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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56139	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 airs gravitation : with a new account and experiments, how rain, snow, winds, frost, thunder, lightning, hurricans and tornados 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 of weather by : and lastly, rules and experiments for the certain knowledge of all the alterations of weather, both in quantity and quality / by Gust. Parker, Med.	Parker, Gustavus.	1699 (1699)	Wing P391; ESTC R1399	37,634	125

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 Ai● is both lighter and heavier in we● weather and both heavier and lighte● 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

first yet I believe the most that ever was published before in this way and question not but future Observations will confirm not the Names and Motions but the Laws of the Stars thereby for from hence there is a reason why the Planets Poles of Positions and the Divisions of the Heavens are taken according to the Latitude of the Place in an Oblique Sphere and many other things as pertinent butreferred till then CHAP. X. That it is impossible by any Hygroscope Thermometer or other Invention to know the true state of the Air. HAving now given a short account of the preceding Heads it will be convenient to say something of the common Instruments that are used to foretell the alterations of weather by or that the alterations of the Air are used to have an influence upon and such are of three sorts First such as imbibe the Effluvious Air and are Callid Hygroscopes Secondly such as have a parcel of Air included with ting'd Spirits and sealed up in Cylindrical Glasses and are Callid Thermometers or thirdly such as contain some spirituous or other liquid in a Cylindrical pipe of Glass clos'd at one end and open at the other and inverted into an open Vial or Cistern of the same liquor exposed to the open Air and are Callid Thermoscopes or Baroscopes c. The Hygroscopes are of several sorts but the most Fam'd one is that of a wild Oat-beard described in Mr Hookes Mirrographia page 147 others are made of Sheeps Gutts or Fiddle-strings Pieces of Leather Ropes Cords Sponge Wool Paper or Deal-shavings c. and may be made of any other thing that will imbi be the humid Air or that the Air can easily penetrate as Willow Sallow Ozier Alder and other soft woods That of an Oat-beard turns and unturns in dry and moist weather and is fitted with an Index that points to all the variations Sheeps-guts Fiddle-strings Pieces of Leather Ropes and other Cords are fastened against some Wall Board or Timber and extended either Horizontally or Perpendicularly and then a convenient weight hung on the middle or other end will rise and fall in wet and dry weather Sponge Wooll Paper or Deal-shavings c. are tyed together with some string or in a thin Silk or Linen Case or Bag in a round or oval form or balance with Scales and Weights which will be heavier or lighter in wet or dry weather The imperfections of all which are easily seen first in respect of themselves and their adjustings and secondly in respect of the alterations of the Air in respect of themselves the Oatbeards will in a little time grow much more stiff hard close and brittle and instead of two three or four times turning about will not turn once and not long before it will not move at all which it gradually comes to as it grows more and more Ramalious or sare and Dead for which reason also there can be no certain adjusting of that for by the time it can be adjusted at first the Texture of its parts will be so much altered in relation to its motion that it will want a new adjustion and so Sheeps-gutts Fiddle-strings Pieces of Leather Ropes or other Cords do all alter in the same manner nor can Sponge Wooll Paper or Deal-shavings or any other such thing be preserved or any ways secured from the same inconvenience but if they could it would yet be impossible they should shew any alteration of weather with any manner of certainty for as they only imbibe and are receptacles of the subtile Humid Vapours that sometimes fill the lower Regions before it rains so they can shew no other alterations but what they make in their coming and going which are sometimes much more in Mists after it has rained or when there is no rain follows or upon the going a way of a Frost or melting of a Snow than at coming of the greatest rains and so on the contrary when these Vapours cannot come so low in frosty or windy weather they will shew no alteration till after the rain is come and Snow seldom makes any alterations in them except it melts as it falls And in Summer time and dry Seasons it is so also no alteration till the rain is coming or that it have rained but if a misty morning happen they will alter much more Besides if all these inconveniencies could be prevented they cannot well be put into a travelling Security by reason of the several alterations they will be subject to from the heat of the Body Warmth and Fires in Houses and the different tempers of the Air abroad Secondly those that have a parcel of Air included with tinged Spirits and sealed up in Cylindrical Glasses these for distinction are called Hermetick Thermometers and of a later invention and thereby thought by some to exceed all other discoveries for heat and cold but are not pretended nor intended to shew any thing else which by the natural Expansion and Contraction of the included Air with heat and cold gives way for the rising and falling of the Spirits and have no manner of tendency for wet and dry and therefore of very small use or service for we know the weather is sometimes very cold yet fair and dry and sometimes as cold when it rains snows or blows and sometimes fair and dry in hot weather and sometimes as wet or windy But as the former are deficient in wet and dry so are these in heat and cold and it is impossible they should shew any truth in what they pretend for no body has yet told us the proportion between the Head and the Cylinder nor can they make two to rife and fall alike with the same Spirits nor have they told us what is best to put in them whether Spirits of Wine Vinegar Salt Vitriol Tartar or Sulphur or Oyl of Turpentine Amber Wax or Anis c. or other things besides all liquids are expanded and contracted with Heat and Cold so apparently that our Seamen have observed their Ships to draw less Water in Cold and Frozen Countries tho the Water is not in those places so Salt therefore not naturally so heavy than they do in warmer places so that the Water is thicker and heavier in cold than in warmer places and seasons and the Honourable Esquire Boyle has observed it to Dilate and Contract it self in the same day by a Hermetick Glass Bubble that would sink in Water at noon time and rise and swim night and morning Therefore if Water will thus visibly Dilate and Contract it self in such large quantities and places it will be much more so in the slender stem of a Thermometer and any sort of volatile spirits a great many times more than Salt or other Fountain Water and thus also some Spirits will Dilate and Contract more than others which makes all these things the more uncertain and no body knows how much these spirits will Dilate and Contract themselves by Heat or Cold yet there is a way

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

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 ●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 til● 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

and to be driven never so close by Winds and Compressions the other third part will prevent the Ignition of the rest which is easily experienced by taking Niter Sulphur and Water of each alike in a Crucible that will hold two or three times as much well luted and set it on a gentle fire at first the Crucible may be very red without any fire breaking out and if then a vent be made through the Lute to let it boyl over which it will immediately do into the fire yet it will not kindle till the water is evaporated We have another common Experiment in the tryal of Spirits of Wine with Gunpowder the most inflammable of any thing we know by taking the Spirits of Wine in a Spoon with some Corns of Gunpowder at the bottom and seting it on fire if there be but a little Phlegm in the Spirits the Gunpowder will be left almost dry at the bottom yet not fired tho surrounded with the fire and kept stirring all the while Thus it seems almost impossible Thunder and Lightning should be produced from any thing of Niter or Sulphur or any Terrene Effluvia without some other assistance but rather from a Concave Collection of the Promethean Fire by several Nebulous Conical Profundities which cannot be when the Air thickens by degrees for continual Rains for then the Sun Beams are equally mixed with the Effluvia only some few excluded and the Atmosphere being of one consistency there can be no such disturbance but when it is somewhat still and in a little dryish time and place when the Effluvia are sent up by more plentiful streams from some particular places and fewer from others by which if those streams receive a circumjacent pressure by their propulsions through the Effluvious Air or be but kept from dilating they will naturally terminate in Cones but whether Conical or Cylindrical those nearest the Earth will be most united and thereby form the Solar Rays into erect or inclining Conical figures amongst the Clouds which by the Atmospherical Eddies and Currents that are then very deep both Fire and Water becomes more and more compressed and cannot be carried very far before they are dischared some indirect Coruscations which they may gain by that motion and others in collateral or inclining one which they may be brought to in the same manner so that whenever the Effluvious Vapours receive or acquire such a disposition with sufficient depth and density it may Thunder tho in Winter and for further confirmation if we take an ordinary Concave-Glass and concenturate the Sun Beams but upon a Bason of Water they will quickly put it into a Bullition and if kept steady upon the same place for some time they will at last give it the same motion and sound of Thunder with that in the Clouds but if with a onveniently shap'd and sized Glass like a Boult-head with a long neck being exactly placed and filled with fair water and with a good Concave-glass the Sun Beams be concenturated upon that solid body of Water in the other Glass with care to heat it leisurely that the fire may not crack the Glass till throughly warm and then kept steady upon the same place as before these Igneous Corpuscles will not only bring that water to the same Thundring Bullitions with that in the Clouds by the various impulsive motions of its rising and falling but these very Beams by those impulsions will variously penetrate both glass and water in diverse linghtning flashes Thus we have no occasion to fill the Air with so much Niter and Sulphur to save the Phaenomenon of Thunder and Lightning but it will be sufficient to have it seasoned like other products then for the Lightnings coming downwards either right side ways or inclining and as it was thought contrary to the nature of other fire whose flame was also thought would go no other ways but upwards till by melting Niter in some Iron or other Sulphureous Vessels that spirituous and penetrating Salt by that heat mixing with the imbibed Oyl or concetred Sulphur as soon as it has acquired a compleat red body of fire I say a body of fire whose Atoms having the same passages can as well go back as they came in and these Saline Particles can now we see by the help of that Oyl or Sulphur accompany them with natural Coruscations for Niter being made a body of fire that consists of such subtile or rather spirituous parts to what part soever the Oyl or Sulphur or any other combustible matter is contiguous from thence the flashes must proceed there being nothing to hinder as well downwards inclining or side-ways as right up and so from any other body of fire that is not fuel as well as Niter for Niter is no ways inflammable of its self which may soon be proved in a Crucible at any time but it is impossible the flame of any combustable matter alone however disposed should go any other ways than upwards except the Air incline it other ways because the Terrene Propulsions are made that ways and increased by the heat if near and most such things growing liquid by inversion and that weight are extinguished but yet it is as unlikely if not impossible that any fiery flashes should be produced from any Terrene Concrete to be continued to half that strength and distance that Lightning is known to be of nor can they by any means be brought to a true resemblance not those of Niter and Sulphur to them of Lightning whose Rays being universally defused are easily collected and may be compressed a thousand times more than a little Air in a wind Gun to solve the Phaenomena of many other Consequences but the hardest of all is that it is often times known to Hail with Thunder and Lightning how these Clouds that contain so much fire should yet freeze the water is very strange that it cannot in thundring weather well be thought to freeze in falling as was formerly asserted but rather that in warm seasons as some places become dry so the moist ones send up more plentiful Effluvia whereby these plentiful Effluvia become limited to such places and more Jejune Effluvia to the dry ones which being augmented to a sufficient depth and density they will both exclude and collect the Solar Rays at the same time the more powerfully by this disposition and their contrary qualities and so may Hail and Thunder at the same time tho in hot weather this also is the reason why commonly the Spring time and not in Summer is more windy and stormy than any other Season and from hence another of more wet in Autumn but will be too much for this short account tho it would further elucidate the matter and give an explication to that of Frost which I shall now endeavour to evince by these Experiments Frost then being only an ultimate but may be not the most ultimate effect of Cold is produced by greater or lesser degrees of that

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-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

proved to be the hardest since the great one 13 years before the Air weighed that day 1996 and continued with very little alteration till the 16th after which it decreased 2 or 3 parts and sometimes 4 in 24 hours to the end of the month when it weighed but 1950 the second of February it increased a little and weighed 1962 on the fourth when there was so sharp a freezing wind that my hand on the Iron handle of a Pail or Well-Bucket it would cleave so fast to it that it was ready to pull off the skin to take my hand off again or to try with my finger as several others did by dabbing on a fresh place of the Iron it immediately stuck so fast it made it very sore to pull off and could not indure to do it above a time or two After the fourth it decreased again till the seventh when it weighed but a little above 1949 where it continued 12 days to the 19th and was very sharp but after that it began to incerase again slowly till the 6th of March when it weighed 1968 and went a way a few days after About the 20th of January when the weight of the Air was abated about 19 parts and the Quicksilver sunk between three and four tenths I began to think the weather would alter in a few days to Rain or Snow but weighing thus till the end of the month the Air growing lighter and lighter all the while and the Quicksilver at last near half way below Rain and yet the weather clear and more sharp and freezing by the Hermetick Thermometer was I thought the strangest thing that could happen I therefore weighed and measured several quantities or particles of Air in Cylinders Cones Globes and other figures of several dementions some times 18 or 20 times in a day in several distant places Tops of Hills Vallies Deepwells Mines and Coal-pits warm fire Rooms Stoves and open Air And thus at last with a great deal of Pains and Cost found the Air it self was frozen and thereby kept off the Superiour Gravitation and by continuing these means the reasons of all the other alterations of weather as well hot as cold wet and dry Wind and Thunder c. November the 28th 1697 a little frost began of about 8 days that day the Air weighed 1972 the 30th it weighed 1997 the 3d of December it weighed 2022 the 5th 2034 being very fair all the while and froze very hard about the 1d and 2d the next day it grew warm but then decreased to 2003 in 24 hours there was first a little Snow then small Rain and the frost went away But December the 3d 1698 having been frosty for sometime the weight of the Air increased to 2020 the 4th was very fair yet thawed apace the mornings and evenings a little misty with the thaw but otherways very clear and so went away without any Rain The 29th of October at night 1697 the Air weighed 2018 the next morning it weighed but 1996 the day was very windy but no Rain But the effects of the Greatest wind that have been for many years are related in the 5th Chapter April the 10th 1699 the Air weighed but 1978 the 11th it weighed 1996 there was first a little small rain but after that very windy the 12th in the morning at six it weighed 2018 at 10 but 1990 at 12 1988 about 3 or 4 in the afternoon being near Maidenhead there was a very strange and unusual Tempest in the adjacent parts of Buckingham and Barkshire of Wind and Thunder and Lightning with Hail and Rain with that violence or strangeness that the Displosive Crackes of Wind and Thunder were hardly to be distinguished April the 16th following being near London at noon the Air weighed 2005 at 9 at night but 1987 the 17th at 6 in the morning it weighed but 1970 about 2 afternoon it began to be a little Stormy and at 4 a great Tempest of Thunder and Lightning Hail and Rain I have many other remarkable alterations of Rain Snow Cold Hot Wet and Dry weather but reserve them with the several other things for another opportunity ADDENDA SInce the former sheets were in the Press the continual use of this Barometer has discover'd several other things that former Ages were used to think too Good for their Enemies or Ungratitude which may be was the Reason that have hindred us from those Advantages Some of these are First the true Cause or Reason of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea in so plain and satisfactory a manner that it leaves no room for the lest scruple about it and Salves all the Appearances with Mathematical Certainty of that hitherto unknown mighty work of nature why the highest and lowest Spring and Nape Tides are Constantly about three days after the Change Full and Quarters of the Moon And why the Spring and Nape Tides are so much greater in March and September than at any other time of the year And why there is 15 or 16 Foot Difference between high and low Water in some Places and not above 3 or 4 in others And though I have neither had neither time nor opportunity to observe it since I Discover'd it yet I am sure it is not the Moons being upon a Certain Meridian that makes it high or low Water at that time the same day but a Particular and Proper Distance of the Sun and Moon 24 hours or more before that time All which is as Plain as the Tides are visible And immediately after it discovered the true Reason of the Magnetick Needles Pointing to the North and South and of its variations And that many other things so Placed will have the same Tendences as I soon Experienc'd After which I tried several others Exactly fitted in as many Fluid Currents which all stood the same way For if they were nicely fitted in true Aequilibrium and Both Ends of equal distance from the Centre they would not Point but Lie Cross the Current But if being in Aquilibrium one End were longer than the other they would not lie Cross but Point and which End that was may easily be guess'd From whence we may be sure the Longitude Can never be truly found by the Variation or the Variation of the Variation as some have thought It has Discover'd several other things about the Prime and original Cause of Winds Rain Hail Frost Snow Thunder and other Meteors what it is that gives the Air that motion we call Wind originally and what Gathers Clowds and Condenses the Effluvia into Rain That it is not the influence of ♂ or ♃ nor the Centeral motion of the Sun nor always the Latitude of the Place that makes Warm or Cold Weather But that the Cloudes do always Concenturate the Sun Beams to make Thunder with a further most Plain and Sensible Demonstration of the Influence of the Stars that are so sweet and binding and in their Courses fought against Sisera in all Respects as Apparent