The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-08 00:00:00

LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS.

The following are outlines of Lieutenant Sabben's
lecture on lightning conductors for ships, delivered
at the Green-roW -rooms, Portsmouth :
The first observation of the Lecturer, who, it must
be understood, is an unswerving supporter of the old
principle of conducting the matter of lightning di-
rectly from the truck of a ship over her side into the
sea, and by means of the strong, flexible, and conti-
nuous wire-rope now manufactured, and not break-
able but by heavy strain or pnrposed violence was an
allusion to the word unscientific, applied in his post-
ing bills,. giving notice of the lecture, to the opposite
system of W. S. Harris, Esq., F.R.S., whose mode
of disposing of the same consists of a bewildering
right-angled zigzag process, introducing that very
destructive element into a ship, by conductors made
of strips of copper, inlaid the whole length of her
masts down to her very kelson, and then, by a still
more confused and unintelligible process, discharging
the same through her submerged frame-work. He said,
so firmly convinced was he of the erroneousness of
Mr. Harris's arrangement, that he had purposely
annexed that harsh term to it as the means of
giving full expression to his own dissent, and also of
drawing that public attention to a subject which, all
must acknowledge, deeply affected the maritime in-
terests of the country. The plan, he continued, viewed
in whatever light, appeared to him so deserving of
rejection, that it was impossible for him not to feel
humiliation that necessity existed for the task he
had undertaken of exposing its many inconsistencies,
and its many glaring unscientific mistakes. After
a few other preliminary remarks, but all of import-
ance—the exposition of these errors took place, the
Lecturer, as he went along, pointing out the single-
ness of the electric spark when a battery or Leyden jar
was discharged—that, too, of a flash of lightning; and
in connection with these distinct cases, the singleness
of their resulting effect, each evidently owing its
distinctness to the electricity then in motion, invariably
preserving a collected form. This fact it was main-
tained received strong confirmation from the many
instances Mr. S. Harris had himself published of
damage done by the matter of lightning to ships when
escaping from those it had entered. And in connec-
tion with these recorded accounts. it was acutely
argued, as the disruptions in the vessel's frame-work
so injured, invariably took place near the surface of
the sea, on which, on all sides, it was admitted, dis •
charging atmospherical electricity sought to distribute
itself, that there was in consequence strong presump-
tion for saying that all Mr. H.'s very laboured, very
complicated, and very expensive arrangement, below
that level for disposing of such intruding electric
matter, was altogether superfluous. Nor should it
remain unremarked, that here a benign Providence
seemed to take the matter out of Mr. Harris's hands,
and to be ever ready to defeat the rash and irrational
proceedings of conducting lightning into a ship, when
by a more ready, direct, and scientific process, it is
possible to divert it from her. The true conditions
and formation of the electric circle were long dwelt
upon, the Lecturer being evidently anxious that all
should understand that electricity when running the
circuit, employed, only one set of conductors, even
though thousands of others were in the vicinity of
that one set; that on the selection being made, the
rest remained perfectly unaffected, wholly uninflu-
enced by it. This he satisfactorily proved by refer-
ence to Mr. Harris's own experiments, as well as to
others, and strenuously maintained from these condi-
tions, being unquestionably true, that it inevitably
followed that Mr. H.'s idea of conveying electric
matter out of a ship, simultaneously by many bolts

in her side or bottom, was an untenable assuniption;
and which before being made required from him
the proof that he could form, not only one, but many
different electric circles during one discharge of the
Leyden battery. It was particularly impressed, also,
that the success of Mr, IL s first experiment with the
Orestes in Portsmouth harbour, the second being a
failure in one of its particulars, was by no means affir-
mative of the efficiency of his conductors ; the use
of which would have been entirely and most advan-
tageouly superseded, and rendered altogether useless,
had there been a small wire, or wire-rope conductor,
hanging loosely from her mast head over her lar-
board or inshore side into the sea. Likewise that,
from the success of the first experiment, it was re-
marked, how manifest it was rendered that all things

in connection therewith were under the immediate
ordering and control of the experimenter ' • not
so, however, in the natural event, which was
ever governed by local attractions, and peculiar
circumstances, which we had no power to adjust
or regulate as we please ; and which, in its
limits, extended no farther than from the surcharged
cloud to the surface of the sea or earth. Be-
fore concluding his comments on this experiment,
the Lecturer said, that it must never be overlooked,
that no such thing occurred in connection with it,
neither would it happen in the natural phenomenon,
as a general distribution of the electricity then in
motion, as Mr. IL's assumption would lead us to ex-
pect, over the metal bolts of a ship and copper sheath-
ing; otherwise the experiment could not have been
completed; its full success depending on the fact of its
running unerringly and in a collected form the exact
course designed for it by Mr. Harris. An important
observation was made by the Lecturer, respecting the
nature of the electric spark and of lightning, which
we unwillingly omit in our haste to notice that,
under the head of attraction of conductors, he was

bent on showing that, although Mr. H. had denied
the existence of such influence, all in reality he
had done to disprove it was the substitution of
the term "an easy line of discharge" for the
word " attraction," leaving all things else pre-
cisely in the same state as before. A diagram, copied
from Mr. H.'s published papers, was next exhibited,
and one of his foot-notes read; both for the purpose of
evincing that that gentleman fully admitted the uni-
form diffusion of electricity over the entire surface of
conductors ; and yet, unaccountable to explain, as the
Lecturer strikingly observed, he had nevertheless, in
the very face of the fact he had taken pains to illus-
trate, and the reasoning deducible therefrom, inlaid his
own in the masts and attached them to beams, like one
determined that their entire surface should not come
into use. This, the Lecturer said, would be, however,
the absolute fact whenever his conductors were really
brought into action, and had to transmit, not the trifling
accumulation of a Leyden battery, but a large col-
lected volume of atmospheric electric matter, de-
scending in all its fury, fully employing and occu-
pying his conductors ; and, furthermore, as it was
demonstrable by galvanic experiments, that not only,
as Mr. 11. had himself particularly shown, did elec-
tricity equally distribute itself over a conductor, but
that, as it moved along it, it assumed a revolving mo-
tion, as a waterspout is seen to do round its axis, it
therefore became manifest, both facts ar►d their col-
lected effects duly considered, that not only were loose
hanging conductors, on the principle the Lecturer was
advocating, requisite for the safe discharge of the mat-
ter of lightning, but that, if not free, mischief and
destruction must be expected to fall on the material in
connexion. All this being certain from the foregoing
reasons, it follows that masts fitted according to Mr. H.'s
plan are thereby exposed to imminent danger—inlaid
conductors along their entire line possessing not the re-
quisite space on all sides around them for such general
superficial diffusion and revolving motion as have been
described to attend passing accumulations of electric
matter, when transmitted by prepared conductors. At
this place the Lecturer most solemnly descanted—
keeping the previous observations steadily in view—
on the fatal effects that might be expected to happen
to a ship protected on Mr. Harris's plan, when a
large volume of the matter of lightning intentionally
and daringly brought into her by its means, had to be
discharged from her by the employment and occupa-