The North-Carolinian. [volume] (Fayetteville [N.C.]) 1839-1861, 1856-09-20
NORTH CAROLlNIAN.
Curiosisies Of Thunder Storms.
FL F.7YETTEVILLE, n. c.

British Quarterly Review, from which we con
dense some of the most prominent statements
Two clouds are not necessary for the production
of lightning, which is frequently discharged
from a solitary clump Of vapor, when a connec
tion be established with the earth A
French Academician, named Morcolle, de
scrbcs case where mere cloudlet, about a
foot in diameter, killed poor woman by drop
ping thunderbolt upon her head. 1t has been
shown by Faraday that the electric fluid CON
tanned in a single fash might perhaps be SUP;
4 Water alone. n Arago has divided the light
ming into three sorts. The first includes those
where the discharge appears like luminous lines,
bent into angles and zigzags, and varying in
complexion from white to blue. purple or red
This kind is known fOrked lightning, because
it occasionally divides into two branches. Car
pentiers relates where fash severed
into three forks each of which struck on points
several hundred feet apart. Still more numer-
Gus furcations have been reported, for it is said
that during tempest at Landerneau and ST.
Pol de Leon, twenty-four churches were struck,
though only three distinct claps were heard
This eight churches apiece for the three
explosions!
The second class of lightning differs from the
first in the range of surface 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 foods
with a lurid radiance, er else suffuses its surface
with bushes of a rosy or violet hue.
The third class of lightning remarkable
! for their eccentricties and have been made the
subject of considerable contention among the
meteorologlsts, many of whom have denied
| their right to be treated as legitimate light
| nings they differ widely from the ordinary
sort of flashes. They exhibit themselves as
balls or globular Jumps of fre-not momentary
apparitio,s, but meteors which take their own
| time, and travel at remarkably slow rates. 1t
is this incelerity which gives them their doubt
| full character, 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 oc-
CURED to tailor in the Rue St. Jaques, Val
de Grace, about the year 1S43. Nj. Rabinet
was commissioned by the Academy of Sciences
to investigate the facts, and reported substan-
TALLY as follows:
'After loud thunder clap, the tailor being
finishing his meal, saw the chimney-board fall
down, as if overset by a slight gust of wind,
and globe of fire, about the size of child's
head, come out quietly and move slowly about
the room, at small height above the floor
The tailor said it looked like a good sized
kitten rolled up into a 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 legs; but by
moving them aside gently, he avoided the con-
tact. 1t appears to have played for several
seconds about his feet, he bending his body
over it and examining it attentively. After
trying some excursions in different directions
it rose vertically to the height of his head
The globe elongated a little, then steered to-
wards hole in the chimney above the mante
piece, which hole received stovepipe 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, removing the paper without hurting
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 sma Her
buildings. which they broke through The
talor's lodgings was on the third story; the
tower ones were not visited at all by the thun
der-bot."
Lightning, when it meets with obstruction
in its course, frequently skaters the non-con-
Quoting object, dispensing and bursting sub
stances asunder in every direction, if they
had been charged with gunpowdcr The stone
pinnacle OF church in Cornwall, was struck by
lightning. and fragment weighing three
hundred pounds, was hurled sixty yards to the
southward, another four hundred yards to the
north, and third to the southwest.
In 1888 the top gallant mast of III NJ slip
Rodney was literally cut up into chips by fash
of lightning, the sea being strewn with the
ing their shavings overheard. Sometimes, in
striking tree or mast, the electric fluid will
slice it into shreds or filaments so that it will
appear like huge broom bundle of laths
Lightning bolts will occasionally dash through
resisting objects by tearing great openings, as
IN Cornish church, where apertures were
made in the solid wall of the belfry fourteen in
ches square and six inches deep, and as truly
regular as if cut out by art.
In other instances small holes are drilled
which are surprising for their perfect circuarity
OF form. Window ranes have been frequently
pierced IN this fashion. without affecting the
rest of the glass. In forming these apertures
burr or projection is left upon the edges.
Juvenile electricians are in the habi. of making
holes in cards by passing discharges through
them, when burr or projection will be observ-
ed on both sides of the oriice Sometimes |
single discharge will produce two holes in a
card, each puncture marked by single burr,
one on the upper and the other on the under /
side OF the card. In some instances the results !
are such as TO suggest that flash NAV be split |
up into several fiery filaments before it strikes
an object. In l777 weather-cock of timed !
copper was hurled by thunder-bolt from the |
top of church in Cremonia, and. upon inspec-
tion, was found to be pierced with eighteen |
holes: in nine of them the burr was conspicu-
Gus on one side, and in nine it was equally pro-
mnent On the other while the slope of the burr |
was identical in all
Among the curosities of lirhtnino are what