Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1856-10-30

sorts. The first includes those where the
discharge appears ike long, luminous lines
bent into angles and zigzags, and varying
in complexion from white to blue, purple
or red. This kind is known as forked light
ming because it occasionally divides into ?
branches. Carpenter relates case where
Il fash severed into three forks, each of
which struck on points several hundred feet
apart
The second class oflightning differs from
the first in the range of surface over which
the fash is diffused, and is designated as
sheet lightning. Sometimes it simply
gilds the edges of the cloud, whence it
leaps; but at others it floods with lurid ra-
dance, or else suffitses IFS surface with
bushes of rosy or violet hue.
The third class of Eghtnings are remark
able for their eceentricities, and have been
made the subject of considerable attention
among meteorologists, many of whom have
denied their right to be treated as legiti-
mate lightnings, they differ so widely from
the ordinary sort of flashes. They exhibit
themselves as balls, or giobular Jumps of
fire-not momentary apparitions, but me
teors which take their own time, and travel
at a remarkable rate 1t is this incelerity
which gives them their doubtful character,
as an electrical bolt is supposed to be one
of the leading emblems of velocity
Among other anecdotes related of this
kind of lightning is the following incident,
which occurred to tailor in the Rue St.
Jacques, Val de Grace, about the year 1743.
Mr.. Babinet was commissioned by the Ac-
ademy of Sciences to investigate the facts,
and reported substantially as follows:
"After loud thunder clap, the tailor
being finishing his meal saw the chimney
board fall down as if beset by a slight gust
of wind, and a globe of fire, the size of
child's head, come out quietly into the
room, at a small height above the floor;
the tailor said il looked like good-sized
kitten, rolled up into ball, and moving
without showing its paws. 1t was bright
and shining, but he felt no sensation of
heat. The globe came near his feet, like
young cat that wants to rub itself against
its masters leg; but by moving them aside
gently he avoided the contact. 1t appears
to have played for several seconds about
his feet, he bending his body over it and
examining it attentirely. After trying
some excursions in different directions, it
rose vertically to Che height of his head,
which he threw back to avoid touching his
face. The globe elongated a little, then
steered towards hole in the chimney above
the mantle-piece, which hole received
stove-pipe in winter, but was now pasted
over with paper. The thunder he said,
could not see the hole; but nevertheless
the ball went straight to the aperture, re-
moving the paper without burning it, and
made its way into the chimney. Shortly
afterwards, and when he supposed it had
time to reach the top, it made dreadful
explosion which destroyed the upper part
of the chimney and threw the fragments
on the roofs of smaller buildings, which
they broke through. The tailor's lodging
was on the third story; the lower ones
were not visited at all by the thunder bolt"
Lightning when itmeets with an obstruc-
ton in its course, frequently skaters the
non-conducting Object, dispensing and burst
ing substances asunder in every direction, as
if they had been charged with gunpowder.
The stone pinnacle of church in Cornwall
was struck by Lightning, and one fragment
weighing three hundred pounds was hurled
sixty yards to the southwark, another four
hundred yards to the north, and third to
the southwest In 1928 the top7gallant
mast of H. NJ ship Rodney was literally
cut up into chipssby flash oflightning, the
sea being strewn with the fragments as if
the carpenters had been sweeping their sha-
wings overheard. Sometimes in striking a
tree or mast the electric fluid will slice it
into long shreds or filaments, so that it will
appear like a huge broom or bundle of
laths. Lightning bolts will occasionally
dash through resisting objects by tearing
great openings, as. in a cornish church,
where apertures were made in the solid
wall of the belfy fourteeninches deep, and
as if cut out by art. In other instances
small holes are drilled which are surprising
for their circularity of form. Window panes
have been frequently pierced in this fashion,
without affecting the rest of the glass. In
forming these apertures, burr or projec-
ton is left upon the edges.
Juvenile electricians are in the habit of
making holes in cards by passing discharg-
es through them, when a burr OF projec-
tion will be observed on both sides of the
orifice. Sometimes single discharge will
produce two holes in card, each puncture
marked by a single burr, on the upper and
the other on the under side of the card
In some instances the results are such as
to suggest that a flash may be split up ia
to several fiery filaments before it strikes
an object Iu 1777 weathereock of tin
ned copper was hurled by thunderbolt
from the top of church in Cremons, and
upon inspection, was found to be pierced
with eighteen holes; in nine of them the
burr was conspicuous on one side, and in
nine it was equally prominant on the other,
while the slope of the burr was identical
in all. ,-..-.--zz
Among the euriosities of lightning are
what is termed 'fulgerites," or tubes,
which the lightning constructs when it falls