Familiar Talks on Science-World-Building and Life. Earth Part 3

By interplanetary s.p.a.ce we mean all s.p.a.ce between the planets not occupied by sensible material. It is the same as interatomic s.p.a.ce, or the s.p.a.ce between atoms, except in degree, as the same substance that fills interplanetary s.p.a.ce also fills interatomic s.p.a.ce, so that all the atoms of matter float in it and are held together from flying off into s.p.a.ce by the attraction of cohesion. What this ether is, has been the subject of much speculation among philosophers, without, however, arriving at any definite conclusion, further than that it is a substance possessing almost infinite elasticity, and whose ultimate particles, if particles there be, are so small that no sensible substance can be made sufficiently dense to resist it or confine it. It is easy to see that a substance possessing such qualities cannot be weighed or in any way made appreciable to our senses. But from the fact that radiant energy can be transmitted through it, with vibrations amounting to billions per second, we know that it must be a substance with elastic qualities that approach the infinite. a.s.suming that the ether is a substance, the question arises how is it related to other forms of substance? This is a question more easily asked than answered. The longer one dwells upon the subject, however, the more one is impressed with the thought that after all the ether may be the one element out of which all other elements come.

Chemistry tells us that there are between sixty and seventy ultimate elements. This is true at least as a basis for chemical science.

Chemical a.n.a.lysis has never been able to make gold anything but gold, or oxygen anything but oxygen, and so on through the whole catalogue of elements. It may be, however, that the play of forces under and beyond those that seem to be active in all chemical processes and relations, are able to produce certain affections of the ether, the result of which in the one case is an atom of gold and in the other an atom of oxygen, etc., to the end of the list. In this case all of the so-called elements may have their origin in one fundamental element that we call the ether.

I am aware that we are wading in deep water here, but sometimes we love to get into deep water just to try our swimming powers. The above is a suggestion of a theory called "the vortex theory," that is taking root in the minds of many philosophers to-day, and yet there is almost nothing of known facts to base such a theory upon, and nearly all we can say about it is that it seems plausible, when viewed through the eye of imagination.

We do know that substances, such as fluids or gases, a.s.sume very different qualities when put into different rates of motion. A straw has been known to penetrate the body of a tree endwise by the extreme velocity imparted to it when carried in the vortex of a tornado.

Instances of the terrific solid power of substances that are mobile when at rest are often exhibited during the progress of a tornado, especially when confined in very narrow limits. Sometimes a tornado cloud will form a hanging cone, running down to a sharp point at the lower end, which lower end may drag on the ground, or it may float a little distance above the ground, but more frequently it moves forward with a bounding motion, now touching the earth and now rising in the air. This cone is revolving at a terrific speed. The substance revolving is chiefly air, carrying other light substances that it has gathered up from the ground.

If it comes in contact with a tree or building it cuts its way through as though it were a buzzsaw revolving at a high rate of speed. This is not simply the force of wind, but a kind of solidity given to the fluent air by its whirling motion.

I remember a case in Iowa, where one of these revolving cones pa.s.sed through a barnyard, striking the corner of the barn, cutting it off as smoothly as though done with some sharp-edged tool, but it in no other way affected the rest of the building. One would suppose that the centrifugal force developed in this whirling motion would cause the cone to fly apart, and why it does not no one certainly knows. But we are obliged to accept the fact.

These cases are cited to show that motion gives rigidity to substances that in the quiescent state are mobile or easily moved, like the straw or the air. If we should a.s.sume that there are infinitesimal vortices or whirling rings in the ether, of such rapidity as to give it different degrees of rigidity, we can get a glimmering idea of how an atom of matter may be formed from ether.

Referring to the rigidity which motion gives to ordinary matter, it is well known that when two vessels at sea collide the one having the higher speed is not so liable to injury as the one with the lower. The reader will perhaps remember a circ.u.mstance said to have occurred a few years ago on the Lake Sh.o.r.e Railroad, between Buffalo and Cleveland. The limited express was going west, and while rounding a curve the engineer suddenly came in sight of a wrecked freight train, a part of which was lying on the track where the express train had to pa.s.s. The engineer saw that he was too near the wreck to stop his train and that the only way to save his own train and the lives of his pa.s.sengers would be to cut through the wreck. He pulled out the throttle and put on a full head of steam, and when the train struck the wreck it was going at such a high rate of speed that it cut through without seriously damaging the train and without harm to the pa.s.sengers.

There are other heroes beside those who lead armies in battle.

CHAPTER VIII.

CLOUD-FORMATION--EVAPORATION.

Water exists in different forms without, however, undergoing any chemical change. It is when condensed into the fluid state that we call it "water," and then it is heavier than the atmospheric air and therefore seeks the low places upon the earth's surface, the lowest of which is the bed of the ocean. Wherever there is water or moisture on the face of the globe there is a process going on at the surface called evaporation. This process is much more rapid under the action of heat than when it is colder. In other words, as the heat increases evaporation increases within certain limits and bears some sort of a ratio to it. Evaporation is not confined to water, but as our subject has to deal with atmospheric phenomena we will speak of it only in its relation to aqueous moisture.

The heat that is imparted to the earth's surface by the rays of the sun is able to separate water into minute particles, which, when so separated, form what is called vapor, which is transparent, as well as much lighter than the air at the surface of the earth. Being lighter than the air, it rises when disengaged and floats to the upper regions of the atmosphere. The atmosphere will contain a certain amount of these transparent globules of moisture in the s.p.a.ces between its own molecules. If the air is warm the molecules will be farther apart and it will contain more moisture than when it is cold.

The process of evaporation is one of the most important in the catalogue of nature's dynamics. Without it there would be no verdure on the hills, no trees on the plains, no fields of waving grain, and no animal life upon the land surface of the globe. Evaporation is nature's method of irrigation, and the system is inaugurated on a grand scale, so that there are but few neglected spots upon the face of the earth which moisture, carried up from the great reservoirs of water, does not reach.

The rate of evaporation, other things being equal, depends upon the extent of surface; therefore a smooth surface like that of the lake or ocean will not send up as much vapor from a given area in square miles as an equal area of land will do, when it is saturated with moisture, for the reason that there is a much larger evaporating surface on a square mile of land, owing to its inequalities, than upon an equal area of smooth water. Of course, if the earth is dry there can be but little evaporation. One of the effects of evaporation is to withdraw heat, and so to produce cold in the substance from which the evaporation takes place.

If we put water into a vial and drop regularly upon it some fluid that evaporates readily it will extract the heat from the vial and the water in it to such an extent that in a short time the water will be frozen.

In hot countries ice is manufactured on a large scale upon the principle that we have just described. Water is put into shallow basins, excavated in the earth, over which is placed some substance like straw that readily radiates heat, and on the straw are placed porous bricks, that are kept wet, thus furnishing a very large evaporating surface. In this way the process of evaporation is carried on very rapidly and the heat is extracted from the water to such an extent that it freezes, often forming ice in one night over an inch in thickness, and this in the hottest climates on the globe. Evaporation cannot go on in places where the air is already saturated with moisture. When the air is dry evaporation is very rapid, but as it becomes more and more filled with moisture the evaporation is checked to the same degree. This fact accounts for the difference of bodily comfort that we experience at different times in the year when the temperature is the same. Sometimes we are very uncomfortable although the temperature is not above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, more so even than we are at other times when the temperature is ten or fifteen degrees higher. If the air is saturated with moisture, even though the temperature is not above 70 or 75 degrees, the perspiration is not readily evaporated from the surface of the body. If the air is dry the temperature may be much higher and we be much more comfortable, because evaporation goes on rapidly, which keeps the body not only dry, but cool. I remember pa.s.sing through a desert in Arizona where there was scarcely a green thing in sight in any direction, and the temperature was said to be 140 degrees. I did not suffer as much as I often have done in the East with the thermometer at 80 or 90 degrees, and there was very little show of sensible perspiration; it was going on rapidly, however, but was being absorbed by the dry air. This goes to show that temperature is not the only factor to be considered when we are making an estimate of the good or bad qualities of a climate.

Evaporation is carried on much more rapidly when the wind blows than at other times, for the reason that the moisture is carried off laterally as fast as it is formed, all resistance to its escape into the upper air being removed. If the air is charged to saturation with moisture at a certain temperature, it will remain so, and evaporation stops so long as the temperature remains unchanged. If its temperature rises the process of evaporation can start up, because the capacity of the air for holding moisture has been increased. But if a temperature is perceptibly lowered another phenomenon will manifest itself.

In the uncondensed state vaporized moisture is quite transparent, so that we are able to see through it as we do through a pane of gla.s.s. If, however, the body of air that is saturated with this invisible moisture becomes suddenly chilled, the moisture condenses into cloud or mist.

If we watch a pa.s.sing railroad train we shall notice a ma.s.s of fleecy white mist floating away from the smokestack, a.s.suming the billowy forms of some of the clouds in summer. This cloud is produced by the sudden condensation of steam, which was transparent before it came in contact with the cold, outside air, the effect being much more p.r.o.nounced in cold than in warm weather. We may liken these floating globules of mist to the dust of the earth which floats in the air, and it has not been inaptly called water-dust. Anyone who has seen an atomizer used or has stood at the foot of a great waterfall, like Niagara, has seen the fluid so finely divided that it will float in the air, instead of falling to the ground. What takes place is that a number of these transparent atoms of moisture that are released in the process of evaporation coalesce into one small drop or particle of water, and they will continue to float in the air as mist or cloud until a sufficient number have combined into one solid ma.s.s to render that ma.s.s heavier than the air, when it falls in the form of rain.

If we live in a region--and there are such on the face of the earth--where there is very little evaporation and consequently very little moisture in the air, there is rarely ever a cloud seen nor is there any rainfall, for the reason that there is no material existing out of which to form clouds, and the clouds precede the rain. Hence, all the artificial attempts to produce rain in these arid regions have been futile. If a body of warm air, when saturated with invisible moisture, is suddenly chilled by coming in contact with a cold wave, it is squeezed like a sponge, so to speak, and the invisible particles become visible because a number of them have coalesced as one particle; the particles gather in a large ma.s.s, and we have the phenomenon of cloud formation.

Clouds more generally form in the upper regions of the atmosphere because it is normally colder in the higher regions. In some cases clouds float very high in the air and in others very low. This is due to two causes:

If we should send up a balloon containing air rarefied to a certain extent it would continue to ascend only until it reached a point where the outside air and that contained in the balloon are of the same density. If we should send up this same balloon on different days with the same rarefaction of internal air we should find that on some days it would float higher than others, because the density of the air is constantly fluctuating, as is indicated by the rise and fall of the barometer. Now let us consider the balloon as a globule of moisture of a definite weight, and this globule only one of an aggregation of globules sufficient to form a cloud. We can readily see from what has gone before that a cloud thus formed, having a definite density and weight, would float higher some days than others.

a.s.suming again that the density of the air remains the same from day to day, the clouds will still float high or low in the atmosphere from another cause. Let us go back to our ill.u.s.tration of the balloon. If we have a fixed condition of atmosphere, external to the balloon, and vary the conditions internally, which means varying its weight, the balloon will float higher or lower as the internal conditions are varied. Now apply this principle to the moisture globules of which a cloud is formed and we can understand why a cloud will float high or low from the two causes that we have described. Clouds are of different color and density, and this is due to the differences of the make-up of the moisture globules of which the clouds are formed. If these globules are in an advanced stage of condensation the cloud is darker and more opaque. In earlier conditions of condensation the cloud will have a bright look, which shows that it reflects most of the light, whereas in the case of the dark cloud the light is largely absorbed.

There is a sort of notion prevailing that clouds come up from the horizon, and in many cases they do, but they may form directly over our heads. There always has to be a beginning, and that occurs wherever the conditions are most favorable for condensation of vapor. If the earth is wet and the sun is hot the evaporation may be very rapid as well as the ascent of the invisible moisture, which carries with it the air, which in turn expands the higher it rises, thus producing cold. This, taken with the normal cold that exists in the higher regions, may be sufficient to produce a sudden condensation of this ascending vapor, which is all that is necessary to form a cloud.

The inquiry may arise, Why is the moisture condensed, almost always, in the upper regions of the air, where it is rare? Because the more rare and therefore expanded it is, the more moisture it will hold. This, taken with the fact that cold currents are encountered high up, sufficiently answers the question.

It is interesting to know that the processes of nature are interdependent. It is not enough that we have the evaporation of moisture that will ascend into the higher regions of the air and there be condensed into cloud and possibly rain, but we must have the means for distributing these conditions over a large area, and for this purpose we have the phenomenon of wind. Why the winds blow can be accounted for to a certain extent,--we might say to a large extent,--but there yet remain many unsolved problems relating to wind and weather. Of the phenomena of wind we will speak more fully in a future chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

CLOUD FORMATION--CONTINUED.

As water in its condensed state is 815 times heavier than air, the question naturally comes to one why it does not immediately fall to the earth when it condenses. There are at least two and probably more stages of condensation. Investigators into the phenomenon of cloud formation claim to have ascertained that the first effect of condensation is to form little globes of moisture that are hollow, like a bubble, with very thin walls. Everyone has recognized the ease with which a soap bubble will float in the air, and yet it is simply a film of moisture. These little balloons, so to speak, are called spherules. It is undoubtedly the case that mingled with these little bubbles of moisture there are fine particles of solid water hanging on and carried along with them.

Undoubtedly this is true; at least just before the final act of condensation takes place; and when the little hollow spherules collapse they are gathered together in drops of water larger or smaller according to the rapidity of condensation. There is probably another power at work to prevent the too ready precipitation of moisture when condensed, and that is the wind. A cloud never stands still, although in some cases it may appear to do so. If we take a stone in our hand and allow it to drop without applying any force to it, it will fall directly to the ground. But if we give it an impetus in a horizontal direction it will travel some distance before striking the ground. If we could give the same impetus to a body as light as a globule of water-dust it would probably travel indefinitely without falling. Dust that would settle directly to the ground from an elevation in still air would travel thousands of miles without falling, before a wind having any considerable velocity.

Suppose the sun to be shining with intense heat upon a certain area of the earth's surface and the conditions to be right for very rapid evaporation of moisture. The air which is heated close to the ground, being expanded, will rise, together with the invisible particles of moisture, and there will be a column of moisture-laden air continually ascending until it reaches a point in the upper atmosphere where it is condensed into a cloud that takes on the billowy form which in summer time we call a thunder cloud, but which in the science of meteorology is called c.u.mulus, or heap-cloud. If there were no air currents this billowy cloud would stand as the capping of an invisible pillar of ascending vapor, but as it is never the case that air is not moving at some velocity in the upper regions, it floats away as rapidly as it is formed. This peculiar kind of cloud is formed in the mid-regions of the atmosphere, and it is a summer cloud as well as a land cloud. Of course, it may float off over the ocean and maintain its peculiar shape for a certain distance, but it is rare that such a cloud would ever be seen in mid-ocean or in midwinter. As the warm season advances in summer, and evaporation from the earth is less than the rainfall, there is less and less moisture in the air, when, of course, the conditions for cloud formation, especially inland, are not so favorable as in the early spring or summer. Frequently there comes a time when we have a long season of dry, settled weather. Probably during most of the days clouds will form and we think it is going to rain, but before night they have vanished, and the same thing is repeated the next day and the next, perhaps for weeks at a time.

The explanation is this: We have already said that so long as the air remains in a uniform condition as to temperature it will absorb moisture in a transparent state until it is filled to the measure of its capacity at a given temperature. If there were no change of temperature, it would not condense into cloud. Clouds may be absorbed into the atmosphere--or evaporated--and become invisible; and this process is going on to a greater or less degree continually. If we watch the steam as it escapes from a steam boiler, the first effect is condensation into cloud, but as it floats away it gradually melts and is absorbed into the atmosphere as invisible vapor. This is especially true on a warm day; the same process takes place in the air that is going on at the level of a body of water or at the surface of moist earth.

As before stated, condensation always takes place when a body of moisture-laden air comes in contact with cold. When the steam escapes from a boiler, even on the hottest day, it is hotter than the surrounding air; the first effect is condensation, and then evaporation takes place the same as it would at the surface of the earth when the condensed particles of moisture are separated into the invisible atoms that accompany evaporation.

In settled, dry weather as the sun approaches the zenith, the earth becomes intensely heated, and there is an ascending column of air partly laden with moisture; but not to the same extent as earlier in the season. Condensation takes place and clouds are formed, but as there is not sufficient moisture to carry them to the point of a further condensation,--which would result in precipitation,--as the sun lowers in the west and the heated air becomes more evenly distributed this condensed vapor is reabsorbed into the air as invisible moisture by a process allied to that of evaporation. This condition of things would extend to a much longer period than it does in our lat.i.tude if it were not for the gradual changing of the seasons, which finally destroys the balance in the dynamics of cloud-land and allows the cold--that has been held back for the time--in the great northern zone to get the upper hand. Then we have what is termed in common parlance a change in the weather, or, more properly in this case, a change in the season.

We have already spoken of the cloud called c.u.mulus (which means heap) and of its performance during the dry season of summer. There is another form of cloud that is seen at this season of the year called cirrus (a curl). It takes the form of a curl at its ends. This cloud usually has a threaded shape and sometimes takes the form of a feather, and frequently forms are seen that remind you of frost pictures on a window pane. These clouds float very high in the atmosphere, away above the tops of the highest mountains, from six to eight miles above the level of the sea.

They are formed only at a season of the year when the atmospheric conditions are most uniform. At certain times of the day and night the moisture will rise to this height before it condenses and when it does condense it immediately freezes, which makes it take on these peculiar forms that would no doubt conform very closely to the frost pictures on the window pane if it were not for the disturbing influences of air currents at this alt.i.tude. The fact that they are ice or frost clouds instead of water clouds gives them that peculiar whiteness and brightness of appearance. If ordinary clouds are water-dust these high clouds may be called ice-dust. Sometimes we see them lying in bands or threads running across the sky in the direction that the wind blows.

Their form is undoubtedly a resultant of the struggle between the air currents and the tendency of crystallized water to arrange itself in certain definite lines or forms. This cloud may be said to be one extreme, having its home in the highest regions of cloud-land, while the c.u.mulus, or thunder cloud, is the other extreme and occupies the lower or mid regions of the air.

There is a still lower cloud of course, as ordinary fog is nothing more than cloud, which under certain conditions lies on the surface of the ocean or dry land. Fogs prevail when the barometer is low. As soon as it rises from the source of evaporation the moisture condenses almost to the point of precipitation. There is not enough buoyancy in its globules when the air is light, as it is when we have a low barometer, to cause the fog to float into the higher regions of the atmosphere.

The high clouds, which are called cirrus, under certain conditions drop down to where they begin to melt into ordinary moisture globules, and while this process is going on we have a combined cloud effect which is called cirro-stratus. This form of cloud may be recognized, when looking off toward the horizon, by its being formed into long straight bands. It is sometimes called thread-cloud. As it further descends it takes on a different form called the cirro-c.u.mulus, or curl-heap. This is just the opposite in its appearance to the cirro-stratus, as it is broken up into flocks of little clouds separated from each other and in the act of changing to the form of the c.u.mulus, or billowy form of cloud; and this latter takes place when it drops to a still lower stratum of warmer air and is there called the c.u.mulo-stratus, which is the form of cloud we most often see in the season of thunderstorms. The lower edge of the cloud is straight, parallel with the horizon, while the upper part is made up of great billowy ma.s.ses, having high lights upon their well defined projections and blending into darker shades caused by the shadows in the valleys between the mountains of cloud.

The rain cloud is called the nimbus, and may be said to be the extension of a c.u.mulo-stratus. When it reaches this condition it is condensed to a point where the vesicular globules collapse and a number of them run together, forming a solid drop of water, and here it begins to fall. It may be very small at first, but in its fall other condensed globules will adhere to it and if the conditions are right, sometimes the rain drops will have the diameter of a quarter of an inch by the time they reach the earth.

Under other conditions, such as we have sometimes during dry weather, the rain drops will start to fall, but instead of growing larger, they grow smaller by absorption into the thirsty air, and will not be allowed to reach the earth. Often there are showers of rain in the air that fall to a certain distance and are taken up, as in the process of evaporation, to again be formed into cloud, without ever having touched the earth.

Thus it will be seen that clouds a.s.sume various forms under various conditions of atmosphere, as it is related to moisture, temperature, and density. Clouds sometimes appear to be stationary when they are only continually forming on one side and continually being absorbed into invisible moisture on the other. I remember seeing some wonderfully beautiful cloud effects in the regions of the Alps. Almost every day in summer there appears above the peak of Mount Blanc a beautifully formed cloud cap standing some distance above it and hollowed out underneath like an inverted cup. Although this cloud appears to be stationary, it is undergoing a rapid change; the moisture rises from the snow-capped peak as invisible vapor to a certain distance, where it is condensed into a cloud of wonderful brilliancy. As the cloud globules float upward they are absorbed into the atmosphere again, as invisible moisture at the upper limit of the cloud. If the wind happens to be blowing, another phenomenon takes place, giving the appearance somewhat of a volcano. It is blown off from the peak in the direction of the wind, but within a short distance it strikes a warmer stratum of air, where it is absorbed and a.s.sumes the transparent condition.

If we ascend a high mountain, we get some idea of the alt.i.tude of the various forms of cloud. A thunderstorm may be in progress far below us, while the sun may be shining from a clear sky above, with perhaps the exception of the frost clouds that we have referred to floating high above the mountain tops.

We have now described in a general way how clouds are formed, how they are condensed into rain, and how moisture is distributed over large areas by these rain clouds being borne on the wings of the wind; and now you ask, Whence the wind? In our next and following chapters we will try to answer this question.

CHAPTER X.

WIND--WHY IT BLOWS.