It is proposed in this essay to inquire into the effects which are produced, both in the atmosphere and in the ocean, by this disturbance of equilibrium, and by means of a new force which has never been taken into account in any theory of winds and currents, to endeavor to account for certain phenomena in their motions, which have been a puzzle to meteorology and hydrology. But as some parts of the earth are much warmer than others, and air and water expand and become rare as their temperature is increased, their specific gravities are not the same in all parts of the earth, and hence the equillibrium is destroyed, and a system of winds and currents is produced. If the specific gravity of the atmosphere and of the ocean were everywhere the same, all the forces of gravity and of pressure which act upon any part of them, would be in exact equilibrium, and they would forever remain at rest. It is also partially surrounded by the ocean, which is of a very variable depth, and known to be, in many places, more than four miles. The earth is surrounded on all sides by an exceedingly rare and elastic body, called the atmosphere, extending with a diminishing density to an unknown distance into space, but pressing upon the earth with a force equal to that of a homogenous atmosphere five and a half miles high. 190994 An essay on the winds and the currents of the ocean 1856 William Ferrel
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