swell the Water into Mountains and the People cry out Garde le Mascaret in Summer time and the calmest air So the Gulf of Lions often threatens the adjacent Country with a Deluge the Lake of Geneva and several other places from the same causes CHAP. IV. That violent Tempests Hurricanes or Tornadoes c. seldom happen in cold Countries Winter-seasons Large Plains or great Seas WInds being generated according to the preceding manners they may consist of almost infinite variety of Salts Sulphurs Spirits Mineral and Subterraneous Juices Damps and Aeolian Ejections Mists and rarified Vapours Rain or dissolved Snow broken and dissipated Clouds or agitated Air and so may be hot cold dry moist c. and thereby also more or less lasting or violent according to the matter power and plenty of their Causes yet must be raised in natural ways from their Fountains or proper Productions which are very easily effected without recourse to Occult Causes upon so tender a fluid as Air by the foregoing ways in the preceding Chapter and may be as truly foretold by the Portable Barometer notwithstanding all this variety by the alterations they produce in the weight of the Air but yet violent Winds Storms Tempests Hurricanes Tornadoes c. cannot be so easily produced in cold Countries hard frosty seasons large Plains or great Seas as â—n warmer Regions Rockey Countries or narrow and craggy Seas for in cold Countries or frosty Seasons the Effluvious Air is too much Condensed into a kind of fixation and thereby not only keep the Effluvia in the same posture but walls in very Atmosphere against all other Pneumatick Attacks whatever that the most violent Protrusions of Exotick force can never disorder their Perennial Structure but can only displace some outward Particles which the standing force of the rest will take no notice of nor can there be any internal disturbance to disorder their quiet for the same cold that fixes the Effluvia keeps them so and hinders all other commotions and also shuts the pores of the Earth hinders the Rarefaction of Vapours and stops all manner of Effervescencies and calid Emotions of Subterraneous Mineral Heterogeneous Spirits and Ejections whereby the Atmosphere must needs be much more quiet and free from these raging disturbances in such places and at such times than in hot mountainous or rocky places And so in large Plains or great Seas there can be nothing to interrupt or obstruct the currents or course or the Air but as it comes so it continues its progress and goes away in a great body to a vast distance and meets with neither resilitions nor compressions no Hills Mountains nor Vulcanos but is continued almost in a perennial Course either with the Sun Earth or primum mobile in all such places as well as the whole Torrid Zone and some degrees on each side except in Rocky Countries narrow Seas c. In Trade Etesian or Anniversary Winds or with the Course of the Sea or Air and Water as the Levant and Provincial Winds in continued Streams or at most in gentle puffs and even Gales created by the motion of particular Clouds soft Rains moderate Storms or Effluvious Densities that propell the Air before them in such undulous A sperities but must be something extraordinary or a great Complication of causes that can seldom happen to produce a Hurricane Tornado c. besides in cold Countries great Seas large Plains c. the chief material efficients are wanting a powerful Effervescency confused Eddies Transverse Resilitions strong Compressions and heaping Superonerations therefore besides the freedom from these violent sorts of weather these places must needs enjoy more mild and temperate seasons at all times except heat in the Torrid Zone than any other yet heat and cold as well as all other sorts of weather are caused by the particular temperature disposition of the Atmosphere assisted by the presence or absence of the Calorifick Beams and constitution of the place and so may be as well foretold by the alterations they make in the weight of the Air as any other sort of weather as I shall shew in the Seventh and Eighth Chapters following CHAP. V. That they are easily foretold because they produce the greatest variation in the weight of the Air. WInds being only the motions or agitations of our Effluvious Air it may at first seem strange how they should cause so great an alteration in the weight thereof above any other sort of Weather and will be almost surprising to see a Cylinder of Air that now weighs 2020 or more in a few hours not to weigh above 1970 or less and after the Wind is over in a little longer time to weigh 2020 again or more than it did before tilâ— the matter and causes are considered If our Hemispherical part of the Atmosphere continue of an even thickness and the Effluvia in the same posture a Cylinder of Air must needs continue of the same weight for as there is nothing to alter its density so 't is impossible it should alter its gravity and continuing of the same weight the Effluvia are neither dispersed nor more heaped or crowded together therefore being still there can be no wind and the longer it holds the greater the calm if it continues two or three days a Feather will fall perpendicular from a considerable height so that let the weight be what it will or can when ever it stands it is always calm which may be further said to be almost more than true if possible for it may continue to increase or decrease one two or three parts in 24 hours and yet it will continue calm from the highest to the lowest variation And so for violent Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornados they being produced by such means related in the third Chapter it will be impossible any of them should happen when the weight of the Air does not alter above two three four five or six parts in twenty four hours nor indeed in half that time let the alteration be in what part of the variation it will tho between 2020 and 1980 five or six parts will be near as much as ten in any other part for if it be more than 2020 the Air is too dry or fair so there is nothing to put it into motion and if it be less than 1980 it is too wet or too much filled and thickned every where with the Effluvious vapours to receive any such disturbances and the reasons why none of these violent tempests never come when the weight of the Air alters no faster are that the Effluvious Vapours come smoothly on and the Atmosphere thickens by degrees and by that means our Hemispherical part thereof is gradually filled to a greater or lesser depth and thickness and therefore must be leisurely discharged in the manner related in the second Chapter about Rain for thus our Hemisphere is secured from all manner of violence from outward attacks or inward disturbances of strong Compressions confused
heat or Condensation of some particular part to make room for the natural Expansion of another the effects will be all one a Wind must insue by the Protrusion of other Air which by this means crowd and Superonerate the former spaces whereby that wonderful and admirable Emotions of the Atmosphere is produced we call Wind which is more or less violent according to the force and extent of the Rarefaction Secondly Compressure is another way by which Winds may be generated the Effluvious Air being in continual motion not in one but several Currents must needs produce very numerous undulations these together almost as many Eddies whether in pure Air Efflvious Vapours or Clouds which in contrary Currents meet with more or less violence according to the Bigness Strength and Density of the Matter by which means the Wind may as the pressure is violently descend Perpendicularly to the Earth or being reverted by cross or collateral obstructions heaping and pressing Superonerations makes as violent Whirl-winds Hurricanes or Tornadoes c. to blow from all the parts of the Compass at the same time with amazing Displosions as if the Heavens and the Earth were going to be torn in pieces by these examinating Tempests But their several Species is not my present business only the use of the Barometer but if Life and Leisure serve it may be done in another Edition Thirdly Elasticity the natural springiness of the Air is another cause of Winds for tho we suppose our Atmosphere to be in never so still and quiet a posture and all things most calm and sedate yet 't is impossible it should be all of one universal consistency but must contain a great variety of rare and dense parts from the Local Diffirances the Emanations proceed from either Waters or Marshes or dry Lands and these different degrees of fluid Densities being upon a just and true Aequilibrium a small strenght of other Elastick Particles between turns them any way which immediately make room for a numerous succession of other Auxiliaries to a vast extent that carries all before them in an impetuous Wind. So that whenever any Aereal Particle has leave to unbend it self in any posture it immediately gives way to the other neighbouring Particles Expansions and as the motion is made to others beyond to a mighty extent by which means their strength is also encreased to a mighty proportion with the addition of their weight to their Elasticity and so carries all before them to the turning up of the strongest Oakes or Buildings which continue till the Elastick Particles are driven to their utmost extentions that the other pacid Particles will yeild to and then they begin again to curl and fluctuate and by degrees to settle in their native postures and a quiet calm till fresh causes give them new disturbances Fourthly The Resilition of the Atmosphere is another cause that produces wind the Effluvious Air being easily taken and brought into currents by several Meanders as well in the upper as in the lower Regions in the upper by the Sun Beams or the particular constitution or local position of the same Effluviums and in the lower by the Waters in several Seas and Channels and also with several Mountains and Valleys by Land this tender fluid being so very tractable so easily susceptible and long retentive of the last Impression that 't is a kind of a perpetual Automata which may by these or several other ways be brought into Currents but yet it is almost impossible these Currents should be continued in even and uninterrupted Orbicular courses but must be met or obstructed by several Clouds and Densities in the Atmosphere Hills Mountains the Sun Beams contrary Currents of Air Provincial Trade or Etesian-winds Mascarets c. any of which obstructions forthwith begets this Resilition and that more or less wind according to the bigness and strength of the recoyling Protrusions Fifthly Subterraneal eruptions are another cause of Winds which eruptions are produced by the Calid Emotions and Effervescencies of Mineral Heterogeneities that plentifully abound in all parts of the world and these Calid Emotions by the mixtures of the Effluvious Acids from Niter and other Salts Vitriols Sulphurs Antimony c. which will immediately heat only with a small quantity of fair water as Spirits of Niter and Vitriol c. which are only their acid salts freed from their more Terrestrial parts and united with a little Phlegm mingled with water will do the small Partieles of which are always at hand and can never be wanting in no such places And with bigger additions of other Auxiliaries are in some places augmented to actual fires by which means their acid Salts are made Alcaline and so furnish the whole Universe with sufficient matter for Effervescencies and fermenting Calid Emotions by the continual actions and reactions of their Acid and Alcaline Particles as quick Lime and Water or these with Sal Armoniack c. or any Acid Spirit with the ashes of Wood Bones Coals or other Alcalies will immediately heat and boyl without fire with such strength and violence that the strongest Vessel cannot contain them Thus the Subterraneal Caverns are the Kingdom of Aeolus and Nature's Chymical Furnaces where all the numerous Cranies are Receptacles of Wind from the internal Vulcano's Rarefactions which are continually sent Night and Day from all those places and constantly disturb our Atmosphere more or less in one place or another by their powerful Propulsions For the Earth is the first Mother of Meteors and contains all those restless Spirits and Effervescencies that afterwards raise Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornado's by Sea several raging Winds and violent Storms by Land Thunders and Lightnings in the Air and Earth-quakes under ground frequently known to come from the burning Mountains in China the Grotto's in Calabria and Sicily The Alps and many other places of the World Sixthly Submarine eruptions are produced in the same manner under the Sea as the others are under the Ground and generate Winds as they do and are called Procella Coeca they break out in a Cloud or Mist from under the Water and encrease and diffuse themselves till they cover the face of the whole Heavens and end in most dreadful Tempests we have an account of one from our Fleet at Duncannon by the Principal Officers to their Superiours in England related by Esquire Boyle that in a calm day there suddenly ascended a black Cloud out of the Water hard by them in shape and bigness of a Barrel which afterwards ended in so hideous and dreadful a Tempest that it forced the Ships to Sea again in the greatest danger of total destruction and had like to have cast them away So in St. Owen's Bay in the Isle of Jersey when never so calm and no Wind stirring these submarine Tempests often appear and the roaring of the Waves are heard all over the Isle and 20 or 30 miles into France and in the River Dourdongn near Bourdeaux the Mascarets
and that not by any subject of Inhaesion but by a privation of heat Paucity of Calorifick Corpuscles and want of motion or lesser agitation and contrary tendency Frost therefore being only an effect or product of Cold is either more or less intense according to the degrees of its Cause and cold more or less freezing according to the privation of heat and Paucity of Calorifick Corpuscles What this heat is and from whence these Corpuscles come must therefore be considered the heat is of two sorts either Terrene or from the Heavens the first from several Vulcanos internal Bullitions and fermenting Emotions all which are subject to intermissions and obstructions because they proceed from no universal matter or cause and several subsidences may both obstruct and extinguish them the other from the Heavens cannot be thus extinguished but may be several ways hindered or obstructed by Hills or Mountains and several dispositions of the Effluvious Vapours or may be carried off some other way by the winds or particular currents of Air or by the Central motion of the Sun to parts of less heat or not extended far enough for the Latitude of the place these obstructions or privations of heat makes a Chasm between these and those incorporated in the parts of all natural Bodies the incorporated particles as all heat and fire do soon fade and die which for want of that continuance as soon leave all the external parts especially less active more extended and therefore more stiff more porose and more bulky which are the common qualificatiens of Frost and from these all the other may be easily deduced CHAP. VII That there never is no settled Frost to hold when the Air continues to weigh 2020 or more nor never no Thunder when it weighs but 1980 or less HAving now given some account what Frost and Thunder is tho my Experiments have not enabled me to observe all the circumstances relating to the Title of this Chapter we having had no great Frosts or Thunders since I have been Master of it yet by reason of many other Meteorological Concurrencies in the alterations of the weather which I have often experienced that are in some sort like a Magnetick Clinatory being plainly applied shew only South and North yet by these we are also shewn East and West and all the other points without removing it to them Plains so I hope by the Experiments I have made in other alterations and some few I have made in these to tell the truth of both without staying any longer for these sorts of weather besides being but the reverse of the former Chapter as to the effects upon the Barometer it will the more easily appear First Then there can be no Frost to hold when the Air continues to weigh 2020 or more yet no settled fair weather except Frost if it weighs 10 or 15 parts less and yet I believe there have been no lasting Frosts yet known but in fair weather how Frost then which is only an effect of â—he privation of heat should continue when there is nothing that appears â—o hinder the Sun Beams and that â—here should be no such frosty weaâ—her when the Atmosphere continues â—o be crowded with the thickest Clouds of Rain Hail Snow Mists â—r other Vapours which seems wholâ—â— to obstruct them is somewhat â—range till we consider that all these â—ffluvia whether of Rain Hail or â—now c. are the products of some â—â—bterraneal Bullitions or other fermentations or of the Sun's reverborations but let it be from which of them it will the same effects will follow for that Heat or Motion that raises them or the Calorifick Corpuscles conjoyned do we see keep them all fluid beneath therefore we may be sure there must much more heat contained amongst those particles that are near a thousand times more dense than those of Air to maintain their fluidity and keep them from freezing thus it is almost impossible we should have any Frost on Earth when we have such a fuming Sea about us yet we oftentimes feel it more Cold in such sorts of weather than in clear and frosty Seasons because our corporeal Emanations can easier keep of a lighter than a heavier Medium or Pressure therefore our Sensories can make no true distinctions of the degrees of Cold but as soon as ever the Rain or Snow is over it will immediately Freeze but can never hold when the Atmosphere is thus filled for the former reasons but when the Air weighs 2005 10 12 or 15 if the Latitude of the place disposition of the Country and Season of the Year be proper it will certainly freeze yet not at the extreamities of the Sun Beams or Earths surface first for those Igneous Atoms incorporated there by their own presence and some few emotions will prevent that and make the first beginnings so far in the Air as those emotions reach from the earth which gradually as these emotions cease and dye for want of renovations is extended more and more down till the outward surface of the earth it self is thus deprived and frozen many of which frozen particles being constantly emitted do as well fill the Atmosphere as other Vapours so that the Air can never weigh 2020 if the frost continues but less and less by the frosty emissions filling the Atmosphere for if it weighs 2020 the Sun Beams will come unobstructed upon us and give no place to any such thing which they can never do near the Poles or in other cold Countries these are the Reasons that the Quicksilver in the Common Barometers in some places is quit lost below the Register Plate and in others far above it which the Portable one discovers before hand Then for Thunder if it be produced by the ways related in the former Chapter we may be almost sure when the Air weighs but 1980 the Atmosphere will be too much filled with the Effluvious Vapours and much more disposed for continual Rains which will too much wet the Fulminous Particles then for Thunder or Storms except Jupiter should send a Messenger amongst them for tho Thunder I suppose is not known to be without Rain yet it is not known neither I believe in continual Rains besides in Summer Seasons and warm weather the Air does for the most part weigh the more and not often times less not long together for if it should I am sure the weather would be very unnatural as well as unseasonable to the Summers products and might rather be called Winter than Summer but when it weighs 2014 2020 25 30 or 40 and the weight decreases 15 20 25 or 30 parts in 12 or 24 hours it will be sure to Thunder more or less according to the parts of variation it has decreased and the time it was made in for then the Sun Beams being more radiant are more powerful and by their dispositions in the former Chapter are more easily collected and thereby greater Thunders and Lightnings produced so that when ever
AN ACCOUNT OF A Portable Barometer WITH Reasons and Rules For the Use of it How to Weigh the Air Measure its Height and foretell all the alteration of Weather the Constitution of the Atmosphere and how the Effluvia keep off the Air 's Gravitation with a New Account and Experiments how Rain Snow Winds Frost Thunder Lightning Hurricans and Tornado's are produced And an inquiry whether the Planetary Beams or Influence can cause an alteration of weather to be foretold by them With a sensible Demonstration of their Influences and the insufficiency of all Hygroscopes Thermometers and other Inventions to discover the alterations or Weather by And lastly Rules and Experiments for the certain knowledge of all the alterations of Weather both in Quantity and Quality By GVST PARKER Med. LONDON Printed for William Haws at the Rose in Ludgate-street MDCXCX THE Preface THE business of a Portable Barometer have been the endeavours of several Men above Thirty Years last past To find out some way or other to put the Quicksilver Glass into a secure Travelling Posture at last they got a way to tye a piece of Leather over the Cistern and round the Tube and such they called their Portable Barometers which the Philosophical Transactions saies are no ways to be trusted to by reason of their Intolerable Errors and besides are indeed no ways Portable which this of mine is to every body that can but walk and will whether they will or not shew any alteration of Weather and several other things besides But this short Account being altogether new and I believe the first that ever came abroad of this nature consisting only of Experiments and Discoveries of this Instrument it will I hope from friends especially want the less Apology both for the Stile Matter and manner which is not often so smoth well digested and ordered in a thing that never was before as it may be a second time And I hope the confiderations of the usefulness of these Barometers in all the following and many other Discoveries will excuse the rest not only in what concerns the true Nature Quality Temper and Inclinations of the Air as to its self and the alterations of the Weather but all other Liquids as well which may thus be divers ways both weighed and measured at the same time in their Fountains and thereby discover many particular qualifications very hard and difficult if not impossible by any other means and thereby also in time give a Demonstration of the true System of all Natural Bodies And being thus led to the knowledge of their Consistence will be conducted from thence to their Prima Materia and so to the Grand System of the Great World But as there are some who have gained the way of making others little upon Trust so they will abhor the news of any that undertake to undeceive them and will neither give themselves nor others leave to consider what another have done Yet if they will set to work and Merit their own Encomiums with Meum and Tuum they shall have every thing due to their Characters from Gus t s Parker AN ACCOUNT OF A Portable Barometer CHAP. I. First what the Portable Barometer is the Constitution of the Atmosphere and how the Effluvia keep off the Airs Gravitation and are the cause of the variation of its weight WHat I have to offer about a Portable Barometer I once intended to shew the world in another manner but since that could not be I am unwilling by reason of the extraordinary service it may be applied to in Philosophy Hydrostaticks and Mechanicks they should know nothing of it yet know no reason after a great deal of Labour and Charge to give it away but could rather wish there were something ordered for a present reward according to the worth of every discovery whereby every improvement would immediately receive a thousand improvements if it were capable and the World the benefit at the same time And for the Philosophical Reasons of the Natures of these things from Authors I never saw any either of Meteors or this and as I suppose the thing is New so I know nothing but what reason has taught me in the use of it for about two years and a half Therefore it cannot be supposed the Method Reasons or Rules should be so smooth Direct and Perfect the first time as they may be afterward if I live and do well to make another Edition The Portable Barometer is an Instrument that weighs the Air measures its Height and foretells all the alterations of Weather both in Quantity and Quality which for the better understanding it will be convenient to tell the reasons which I shall do in ten Particulars Then shew the manner in its use and settle the Rules for there is no alteration of Weather which is not preceeded by an alteration of the weight of the Air both for Heat and Cold as well as Wet and Dry which comes to pass in this manner The continual motion of the Parts of Matter of which all things are composed and from whence they encrease and decay begets a mighty Emancipation of Atoms with constant Emanations from every part of all sorts of Bodies which being pressed on every side by the Universal Fluid of Air gives them particular bounds and so constitute an Atmosphere or Sphere of Attoms to every Body and is thereby also the cause of Electrical Attractions therefore the great Globe of Earth and Water with all its consistent Bodies must needs have very Copious Effluviums and so make a very large Atmosphere being by an Universal Motion driven from every part of the whole as far as the Power of that Motion and the Pressure of the Air will give leave which by that Pressure and their own weight are again returned like random-shot from whence they are sent This Sphere of Atoms or at least our Hemispherical part thereof is sometimes filled with more and less Emanations by the inequality of that Motion several Undulations particular Eddies and the Effluvia Circulations which in like manner does more or less keep off the Airs Gravitation whereby a Cylinder of the Air cannot weigh so much in wet or Winds Weather as it does in dry Weather and not as John Smith tells us by his Principle of Philosophy that the Air is lighter by being mixt with watery vapors tho a thousand times heavier than its self and mixes Water with Rectified Spirits of Wine for a Demonstration in his Horological Disquisitions pag. 75. I say Winds as well as Wet keep off the Airs Gravitations for Winds also being only humid bodies sufficiently dilated and by that Expansive force the strugling Atoms as strangely agitated with numerous and powerful Attacks from multitudes of fresh Emancipations and Eruptions from our Aeolian Globe must needs keep off the Air 's Gravitation much more then other Pacide Vapors as I shall further Demonstrate in the third and fifth Chapters following which in the Common Barometer make very
considerable alterations tho there be no Rain and are easily discovered by several Hygroscopes by their surprising Gravities as I shall shew in the tenth Chapter Thus our Aeolian Effluvia do not only keep off the Gravitation of the Air but are the cause of the variation of its weight CHAP. II. How Rain and Snow are Generated and Produced and why they make a Cylinder of Air lighter and yet any other particular parcel of Air much heavier WHat I have to say upon the Contents of this Chapter is not of the prime cause of Rain and Snow but only a short account of their Generation and Production in relation to their affections of the Atmosphere for the better understanding of the nature and use of the Barometer Rain and Snow then are generated of the same matter But for distinction I will first give an account of Rain and then of Snow Rain is generated of the Effluviums that constitute our Terraqueous Atmosphere being by their Emancipated motion in a certain part thereof driven towards the extremity of the Sun's reflections into a cooler Region they soon condense in some little part first which Condensation immediately makes room for the natural Elasticity of the Air which as soon begins to carry a long with it all the other Effluvia round about to the first Condensation where being by this Elastick force first brought from all the neighbouring parts the Effluvious Air then runs down by its own weight and Elasticity from every side to a vast extent where being heaped and crowded together they not only fall by their Innate Gravity but by the same motion of Air which now is Wind are sent down sometimes with extream violence and thus not only the neighbouring Atoms are condensed in a little Cloud and small Showers but the whole Hemispherical Effluvia are driven and drawn together and discharged upon a whole Country or national Horizon oftentimes till the whole half Atmosphere is emptied of all those Vapors and then having made a Current from every part beyond all the other Emanations that are raised in other parts of the world as readily flow hither to be discharged here in continual Rains for a long time together till by a piarticuler Condensation in some other Place the course is altered and the Current turned and then it may be Dry as long the Continual stream of Atoms being carried away to other Places to be discharged there The difference between storms or a little wet and lasting settled Rains is that in the first Emancipated Atoms being not so thick or Copious as at other times in their elevating Motions become Bounded by Particular Eddies of Air which drives them so close together that by this means they are formed into Clouds and by their being driven yet closer together by the Power and strength of these Eddies and the Addition of fresh Matter The small Atoms fall so fast one into another by Cold and compressure that very large Drops are Immediately produced and sent Down with more or less violence according to the Disposition of their Motion the Season and Air. But in settled Rains the Effluvious Vapors having for some time before been continually filling our Hemesphere from all parts without any discharge in a still and quiet manner without disturbing the Air at last receive a Condensation as above in some particular part which Immediately makes way for the Airs Elasticity But being now every where filled which these Vapors cannot unbend or move so fast yet continually brings the Neighbouring Vapors and so are gently and continually sent down as long as they last Snow is generated of the same Effluvium's or small peices of moisture when the Sun is at a convenient Distance and the Country proper with Hills Mountains and Latitudes The Calorifick Beams being easily hindred by them or not tended far enough for the other together with the Assistance of the Contrary Motions or Interpositions of the Beams of the other Stars or obstructed by the Numerous Effluvia that murales or or walls the whole Atmosphere or by contrary currants of Air or Winds and the Heat being thus or any other ways kept off and the Effluvious Vapours continuing their Pneumatick Motions without any great pressure they are not condensed into Drops but are frozen in their own shapes in some little part first which is quickly extended to all the rest by the Frigorifick Saline Particls as they use to tell us universally dispersed and mixed with these Atoms But rather by the former privations as will be further demonstrated in the 6 Chapter Then being driven a little closer they fall by their own weight in bigger or lesser Flakes and with more or less driving according as the Motion Cold and Pressure is Then as for Hail that is seldom any other ways than in Storms and is a kind of half frozen Snow and Rain mixed together The manner of its generation and Production may be easily conceived by the account I have given of Rain and Snow with better satisfaction than what they use to tell us of the drops freezing after they fall from the Clouds which is almost impossible But this being not so directly to my purpose I shall say no more of it but only demonstrate how Rain and Snow which thus thickens and fills the Air yet make a Cylinder thereof much lighter but any other particular parcel of Air much heavier The reason why Snow and Rain make a Cylinder of Air lighter is that the Effluvious vapours that constitute the Atmosphere and of which it consists being so very numerous from every part of Matter and so constantly and powerfully sent out that they not only make particular streams from the more fluid parts but an universal stream from the whole Globe of Earth and Water and all other consistent Bodies whatever This universal stream or flood of Vapors being thus united in all parts of the world make an intire screen of condensed or thickened Matter to a great thickness being near a thousand times more solid than Air before they appear in Clouds and therefore must needs keep off or stop the Airs penetration and thereby its Gravitation which yet does not require a general Rain or Snow for a little that comes by particular Currents or Eddies in Storms will do it for they being of no great height want no great extent to hinder both the direct and collateral pressure of the Air as has been observed by common Barometers in a little distance Thus the Ethereal Particles are always hindred by these Emanation at all times but much more in wet than in dry weather and the nearer the Earth's Surface the more they are obstructed as appears in the little heights of small Hills by the same Barometers so that it is impossible a Cylinder of Air should weigh so much in wet as it does in dry weather which I shall now demonstrate by Experiments also Experiments in weighing the Air. In weighing the Air with the Portable Barometer
the Weights may and do consist of Ounces Drachms Scruples and Grains and may as well be Pounds or Hundreds but will be most Convenient to have them of one Denomination and the bigger or more Weights we use the greater will be the variation of the smaller parts if the Balance be good to foretell the last as well as other alterations of weather by which with small weights except the Balance be very nice will not be casie to distinguish so many minute variations as all the alterations of weather will require I have therefore a weight consisting of or divided into 2000 equal parts for the Middle or Center of variation and have not yet observed the weight of Air to vary full 60 such parts either above or below that number that is 120 in all so if the weight be bigger the variations will be more as this of 2000 is 120 if it were 4000 the variation would be 240 such parts which is near ten times as much as in the Common Barometer but if it be but 1000 the variations will not be above 60 such parts which is 3 times as much as the common ones and to be less will not be so serviable January 3. 1698 9 a Cylinder of Air weighed but 1951 having been very wet the day before and rained all the night presceeding and now extream dark thick weather but no rain this thrid day Jan. 4. it weighed 1958 being very Cloudy but no Rain this day neither Jan. 6. it weighed 1964 when it rained all the day abundance The first of these times the Common Barometer was something below much Rain the next the Quicksilver stood at much Rain and in the last one division above much Rain Sept. 12. 1698 a Cylinder of Air weighed 2025 it was very fair clear and dry Octob. 3. 1698 a Cylinder weighed 2022 being very fair clear and dry Decemb. the 3d. and 4th 1698 a Cylinder of Air weighed 2026 being very fair yet thawing and a hard frost going away In the first of these the Common Barometer was at fair and at the second very near at the last somewhat above fair These I believe are sufficient to prove that a Cylinder of Air does not weigh so much in wet as in dry weather but yet a particular parcel of Air as a Quart Gallon or Bushel c. must needs weigh much heavier in a wet time or tho only misty then in a clear Season it containing so many watery Particles every where within our reach that there is not above one third part of pure Air if so much as I have several times tried Octob. 21 and 22. 1698 it rained both days almost from morning to night and so much in Buckingham and Bedfordshire that the like had not been known On the 21 I took a Brass Aeolipile which held something more than a Pint and half a little better than eight and twenty ounces of common well Water this was made as hot as it would indure and then the Orifice was very well stoped with a firm Cement and so laid to cool and when it was through cold in an exact pair of Scales it weighed Eight Ounces Seven Drachms and a half the Orifice being then opened to let in the Air it weighed something above 19 Grains more a Cylinder of Air at the same time weighed 1962 and the Quicksilver Glass stood 4 below Changeable The 22 in the morning the same quantity of Air weighed near 20 Grains a Cylinder of Air 1963 and the weather-glass as before Jan. 2. 1698 9 being a very wet day when a Cylinder of Air weighed but 1949 the Weather-glass at 2 below much Rain the emptied Aeolipile contained 21 grains and a half of humid Air. Jan. the 6. following very wet again yet a Cylinder of Air weighed 1964 the Weather-glass three divisions higher than on the second day but the exhausted Aeolipile 22 Grains of humid Air this day Then on the 12th of Sept. 1698 when a Cylinder of Air weighed 2025 the Weather Fair the Aeolipile heat and weighed as before would now hold but 15 Grains and a half of Air. Octob. 3d following a Cylinder of Air weighed 2022 being very fair and clear the Weather-glass very near the same height the Aeolipile weighed 16 Grains more when the Air was let in then before Decemb. the 4th 1698 a Cylinder of Air weighed 2026 being very fair but a little misty the Weather-glass a little above Fair the exhausted Aeolipile near 17 Grains more when the Air was let in then it did before This I believe is sufficient to make good the Title of this Chapter and prove the truth of a Paradox or two that the Aiâ— is both lighter and heavier in weâ— weather and both heavier and lighteâ— in dry weather But there is nor can be no certainty in the Aeolipilan way as I shall demonstrate in the 10 Chapter to foretell any alteration of weather by CHAP. III. How Winds Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornados are produced THe Portable Barometer being an Instrument that discovers all the alterations of Weather it will be convenient to give some account of Winds also what they are and how produced for they are as well foreseen by this as any other sort of weather and the reason we have had no better knowledge of them is only for want of a true method in Science to direct us in all natural observations to enlarge and confirm our knowledge That have kept us from it therefore what I have to say of Winds cannot be expected to be either so full or perfect as what is dilivered of more obvious Subjects being not so Cogniscible to our Senses but are indeed of a Metaphysical Nature of which few I suppose have made any great experiments but only given us some Historical relations of their strangeness and tho Winds are only the motions of Air yet their origines are almost as various as their motions and cannot be had from any one cause but we must ascend into the Regions of the Air and descend into the Caverns of the Earth and Waters of the Sea to understand them for we can never confine their original to any one efficient nor I believe there never was any single Theory yet stated that would resolve the whole Phaenominon of Winds which may be generated these six ways by Rarefaction Compressure Elasticity and Resilition or by Subterraneal or Submarine Eruptions The universal Efficient of the first four is chiefly the operations of the Sun Beams upon the Effluvious Air and that of the other two from Subterranial Vutrano's and Calid Emotions of Mineral Heterogenities as I shall successively shew First by Rarification that Air may be dilated to 100 200 nay 13000 times its former extent as the Honourable Esquire Boyle Mersennus and others have experienced without heat by removing the Circumjacent Pressure of the other Aerial Particles but let this or any such Rarefaction be produced from what cause soever either by the Sun Beams or any other
the weight of the Air alters tho never so much if it did not weigh above 1980 before the alteration began we may be sure there will be no Thunder but only tempestuous Winds and Rains neither here nor in no other parts of the world for in cold Countries it does not often weigh a great deal more nor in hot ones not often a great deal lefs which is easily proved without going into them places with several years continuance to make the experiments and will without doubt be of further use in many other respects if improved and applied as it may be to several other natural discoveries and by abstractions in time to the very Center of Beings the Almighty Grand and Catholick Efficient that is in and through all things CHAP. VIII That tho a Cylinder of Air weighs much less in wet or windyweather than it does in dry weather yet in a settled frost tho the Air appears never so clear and dry it weighs much lighter than at any other time THis seeming Paradox and may be that about weighing the winds would both of them been much more strange as well as hard and difficult to clear without this Instrument which is so easie to carry whereever we go and as easie at all times and places to weigh the Air with That if the Honourable Esquire Boyle had been so happy he might have known the reason why the Air was so thick in Nova Zembla that the Hollanders Clock would not go without the charge he was willing to give to know the weight of his Aeolipile full of that Air in the midst of Winter in his Physico-motion Exper. pag. 148. And in his Hist of Cold pag. 91. he has many suggestions about the same Clock and Captain James's Clock and Watch that wintered at Charleton and at last says they are but conjectures for by this it is easier to make a hundred Experiments in weighing the Air than one either with an Aeolipile or the Air Pump and thus in time to discover a great many more particulars hard and unthought of qualifications that may be would never have been known other ways for if according to the Rules or Laws of Hydrostaticks and Philosophy several qualifications of Liquids are discovered by their Gravity this that both weighs and measures at the same time must needs discover many more in all natural bodies as well as this of Air and has already discovered some much more subtile than the common Air and will easily go where that cannot and may be produced in one weeks time what this discovery may lead to I know not but am sure that which discovered it is capable of many others That the Air weighs less in wet or windy weather than in dry weather our Experiments proves and have told the reasons in the Second and fifth Chapters but how it should weigh less in hard frosty weather which seems to be more dry is yet to be inquired into for that cannot be from a greater plenty of the Effluvious Vapours because by this they are now all imprisoned in a manner within the Earths surface nor from an extraordinary agitation of the Air with violent Winds because there is nothing to put it into such a motion when the Air is so clear But because those almost inconceiveable minute Igneous Particles that are so easie collected in a Concave Glass and may be constitute the whole Aether and disperse themselves throughout all the Terraqueous Effluvia are by several causes or obstructions mostly hindred the other growing Languid fade and die in the same manner as the Atoms of our common Culinary Fires do and want a continual supply like them with other succedanums to maintain those curious agitations of the Atmosphere that keep it from Congelation these being wanting the Effluvious Vapours become more and more stiff unactive cold or frigid and at last to a perfect Gelicidation this continuing makes the whole Hemispherical part of the Atmosphere like one Gelicidium that with longer time grows thicker and harder reaching higher and higher and so more and more keeps off the Airs Gravitation which it can hardly penitrate because Ice is much more inpenetrable than the greatest winds or Clouds of Rain Hail Snow or other Vapours whereby a Cylinder of Air must weigh much less in a long and setled Frost than at any other time and yet the Air for the most part much more clear there in the hotest or dryest seasons for they sometimes want a good rain to clear it it being easier to see through the straight particles of Ice than the curvid ones of mists and other Vapours and thus places at a further distance may be much more easily seen and the Stars more numerous and yet the refraction very much greater by this Glaciation all which Captain James relates in his Journal to the Islands of Charleton that on the thirtieth and thirty first of Janury he saw two third parts more Stars than ever he had seen before pag. 62 and the Cloud in Cancer full of small Stars and the Sun to rise twenty minutes before it should and set so much later by reason of this Glaciating refraction pag. 64. and yet not more North than we in England in the Latitude of 52° or little more pag. 46. But the Hollanders at Nova Zembla saw the Sun 14 days sooner than he should have appeared by this mighty refraction this made the Air so clear yet so thick or rather stiff as Esquire Boyle calls it that the Hollanders Clock would not go at Nova Zembla nor Captain James Clock nor Watch at the Island of Charleton thus these Herculian Contradictions are reconciled and the usefulness of this Instrument further manifested tho never at the Island of Charlton Nova Zembla or Green-Land to weigh the Air in those places where an Aeolipile of Air in the midst of Winter hardly weighs more than this of ours in clear weather and the midst of Summer for I dare undertaken to guess the exact weight of an Aeolipile of Air with this Barometer in any sort of Weather Place or Time tho according to the Experiments in the Second Chapter an Aeolipile of Air sometimes weighs lest when a Cylinder of Air weighs heaviest and sometimes otherways I say sometimes for if it were always that would as well foretell the alterations of weather as the Barometer and thus also besides it is easie to prove that Igneous Atoms as well as other Particles have their proper mediums of Retention as well as Incorporation and our Atmospherical Air being so thin a fluid it can hold them but a little while tho never so much incorporated they having so great a liberty do as swiftly pursue it and as quickly arrive at the limits of their Extensions and Extinctions therefore it cannot retain them except it would also prevent their Extentions but if the Atmosphere be constantly filled with a great plenty of Effluvious Vapours tho the Promethean Fire be wanting that which remains and Reverberates
with the Terraqueous Emotions constantly assisting and being in a thicker medium tho there be a less degree of heat in appearance yet it will be longer retained will keep it from freezing all which is further demonstrable from all other liquids if heated the thicker they are the longer they keep hot or whether actually heated or not a common Thermometer will discover River or Pond-water in Winter time and sometimes in a warmer Season to be hoter than the Air and Sea or Salt-water to be warmer than those and Oyl of Tartar or Vitriol hoter than the Salt-water and Quicksilver the heaviest liquid we know which all the world look upon to be very cold to be warmer than any of them and so many others likewise CHAP. IX Whether the planetary Beams or influences can cause an alteration of weather to be foretold by them WHat some Astrologers have told us about the alterations of the weather from the Planets is no ways satisfactory and very strange it should be continued down to these times that some of our Vertuosi have not told us something about that as well as other natural discoveries that we might be no longer imposed upon by telling us the several sorts of winds and weather c. are appropriated to the several Planets but have told us neither Reason nor Cause of this Appropriation and others that the several Planets are Authors of these sorts of winds and weather and another that has writ only of the Weather tells us the Seven visible Planets in the Skies have their Correspondent ones in the Air and in the Bowels of the Earth that are night and day at work in making those forts of weather for us and thereby undertakes to tell the cause of all the vulgar Prognosticators errors and the true way of judging the weather with as much truth as the rest For indeed it is impossible that either Winds Rain or fair weather Frost Snow or Thunder should proceed from the Planets they being composed of no such matters nor are they intelligent to effect it yet it must be acknowledged that the Sun and Moon and the rest of the Planets and other Stars have their particular Rays of Light but whether these Rays of Light are Beams of fire or not and differ only in quantity and not in quality as their different lights appear and from whence they have their lights whether inate or not will be too much for this short account and that those from the Sun especially at any time of the year but too apparent to be questioned in Summer time are of sufficient power to disperse several Vapours Mists and Clouds raised from our Terraqueous Globe for 't is the Earth and not the Sun Moon or Stars that is the first Mother of Meteors 't is the Terrene Emotions with some new modifications that gives birth to them all according to the first second and third Chapters and not the Planers conjoyned in watery Signs where may be they placed the watery Windows of Heaven spoken of in the seventh of Genesis that makes their Apertio Portarum or opening the Gates of Heaven and those that rained Fire and Brimstone on Sodom in fiery Signs and others in Airy ones but we never heard what from earthly signs therefore as none of these sorts of weather can proceed from the Planets so neither can they from any of the Signs nor the Planets conjoyned in them but the Effluvia being raised in the preceeding manner are indetermined Precisely both to time and place yet by several Eruptions Propulsions Rarefactions Compressions and Resilitions they may receive or meet with as well in their first ascensions as afterwards they may be driven spread and discharged to and in several distant places without any other assistance but these chiefly happen in the Torrid Zone or in some Hilly or Mountainous Countries or near some Vulcanos c. by Paroxysms and not often in more open and plain Countries or Temperate Climates and are constant no where whereby the Effluvia are sometimes in the first sort of places left and at most times in other places to the disposal of the Beams or Influences of the Heavens which I believe may be evinced of sufficient power to alter and disperse them First of the Sun Beams which in most Countries are known every day they appear but a few hours to disperse all foggy Mists and Vapours and turn a dark Cloudy morning into a clear and fair Day not by any occult property but by a manifest one as all other heat in Boyling Distilling or other Coction does and so for winds the general or Trade Winds are always according to the Course of the Sun or Earth as far as these Beams and the inferiour Tract is conformable or proper some degrees beyond the whole breadth of the Zodiack on either side they constantly propelling all humid Vapours and Air before them and so likewise the Monsoons which Sir Thomas Herbert in his Travels says begin exactly at the Sun's entrance into a Sign of the Zodiack and blow half a year constantly that way till the Sun enter into the opposite Degree and then they blow in the same manner the other way Captain Swanly says the Monsoons raigns five months on one side of the Compass and five months on the other and that there are two months in which they change are variable or break up as some term these alterations in March and September when the Sun crosses the Line and as long as the Sun is on the north side of the Aequator to the Tropique of Cancer the winds are to the northward and veery more northerly according to the course of the months and when on the South side of the AEquinoctial the winds blow from thence in the same manner and thus also there is half a year of fair Monsoons and half a year of Rainy and fowl Monsoons and that the fair Monsoons blow off the Shoars and the Rainy Monsoons on the Shoars and that near all Lands between the Tropicks Eastwards of Cape-Bon-Esperance in the rainy Monscons there happen some fair intervals but in the dry Monsoons seldom any rain and to this purpose many other relations might be as easily transeribed but that the certain knowledge and experience of all our own and other Country Seamen to those places make it needless thus we see the Beams in those neighbouring Regions are so plentiful and turgid that they drive all before them in winds with constant dry weather if of the Land side and with almost continual rains if from the Sea thus also these tumultuous and unequal crowds of Effluvia make that inequality of heat and cold that Ariesta relates and complains of in the burning Zone where he had the Sun for Zenith and expected to be scorched with heat he was forced to go into the Sun-shine for warmth and that he saw Snow Hail and frozen water on the tops of Mountains and the cold so bitter that all the Grass was
as we see and know the Blowing of the Wind. These if Life and Leisure last will at some time or other come abroad either by themselves or in another Edition of this to which by their Discovery they do more Properly belong IN the mean time if any Gentlemen Merchants Seamen or others desire any of these Portable Barometers as They are of real worth in all proceeding ways and for many other Discoveries and have been very chargeable so they will not be parted with but by Subscriptions for a Thousand to pay one Guinee a peace down for as many as the Subscriber intends to have to Mr whom I shall be obliged to give a discharge and return the Money if they be not Delivered in three months after Subscriptions but upon delivering the Barometers the Subscribe to pay half a Guinea a piece more for as many as he has subscribed for So the Subscribers shall have them Compleat as easily Portable in a manner as a Knife and Fork or some Ink-Horns and as seeure to be carried any where that neither the heat of the Body Fire nor Air except put into the Fire Frost nor Wet can any ways alter Which if secured from other Makers would not be sold under two or three Guineas THE Table or Contents CHAP. WHat the Portable Barometer is the Constitution of the Atmosphere and that the Effluvia keep off the Airs Gravitation and are the Cause of the variation of its weight Pag. 1 Chap. 2. How Rain and Snow is Generated and Produced and why they make a Cylinder of Air lighter and yet any other particular parcel of Air much heavier Pag. 7 Chap. 3. How Winds Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornados are produced Pag. 19 Chap. 4. That violent Tempests Hurricanes Tornados seldom happen in cold Countries Winter Seasons large Plains or Great Seas Pag. 28 Chap. 5. That they are easily foretold because they produce the greatest variations in the weight of Air. Pag. 32 Chap. 6. What frost and Thunder is a Conjecture at their Causes and Productions Pag. 39 Chap. 7. That there never is no settled Frost to hold when the Air continues to weigh 2020 or more nor never no Thunder when it weighs but 1980 or less Pag. 42 Chap. 8. That tho a Cylinder of Air weight much less in wet or windy weather than it does in dry weather yet in a settled frost tho the Air appears never so clear and dry it weighs much less than at any other time Pag. 48 Chap. 9. Whether the Planetary Beams or Influences can cause an alteration of the weather to be foretold by them Pag. 55 Chap. 10. That it is impossible by an Hygroscope Thermometer or other Invention to know the true state of the Air. Pag. 82 Chap. 11. The use of the Portable Barometer how to weigh the Air Measure its Height and foretell all the alterations of weather Pag. 86 Chap. Rules for the more certain knowledge of all the alterations of weather both in quantity and quality pag. 91. FINIS Books Printed for W. Hawes at the Rose in Ludgate-street A True Account of Germany its Strength and Power together with a Discourse of War and Peace with Remarks and Maxims of Charles V. late Duke of Lorrain General of the Emperor's Forces From a Manuscript left by him and never Printed before A New English Dictionary with the Terms of Gypsies Beggers Thieves Cheats c. Usefull for all sorts of People especially Foreigners to secure their Money and preserve their Lives beside very Diverting and Entertaining never Printed before by Edward Bellamy of Grays-Inn Gent. Ten Pleasant and Delightful Novels VIZ. Rival Ladies The Mistake The Generous Lover The Libertine The Virgin Captive The Perfidious Mistress The Metamorphos'd Lover The Imposter out Witted The Amorous Miser The Pretended Alchymist Being Collected and Printed in 1. Voll