sent them up simultaneously they were born by diverse currents of air in four different directions according to the different altitudes namely northwest, northeast southeast and southwest thus proving that in this case balloons could be sent in any required direction by ascending to the requisite altitude the war balloon experiments at Woolwich afford a practical confirmation of this important feature in Arrow Station Chain proposes that one at least of the three balloons shall be a rover to cross the unknown area and has been called a madman for suggesting this merely as an alternative or secondary route I am still more lunatic for I strongly hold the opinion that the easiest way for him to return to his ship will be to drift rapidly across to the first available inhabited land thence come to England and sail in another ship to rejoin his messmates carrying with him his bird's eye chart that will demonstrate once and for all the possibility or impossibility of circumnavigating Greenland or of sailing or sledging or walking to the pole the worst dilemma would be that presented by a dead calm and it is not improbable that around the pole there may be a region of calms similar to that about the equator then the feather paddle or other locomotive device worked by manpower would be indispensable better data than we at present possess are needed in order to tell accurately what may thus be done putting various estimates one against the other it appears likely that five miles an hour may be made taking turn and turn about two or three aeronauts could thus travel fully one hundred miles per day and return from the pole to the ship in less than five days or take the improbable case of a circular wind blowing around the pole as some have imagined this would simply demand the working of the paddle always northwards in going to the pole and always southwards in returning the resultant would be a spiral course winding inwards in the first case and outwards in the second the northward or southward progress would be just the same as in a calm if the wind were truly concentric to the pole some rough approximation to such currents may exist and might be dealt with on this principle end of section 20