Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1891 — Man’s Work and Tornadoes. [ARTICLE]

Man’s Work and Tornadoes.

One class of superficial theorists would no doubt be very confident in expressing the opinion that the grow* ing use of iron for constructive purposes is conducive to the greater safety and longer endurance of the fabrications of man for which it is used. But that, it would seem, is not an unchallenged fact, however plausible the theory may at first blush seem to be. The New York Commercial Bulletin , a paper which devotes great attention to fire insurance topics, says: “Some scientists ascribe the frequency of cyclones to the network oi rails for railroads, barbed wire fences, telegraph and telephone wires; the theory being that cyclones took place, no doubt, years ago as frequently as they do now; but at present, because of the metal network on the surface of the earth, the disturbances are brought down by attraction, and wreck houses instead of spending their strength in the air and doing no harm to human beings or insurance companies, which latter are undergoing the hard experience of carrying tornado business at low rates.” When the Bulletin says “cyclones,” it no doubt has reference to tornadoes. But that is a small matter. A large matter is the question of the truth or falsity of the interesting hypothesis which the Bulletin adduces. If the multifarious employment oi iron upon the surface of the earth is really the cause of destructive tornadoes, it is a bad thing. But let us stop and think. Where was the iron before man mined it, and smelted it, and made use of it? Why, in ftie bowels of the earth. Exactly; and did it not then possess conductive and attractive power? If when the iron was below the surface, destructive electric storms, tornadoes, etc., spent their force high in the atmosphere, ought not the raising of the iron to correspondingly raise the sphere of meteorological disturbances influenced by its attractive power? Ought not the tornadoes to expend themselves still higher in the air than before?

Another thing: Is it not the irresistible impulse of overcharged electric clouds to seek the earth? Is not moist earth, indeed, so good a conductor of electricity that the current leaves iron conductors and lightning rods to enter it? There is evidence in the coal measures to show that tornadoes mowed down the trees of the primeval forests in the days before man had made his appearance upon earth. Man’s self-consciousness and conotlt need not lead him to take upon his shoulders the responsibility for their occurrence or their frequency. With due respect to the scientists who lean to the opinion which the Bulletin reproduces, it must be declared that their assumption reminds one of the story of the son of Abraham, who had transgressed the Mosaic law which forbids the use of the flesh of the pig as food, and who, when a deafening peal of thunder occurred at the moment of his coming out of the synagogue, exclaimed, “Vot a bik fuss aboud such a little piece of pork!”