The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-03 00:00:00

dockyard, and from the centre of the Royal Clarence Vic-
tualling-yard it is three furlongs distant. The magazines
.it Priddy's-hard comprise the grand magazine A, m rth
and south stores B, and C magazine for lodged stores. The
present contents of these magazines are below the average,
and are as follows:

A Magazine--Present contents, 7,720 barrels; storage
capacity, 7,000 barrels; description of roof, bomb proof;
distance from nearest laboratory or working room, 106 yards
to rolling way.

B Stores—Present contents, nil, the roof being under re-
pair by the Royal Engineers; storage capacity, 4,000 bar-
rels; description of roof, splinter proof; distance from
nearest laboratory working room, 106 yards.

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C Mag3zino for lodged stores, separated from A and B by
earthen traverse—Present contents, 677 barrels; storage
capacity, 1,056 barrels; description of roof, splinter proof;
distance from nearest laboratory or working room, 180 yards.
The A magazine contains more than its allotted number
of barrels of storage, but this is owing to the necessity of
clearing out the B stores, in order to carry out repairs to its
roof.

In the remarks made in this article on the position of the
lightning conductors on the roof of the magazines it is not
intended in any way to dispute the dictum of so distin-
guished an authority as Sir Snow Harris, who is supposed
to have the direction of these matters ; but. however scien-
tific it may be to so fix the conductors on a magazine as to,
metaphorically speaking, convert the whole building into a
mass of metal which should convey the electric fluid direct
to the earth without the possibility of danger to the con-
tents, it is open to serious question whether the safety of
the magazine would not be more wisely provided for in sur-
rounding or in substituting conductors altogether clear of
the building. So long as the conductors on a magazine form
an uninterrupted line of metal frcm their topmost point to
the earth, and have sufficient capacity to carry off the elec-
trical discharge, the magazine is safe. If, however, there
is an interruption in the line of metal, or there is not suffi •
cient capacity to carry off the fink, the magazine is just the
contrary of safe, and exposed to destruction the first time a
thunderstorm occurs in its vicnity. There are recent
examples of her Majesty's ships, which will perhaps illus-
trate the question more than any mere assertion unsup-
ported by facts. Her Majesty's ship Bacchante, during her
recent service as flagship in the Pacific, was struck at her
mainroyal masthead by lightning, but beyond the bulging
outwards of the conductor from the mast in several places,
and the fusing of the heads of several nails, no damage was
done aloft, but several of the crew who were leaning on the
iron wire topmast stay were thrown with violence to the
deck, aad one of them was severely injured. Now, in this
instance there was no interruption of the metal line of the
conductor, and yet some of the current must have been
diverted by a longer circuit for want of conducting capa-
city, or some other cause. The circumstance was an ex•
ceptional one, but great disasters arise very often from
exceptional causes. The second illustration, in this case
only showing what might have happened, the error being
fortuna+ely detected in time to remedy it, is that on
the chief gunnery officer at Portsmouth inspecting officially
a frigate that had been prepared for commission, he dis-
covered that the connection which ought to have existed
between the conducting band on the ship's mainmast had
been cut off or never formed, and the break occurring just
over the magazine. Had the ship gone to sea with the error
undiscovered, the first time the conductor at her main royal
masthead was brought into play it would simply have con-
ducted the electric current to the magazine, and destroyed
the ship and all on board of her it once.