Wind Pressures.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 29

Wind Pressures.

! The wind pressures experienced in India are remarkable. On October sth, 1864, on the Eastern Bengal railway, two trains were upset during a violent storm. One of these was a train of eight passenger vehicles, and was upset near Echapore. The other was a train of twelve passenger vehicles, and was upset near Arrunghatta. In both cases all the passenger vehicles were blown over on their sides. Besides these carriages, four waggons were blown from a siding at Buggoolalo, and capsized about half a mile north of that station on the same day, from collisions caused by waggons which were started from sidings from the force of the wind. On Sept. 21st, 1878, a long train of waggons, travelling about eight miles an hour, on the Eastern Bengal railway, was brought to a standstill by a heavy storm, and was then forced back about a mile with full steam and brake against it. Eighteen waggons were then detached ; but even with half the train it was found difficult to continue the journey. On November 20th, 1880, at Negapatano, on the South Indian railway, an empty covered goods waggon was upset by the wind while standing at rest on a siding. Numerous instances have occurred on tho Indian railways of trains being stopped, or nearly so, by the force of the wind.

The wind pressures above alluded to are certainly very remarkable for continuous pressures ; but in the exceptional cases of tornadoes such as those which passed over portions of Kansas and other states in that vicinity during the two last seasons, the pressures were far in excess of anything related of India. If the accounts are reliable, large animals, such as horses, were lifted completely from the ground and carried long distances in the air ; human beings were lifted in the same way and dashed to death. Houses were utterly destroyed to their foundations, and their timbers and boards scattered far and wide over the adjacent fields. Electricity, doubtless, has much to do with the violence of such tornadoes.