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Meteorology By Aristotle

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Author Topic: Meteorology By Aristotle  (Read 2783 times)
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Bathos
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« Reply #60 on: August 31, 2009, 12:02:48 am »

So the whirlwind originates in the failure of an incipient hurricane
to escape from its cloud: it is due to the resistance which generates
the eddy, and it consists in the spiral which descends to the earth
and drags with it the cloud which it cannot shake off. It moves things
by its wind in the direction in which it is blowing in a straight
line, and whirls round by its circular motion and forcibly snatches
up whatever it meets.

When the cloud burns as it is drawn downwards, that is, when the exhalation
becomes rarer, it is called a fire-wind, for its fire colours the
neighbouring air and inflames it.

When there is a great quantity of exhalation and it is rare and is
squeezed out in the cloud itself we get a thunderbolt. If the exhalation
is exceedingly rare this rareness prevents the thunderbolt from scorching
and the poets call it 'bright': if the rareness is less it does scorch
and they call it 'smoky'. The former moves rapidly because of its
rareness, and because of its rapidity passes through an object before
setting fire to it or dwelling on it so as to blacken it: the slower
one does blacken the object, but passes through it before it can actually
burn it. Further, resisting substances are affected, unresisting ones
are not. For instance, it has happened that the bronze of a shield
has been melted while the woodwork remained intact because its texture
was so loose that the exhalation filtered through without affecting
it. So it has passed through clothes, too, without burning them, and
has merely reduced them to shreds.
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