DO CLOUDS FLOAT?

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 230, 26 September 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

DO CLOUDS FLOAT?

Jnvariflibly are seen to ■drift along in the sky. The fact simrcly ie tihait as soon as t!he ascending columns of warm air reach the upper regions, where transverse, ounTen<tfl, instead of wndinjf otips. provai'l. tihe rolling mist wrea.bhe which are precipitated from fhe air fire cnrrnVd i&way by. the wind. The so-called floating of tihe cloud is simply a. nvntteir of drift- Waieir is rninny tomes heavier *li«n a ' r - <wtnspqiiently it must fall vJb&n deposited in air, as, indeed, it Is actually wen to do in fhe case of rain-drops. Tf clouds, therefore, are wmnosed of liquid wnier gathered out of bhe vapour, should fell and not flimt. Some indemnity has been expendnd by scientific men in the attemipt to flifwmin't for this apparent anomaly*. Clouds Tteyer re.<d *tiH in air; Wiey are a.t all times i<n mTktnon; tihey are aiwaye \<n the flint of bpiner blonrn/ by tlhe wind. When rain-drops fall ait *he time ihwb a, etrong wind is blowimt?, ■Kh"py are obeerved to Ibe ca.rried a con-«tidp.-rable di«rtin<*e alomsr; and if the raindroTw were liVhter Vhtm tftiey a-re bhey would be canm'fd still farther by tihe wind before they finally renclhed the STWtmd. Tf, for ibhey -were Wllow, air-fiTled bnlla, like balloons, instead of eonrwaicft drops of liquad, fchpy would drift upon fhe wind Irm«f distances, and this, it will be reTirem'bpred, fa precisely wna-t clond irthpimlee a,re.—From Part 10 "CasselPs Popular Sdence."