Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — The Cause of Rainfall. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Cause of Rainfall.

Bain is, as we all know, the moisture of the atmosphere condeused into drops large enough to fall with perceptible velocity to the earth. The variation? in the sizes of the drops is dependent upon the difference iu tlie height from which they have fallen, and to the amount of atmospheric disturbance at the time. If they fall from groat heights the drops suffer gradual division into smaller and smaller parts, until they are at last converted Into

mists. In calm weather, with the clouds near the earth’s surface, the drops are apt to be large and heavy. The formation of rain is, in general, a continuation or an enlargement of the processes by which clouds and fogs are formed. The deposition of moisture depends upox the cooliug of the atmosphere. but, concerning the precise process by which the cooliug Is effected, various opinions are entertained, even among those who have made ineterology a life study. In considering the matter we have deduced our reckonings from what is considered the best authority on the subject. From this It appears that the temperature of a given mass of warm air Is lowered. In the ordinary course of atmospheric phenomena, by one or the other of the processes mentioned In the following: By radiation to the cold sky; by radiation to the neighboring masses of clouds or the cold ground; by mixture with cool air, or by tlie absorption of beat In the expansion of ascending columns of air. Whatever the process may be, one thing is sure; The cooling must take place before the moisture will col-

lect into drops of sufficient size to cause them to fall from the mass of vapor in which the constituent parts have been floating.—St. Louis Republic.

WILL BE THE LARGEST SHIP IN USE.