The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial NavigationBacon, John M. (John Mackenzie)
History
The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial Navigation
Bacon, John M. (John Mackenzie)
Aeronautics -- History; Balloons
The above instructive phenomenon could hardly have been noticed save
by an aeronaut, and the same may be said of the following. Passing in
a clear sky over the spot where the Marne flows into the Seine, M.
Flammarion notes that the water of the Marne, which, as he says, is as
yellow now as it was in the time of Julius Caesar, does not mix with the
green water of the Seine, which flows to the left of the current, nor
with the blue water of the canal, which flows to the right. Thus, a
yellow river was seen flowing between two distinct brooks, green and
blue respectively.
Here was optical evidence of the way in which streams of water which
actually unite may continue to maintain independent courses. We have
seen that the same is true of streams of air, and, where these traverse
one another in a copious and complex manner, we find, as will be shown,
conditions produced that cause a great deadening of sound; thus, great
differences in the travel of sound in the silent upper air can be
noticed on different days, and, indeed, in different periods of the same
aerial voyage. M. Flammarion bears undeniable testimony to the manner in
which the equable condition of the atmosphere attending fog enhances,
to the aeronaut, the hearing of sounds from below. But when he gives
definite heights as the range limits of definite sounds it must be
understood that these ranges will be found to vary greatly according
to circumstances. Thus, where it is stated that a man's voice may make
itself heard at 3,255 feet, it might be added that sometimes it cannot
be heard at a considerably less altitude; and, again, the statement that
the whistle of a locomotive rises to near 10,000 feet, and the noise of
a railway train to 8,200 feet, should be qualified an additional note
to the effect that both may be occasionally heard at distances vastly
greater. But perhaps the most curious observation of M. Flammarion
respecting sounds aloft relates to that of echo. To his fancy, this had
a vague depth, appearing also to rise from the horizon with a curious
tone, as if it came from another world. To the writer, on the contrary,
and to many fellow observers who have specially experimented with this
test of sound, the echo has always appeared to come very much from the
right place--the spot nearly immediately below--and if this suggested
its coming from another world then the same would have to be said of all
echoes generally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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