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Page 108 - The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
Page 65 - Mexico, and, by heating the land violently, cause the air to rise over it. But the vacuum is filled up not only from the northward, but by the comparatively cold air of the equatorial regions in the neighbourhood.
Page 72 - Maryland, New Jersey, and New York on the 17th ; off George's Bank and Cape Sable on the 18th ; and over the Porpoise and Newfoundland Banks on the 19th of the same month ; having occupied about...
Page 14 - ... pressures counterbalance each other. In the same manner the fluid atmosphere presses equally in all directions, and the human body immersed in it may be compared to a sponge plunged into deep water ; it is not crushed, because the water fills the cavities of the sponge, and also surrounds it entirely. In like manner our bodies, and even our bones, are filled either with liquids capable of sustaining pressure, or with air of the same density as the external air, so that the outward is counteracted...
Page 61 - Trade on the other side of the equator. When the comparatively slow-moving air of the temperate zone, caused by the rotatory motion of the earth to the east, first comes into contact with the...
Page 65 - Monsoons are periodical currents of air 600116 ? which in the Arabian, Indian, and China seas blow for nearly six months of the year in one direction, and for the other six in a contrary direction. They are called monsoons from an Arabic word signifying season ; they are also called periodical winds, to distinguish them from the trade-winds which are constant.
Page 38 - The most popular form is the common wheel-barometer, as it is called. In this instrument the tube, instead of terminating at the bottom in a cistern, is recurved, so as to form an inverted siphon. As a rise of the mercury in the longer or closed limb is equivalent to a fall in the shorter limb, and vice versa, a float is placed on the surface of the mercury in the shorter limb, and is connected with a string passing over a pulley, and very nearly balanced by another weight on the other side of the...
Page 66 - ... drawn to, which gives them an easterly character; and this combined with their proper motion, if I may so call it, from the north, produces the north-east monsoon. There...
Page 4 - Combustion. greater in summer than in winter, and during night than during day. It is also rather more abundant in elevated situations, as on the summits of high mountains, than in plains ; this is probably owing to an absorption of the gas near the surface of the earth by plants and moist surfaces.
Page 37 - By the barometric light, as it is called, or flashes of electric light in the Torricellian vacuum, produced by the friction of the mercury against the glass, when the column is made to oscillate through an inch or two in the dark ; 3.

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