The Science of Bells and Thunderstorms September 19, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Can bells drive away thunder and lightning? Well, d’oh, obviously not. But most of us know that for centuries that western Christians believed that bells did have this power. What Beach had not understood until today was that there was an early modern attempt to explain the science behind bells and thunder: that is the notion that bells really can send black clouds packing. We are with Francis Bacon in the Sylva Sylvarum (1627 published posthumously the year after Bacon’s death). Enjoy this.
It has anciently been reported, and is still received, that extreme applauses and shouting of people assembled in multitudes, have so rarified and broken the air, that birds flying over have fallen down, the air not being able to support them
Bacon may have taken this account directly from one of the ancients, though Beach has found no trace it rings a vague, forgive, ‘bell’: Aristotle? However, it is interesting that Bacon extends his theory to include bells: it must be remembered that still in the sixteenth century, to the ire of puritans, local clergy continued to have bells rung against the threat of lightning.
and it is believed by some that great ringing of bells in populous cities have chased away thunder, and also dissipated pestilent air; all which may be also from the concussion of the air, and not from the sound.
As to ‘pestilent air’ bells were rung violently during the black death in some areas. Indeed, in some cases canons were shot as well to ‘dissipate’ the pestilent air as Bacon would have had it with what little success fourteenth-century records testify. Bacon was in a minority by his death in 1627 in considering that bells could drive away storms: in fact, to be fair he offers it as a theory without any particular approval. Did he really believe it? Some of his contemporaries would have been embarrassed to do that for fear of being associated with ‘the Romish stench’ of bell ringing. Can anyone else match Bacon: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
The theory put out here is logical enough. For those who enjoy the fluid line between ‘science’ and folklore note that Bacon also suggested that sound travelled more easily down than up and that perhaps the same was true of spirits… Beach particularly liked the idea of spirits (‘spiritual species’ in Bacon’s lingo) as being some form of sound: it would explain a lot.
19 Sept 2015: Jim up with another noise maker for rain…
