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3. On the Place of the Poles of the Atmosphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2015

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Extract

This was merely a note on some of the recent discoveries and generalizations, by Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., on the motions of the atmosphere. It had been clearly proved by the extensive researches of Lieut. M., that the trade-winds when rising at the equator, do not, as previously held, return to their own poles, but cross over to the opposite ones; and thus traverse the extent of the whole earth from pole to pole, in a curvilinear direction, on account of the effect of the rotation of the earth.

Type
Proceedings 1851-52
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1857

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References

page no 104 note * I have just met with an, at first sight, anomalous instance, in the account of a circular storm experienced by the American exploring expedition under Captain Wilkes in the neighbourhood of the Cape De Verd Islands, a similar latitude to the West Indies, but on the “wrong” side of the Atlantic, and moreover revolving with the hands of a watch, “wrong” also. But the parent wind in this case is described to have been SE., which explains everything; and shews that the whole phenomenon is an affair of mechanical conditions in the currents of air at the place; that these being reversed, the hurricane phenomena are reversed also, and that there is no magnetic or other virtue residing in either hemisphere, and compelling air to circulate in any particular direction by reason of its place.