1773.
May.
electricity may be considered as the cause of this phænomenon, we could not determine with any precision; so much however seems certain, that it has some connection with it, from the flash of lightning, which was plainly observed at the bursting of the last column. The whole time, from their first appearance to the dissolution of the last, was about three quarters of an hour. It was five o'clock when the latter happened, and the thermometer then stood at 54° or 2½ degrees lower, than when they began to make their appearance. The depth of water we had under us was thirty-six fathom. The place we were in was analogous to most places where water-spouts have been observed, inasmuch as it was in a narrow sea or strait. Dr. Shaw and Thevenot saw them in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulph; and they are common in the West-Indies, the Straits of Malacca, and the Chinese sea. Upon the whole, we were not fortunate enough to make any remarkable discoveries in regard to this phænomenon; all our observations only tend to confirm the facts already noticed by others, and which are so largely commented upon by the learned Dr. Benjamin Franklin, F.R.S. His ingenious hypothesis, that whirlwinds and water-spouts have a common origin, has not been invalidated by our observations. We refer our philosophical readers to his papers, as containing the most complete and satisfactory account of water-spouts[1].
- ↑ See his Experiments on Electricity, &c. 4to. fifth edition, London, 1774.
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