Benjamin Franklin: The First American Storm Chaser
Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents. His fame as a scientist is only overshadowed by his fame as a statesman and founding father of the United States of America. Franklin was perhaps America's first meteorological scientist. Others before him had been weather observers, but few set out to observe and then explain weather phenomena.
In 1755, Franklin had the opportunity to observe first-hand a large whirlwind or dust devil. As it passed, he gave chase, thus making him America's first storm chaser. Franklin's observations of this whirlwind were recorded in a letter to Peter Collinson. The letter is reprinted in its entirety below. The spelling is Franklin's. However, the text has been broken up into paragraphs for easier reading.
TO PETER COLLINSON
Philadelphia, Aug. 25, 1755
DEAR SIR,
As you have my former papers on Whirlwinds, &c.,
I now send you an account of one which I had lately
an opportunity of seeing; and examining myself.
Being in Maryland, riding with Colonel Tasker, and
some other gentlemen to his country-seat, where I and
my son were entertained by that amiable and worthy
man with great hospitality and kindness, we saw in the
vale below us, a small whirlwind beginning in the road,
and shewing itself by the dust it raised and contained.
It appeared in the form of a sugar-loaf, spinning on its
point, moving up the hill towards us, and enlarging as it
came forward. When it passed by us, its smaller part
near the ground, appeared no bigger than a common
barrel, but widening upwards, it seemed, at 40 or 50
feet high, to be 20 or 30 feet in diameter. The rest of
the company stood looking after it, but my curiosity
being stronger, I followed it, riding close by its side, and
observed its licking up, in its progress, all the dust that
was under its smaller part. As it is a common opinion
that a shot, fired through a water-spout, will break it, I
tried to break this little whirlwind, by striking my whip
frequently through it, but without any effect.
Soon after,
it quitted the road and took into the woods, growing
every moment larger and stronger, raising, instead of
dust, the old dry leaves with which the ground was thick
covered, and making a great noise with them and the
branches of the trees, bending some tall trees round in a
circle swiftly and very surprizingly, though the progressive
motion of the whirl was not so swift but that a man
on foot might have kept pace with it; but the circular motion
was amazingly rapid. By the leaves it was now filled
with, I could plainly perceive that the current of air they
were driven by, moved upwards in a spiral line; and when
I saw the trunks and bodies of large trees invelop'd in the
passing whirl, which continued intire after it had left them
I no longer wondered that my whip had no effect on it in
its smaller state. I accompanied it about three quarters
of a mile, till some limbs of dead trees, broken off by the
whirl, flying about and falling near me, made me more
apprehensive of danger; and then I stopped, looking at
the top of it as it went on, which was visible, by means
of the leaves contained in it, for a very great height above
the trees. Many of the leaves, as they got loose from the
upper and widest part, were scattered in the wind; but
so great was their height in the air, that they appeared
no bigger than flies.
My son, who was by this time come
up with me, followed The whirlwind till it left the woods,
and crossed an old tobacco-field, where, finding neither
dust nor leaves to take up, it gradually became invisible
below as it went away over that field. The course of the
general wind then blowing was along with us as we
travelled, and the progressive motion of the whirlwind
was in a direction nearly opposite, though it did not keep
a strait line, nor was its progressive motion uniform, it
making little sallies on either hand as it went, proceeding
sometimes faster and sometimes slower, and seeming
sometimes for a few seconds almost stationary, then
starting forward pretty fast again.
When we rejoined the
company, they were admiring the vast height of the leaves
now brought by the common wind, over our heads. These
leaves accompanied us as we travelled, some falling now
and then round about us, and some not reaching the
ground till we had gone near three miles from the place
where we first saw the whirlwind begin.
Upon my asking
Colonel Tasker if such whirlwinds were common in Maryland,
he answered pleasantly, "No, not at all common;
but we got this on purpose to treat Mr. Franklin." And a
very high treat it was, to
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and humble servant. .
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