It is a commonplace of laboratory experience that one or two months' practice may be required to “get one's eye in” for an apparently so simple task as taking the readings of a polarimeter. But it does not seem to be so widely realised that similar practice is necessary to get one's eye in for seeing objects that are only visible for minute periods of time. Consequently, anyone who has had such practice is liable to incur criticism from those who do not realise its nature and value.Colonel de Villamil is sceptical as to my statement that in certain cases the smoke issuing from a steamer funnel assumes the form of two vortex filaments lying side by side and rotating in opposite directions. The changes of shape of the smoke masses and their rotary movements are so rapid that they are by no means easy to recognise. I have seen the movements in question both on P. and O. steamers and on excursion steamers from Bournemouth. Mr. J. H. Field, of the Agra Aerological Observatory, kindly permits me to state that he has frequently seen the double spiral in steamer smoke as I have described it. His observations were ,made independently of mine and before he had seen my paper. The necessary condition for the formation of the spirals is that a strong wind should be blowing across the top of the funnel.
Cascades and reconnection in interacting vortex filaments
